What is the difference between an achromatic cylinder lens and a standard plano-convex (PCX) cylinder lens?

Achromatic Cylinder Lenses are ideal for applications requiring magnification in only one dimension where a thin line profile is essential. They offer several performance advantages versus traditional cylinder lenses, including superior reduction of spherical and chromatic aberration at the image plane. When used with a LED source, Achromatic Cylinder Lenses are ideal for line generation. Typical applications include line generation with LED illumination sources and superior focusing with LED-based scanning devices. The illustration below compares a focused line with an Achromatic Cylinder Lens and one with a standard plano-convex (PCX) cylinder lens.