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Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

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Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#11

Post by I_am_tiberius »

stephenr wrote: post #10
I_am_tiberius wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, as far as I know the DPI problem starts with M1 macs, meaning the text rendering looks terrible if DPI is < 150.

AFAIK it’s nothing to do with Intel/Arm swap over. macOS in recent years dropped support for antialiasing because Apple (+ the UltraFines they sold) displays are all[1] high dpi. The other issue with a PPI of 150 is you’ll likely end up needing to use a non-evenly scaled resolution to get things “sized” right, so even basic things like a 1px line won’t be crisp, because it won’t be rendered as 1 solid pixel. 1: Yes I…

ok thanks. makes sense.

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#12

Post by 3oH2y869 »

wmf wrote: post #5
3oH2y869 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you recommend this over an ultrawide? Is ultrawide DPI lacking?

I use a 38" ultrawide and I'm happy with it.

What do you mean by normal vs medium DPI? Which ultrawide are you using?

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#13

Post by 3oH2y869 »

stephenr wrote: post #7

40” @ 5120x2160 is ~139 PPI. 43” @ 3840x3160 is ~102 PPI. Neither of these is “High DPI” by any stretch of the imagination. If you want high dpi (particularly with macOS) you essentially need to aim for ~220PPI, the further you drop below that the worse it will be. Personally I think the best bang-for-buck on a high dpi display is the Dell 32” 6K. I got mine for around $100 more than what Apple sells the 27” 5K (with…

Unfortunately that is way outside of my budget. At 1.5k, what monitors would you recommend? I would like a larger one.

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#14

Post by 3oH2y869 »

stephenr wrote: post #10
I_am_tiberius wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, as far as I know the DPI problem starts with M1 macs, meaning the text rendering looks terrible if DPI is < 150.

AFAIK it’s nothing to do with Intel/Arm swap over. macOS in recent years dropped support for antialiasing because Apple (+ the UltraFines they sold) displays are all[1] high dpi. The other issue with a PPI of 150 is you’ll likely end up needing to use a non-evenly scaled resolution to get things “sized” right, so even basic things like a 1px line won’t be crisp, because it won’t be rendered as 1 solid pixel. 1: Yes I…

Is there any fundamental guidelines one can follow as far as PPI goes so that the monitor doesn't look miserable? I am looking for something reasonably large and quality that doesn't break the bank.

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#15

Post by wmf »

3oH2y869 wrote: post #14
stephenr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK it’s nothing to do with Intel/Arm swap over. macOS in recent years dropped support for antialiasing because Apple (+ the UltraFines they sold) displays are all[1] high dpi. The other issue with a PPI of 150 is you’ll likely end up needing to use a non-evenly scaled resolution to get things “sized” right, so even basic things like a 1px line won’t be crisp, because it won’t be rendered as 1 solid pixel. 1: Yes I…

Is there any fundamental guidelines one can follow as far as PPI goes so that the monitor doesn't look miserable? I am looking for something reasonably large and quality that doesn't break the bank.

You want 100-130 dpi or over 200 dpi. Avoid the bad zone in between (which includes most monitors on the market).

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#16

Post by wmf »

3oH2y869 wrote: post #12
wmf wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a 38" ultrawide and I'm happy with it.

What do you mean by normal vs medium DPI? Which ultrawide are you using?

All 38" monitors are the same panel with different ports. I had good luck with the Dell one but some sleep/wake problems with an LG model.

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#17

Post by culopatin »

3oH2y869 wrote: post #13
stephenr wrote: post #7

40” @ 5120x2160 is ~139 PPI. 43” @ 3840x3160 is ~102 PPI. Neither of these is “High DPI” by any stretch of the imagination. If you want high dpi (particularly with macOS) you essentially need to aim for ~220PPI, the further you drop below that the worse it will be. Personally I think the best bang-for-buck on a high dpi display is the Dell 32” 6K. I got mine for around $100 more than what Apple sells the 27” 5K (with…

Unfortunately that is way outside of my budget. At 1.5k, what monitors would you recommend? I would like a larger one.

A used 27in 5K LG. They have quality issues though so it could be a gamble. I've seen them in FB for 500-600

Re: Ask HN: High DPI Productivity Monitor for Front End Engineering?

#18

Post by 3oH2y869 »

wmf wrote: post #15
3oH2y869 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any fundamental guidelines one can follow as far as PPI goes so that the monitor doesn't look miserable? I am looking for something reasonably large and quality that doesn't break the bank.

You want 100-130 dpi or over 200 dpi. Avoid the bad zone in between (which includes most monitors on the market).

Thank you so much for your helpful responses. At 100dpi how does the monitor look compared to the Macbook retina screen? Does it look fuzzy?
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