Time to Upgrade Your Monitor • Hacker News Board

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#31

Post by yummypaint » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:17 PM UTC

CarVac wrote: post #6

I prefer real-estate to sharp fonts, so I run my 4K screens (24" and 27") with no scaling at all.

I do the same, but with a 36" screen to match the pixel pitch of standard size 1080p monitors. I can't imagine giving up 75% of my work area in exchange for prettier fonts.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#32

Post by dspillett » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:17 PM UTC

CarVac wrote: post #6

I prefer real-estate to sharp fonts, so I run my 4K screens (24" and 27") with no scaling at all.

Similar. My last screen upgrade is a 32" unit at 2560x1440. It has more-or-less the same pitch as my previous 23.5" 1920x1080 devices. With no scaling everything is the same size but I can have more visible. Sometimes I use the larger one effectively as two portrait screens instead of one landscape. One of the older monitors rotates, I have that set portrait too.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#33

Post by daniel-thompson » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

mastercheif wrote: post #12

It's frustrating that consumer Hi-DPI display development has completely stalled in the last five years. As mentioned in the article, macOS works best using true 2x integer scaling. Using 2x scaling, a 4k monitor will result in an equivalent workspace to a 1080p display—unusable for productivity and development. A superior option is iMac/LG 5k display results which nets an equivalent workspace of 1440p. The only opti…

Same here. I'm using my Dell 3008WFP (also 30" @ 2560x1600) until something genuinely bigger & better comes out. I bought it over a decade ago and it still works great for programming.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#34

Post by kd5bjo » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

mastercheif wrote: post #12

It's frustrating that consumer Hi-DPI display development has completely stalled in the last five years. As mentioned in the article, macOS works best using true 2x integer scaling. Using 2x scaling, a 4k monitor will result in an equivalent workspace to a 1080p display—unusable for productivity and development. A superior option is iMac/LG 5k display results which nets an equivalent workspace of 1440p. The only opti…

> an equivalent workspace to a 1080p display—unusable for productivity and development.

I have to disagree here. I use (and have used) a 1080p display for years and don’t feel the need for anything larger. That might be an artifact of my early years on 80x25 character displays, though.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#35

Post by foepys » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

tjr225 wrote: post #2

I will never give up my 24" 16:10 Dell Ultrasharp even if it is low def.

I have one, too. It's pretty sad that 16:10 has fallen out of style and that there is no 27" 2560x1600 display available.

Dell has the Ultrasharp UP3017 with 2560x1600 at 30", maybe that's something you can try if you want more pixels. It's just pretty expensive and has a big bezel since it was released in 2017.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#36

Post by fwipsy » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

Disappointed that he didn't mention pixel-perfect programming fonts (e.g. proggy) which offer high-density text on low-resolution monitors while not looking nearly as bad as his Consolas example. These fonts make a huge difference imo.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#37

Post by seniorsassycat » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

Bitmap fonts will look perfect on low res displays. I've been using a 1366x768 laptop with terminus font for six years.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#38

Post by gcbw3 » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

> Text can’t be made look good on low-resolution displays.

BS. Maybe true on user-hostile OSX/windows. But If LCD manufacturers provided the correct information on the DID data, it would be very trivial.

On linux and with a little trial and error (you only have to do it once per monitor ever) you can fine tune the subpixel hinting. I use a photographer loupe (magnifying glass) to look at the a white region on my ancient LCDs to see the subpixel configuration, set it on my X config and have perfect aliased text just fine. ...well, except on some gtk2 applications :) But if you work more than a few minutes on those you have other problems.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#39

Post by codydh » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:20 PM UTC

mastercheif wrote: post #12

It's frustrating that consumer Hi-DPI display development has completely stalled in the last five years. As mentioned in the article, macOS works best using true 2x integer scaling. Using 2x scaling, a 4k monitor will result in an equivalent workspace to a 1080p display—unusable for productivity and development. A superior option is iMac/LG 5k display results which nets an equivalent workspace of 1440p. The only opti…

I'm also hanging on to my 30" Apple Cinema (and adapters to work with a new USB-C MBP). The LG 5K seems like a decent replacement though, I'm not totally clear why it seems so unpopular.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#40

Post by tbirdz » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

Another option for low DPI users is to use bitmap fonts instead of vector ones. I find blurriness of truetype fonts on low res displays to give greater visual fatigue than the jagged edges of misc-fixed or terminus.