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Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

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Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#991
post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, I don't have any trouble with plugging my highDPI MacBook into a crappy 1080p display at work. Low DPI monitors are pretty much unusable since MacOS dropped subpixel rendering - with fonts being a blurry mess. You can only really use MacOS with high DPI monitors now for all day working. It’s a huge problem for everyone I know who wants to plug their MacBook into a normal DPI display. Not that the subpixel/hin…

> Low DPI monitors are pretty much unusable since MacOS dropped subpixel rendering Nonsense, fonts look fine on non-Retina monitors; they were fine on my old 24" 1920x1200 monitor and are fine on my new 27" 2560x1440 one. Can I see a difference if I drag window from the external monitor to the built-in Retina display? Yes, but text is not blurry at all on the external monitor. If it matters, "Use font smoothing when…

These things are fairly subjective. But it’s hard to argue that Catalina has good font rendering on regular DPI screens. I dealt with it when I had to, but it was very poor. There are also tons of bugs around it. Like the chroma issue - Apple doesn’t support EDID correctly so fonts look even more terrible on some screens. A google search will confirm these problems.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#995
post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????<L:JOosaoygoisa

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#996
post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

> nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor In addition to what thomaslord said [ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23554382 ], 4K monitors tend to be widescreen. 1280x1024 user here; you'll take my aspect ratio when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

I also found that the 16:10 is a better ratio, than 16:9, when working with code.

I wish there would be more 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 displays...

Lacking those options at reasonable prices leaves me with the option of using rotated 2K monitors, though 27" ones are uncomfortably tall and 24-25" ones are a little too high in pixel density.

Huawei's Matebook's 3K (3000x2000) display with its 3:2 (1.5) ratio at almost 14" size is an amazing sweet spot though. I wish they would have it in 28" size for desktop use :)

In the end I'm working on 27" 2K and 5K iMacs for about a decade now and I see it as a good compromise, despite the aspect ratio, but I quite like my 30" HP ZR30w with its 2560x1200 resolution. Unfortunately its backlight is getting old and uneven :(

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#997
post #996

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor In addition to what thomaslord said [ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23554382 ], 4K monitors tend to be widescreen. 1280x1024 user here; you'll take my aspect ratio when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

I also found that the 16:10 is a better ratio, than 16:9, when working with code. I wish there would be more 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 displays... Lacking those options at reasonable prices leaves me with the option of using rotated 2K monitors, though 27" ones are uncomfortably tall and 24-25" ones are a little too high in pixel density. Huawei's Matebook's 3K (3000x2000) display with its 3:2 (1.5) ratio at almost 14"…

ah, and one solution to the font sharpness issue is to use bitmap fonts, indeed. I haven't found good ones though which are available at 16px or above sizes, which are necessary for 2K or 4K displays. Also they are typically quite wide and don't have narrow options.

I found an interesting middle ground though. The old AmigaOS Topaz font as TTF :D http://www.geekometry.com/2013/11/amiga-topaz-truetype-font-...

Joking aside, the narrower variants of the Input font looks pretty good with anti-aliasing: https://input.fontbureau.com/preview/

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#998
post #996

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor In addition to what thomaslord said [ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23554382 ], 4K monitors tend to be widescreen. 1280x1024 user here; you'll take my aspect ratio when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

I also found that the 16:10 is a better ratio, than 16:9, when working with code. I wish there would be more 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 displays... Lacking those options at reasonable prices leaves me with the option of using rotated 2K monitors, though 27" ones are uncomfortably tall and 24-25" ones are a little too high in pixel density. Huawei's Matebook's 3K (3000x2000) display with its 3:2 (1.5) ratio at almost 14"…

Speaking of 3:2 ratio, we have to mention the Microsoft Surface line of tablets, laptops and convertibles.

Definitely overpriced for a developer machine, but there is also the Surface Studio 2, with its 4500 x 3000, 28 inch, 192 DPI display, 192 being exactly 2x the "standard" 96 DPI.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Studio_2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#1000
post #350

This is a great article. Even if you disagree with the conclusion and recommendation, it shows what you need to look out for when buying a monitor. I had to go through a similar exercise recently. The DisplayPort / USB-C / Thunderbolt story is just insane. I was looking for a monitor to use with both MacOS and Windows. HDMI can't do 4k @ 60Hz, DisplayPort cables never tell you which version they support. I ended up w…

Have you considered a KVM switch? I really like mine. It allows up to four computers leaving me with two extras that sometimes come in handy (plugging in someone else's laptop or sometimes I connect my Raspberry Pi on).

Which one are you using?
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