Monitor resolution, ppi, and size for document work?
Discussion
I’m a bit confused about resolution/PPI and would appreciate a bit of a steer.
95% of my work is documents/Word/Excel, and a little bit of RAW photo editing in Lightroom.
I currently use a pair of Dell IPS 24” monitors which, when I first bought them years ago, honestly looked really pixelated. Blocky text and so on. But then again I was comparing them to my MacBook Retina screen.
I’m now used to them, but they still don’t look amazing, and text does look so much crisper and nicer to read on my MacBook.
Seen as how I spend 7-8 hours per day staring at my screens reading and editing documents, I would like to upgrade to something better to look at.
Since my Dell screens are now a 10 year old model, I assumed that pretty much anything would now be better as everyone is throwing around terms like Ultra HD, 4K, 8K, etc, but it appears I am mistaken?
I have checked, and my Dell screens have a resolution of 92ppi. My MacBook screen has a resolution of 227ppi.
I was hopeful that a modern monitor would get me a bit more than 92ppi. I would also like to ditch the dual screen and go for a single larger screen as I dislike the break in the centre of the two screens.
I looked at an MSI 40” ‘Ultra HD screen at £299 and found it to be only 93ppi.
I then looked at a few more and it looks like once you get up to 40” or thereabouts the resolution is no better than what I have now.
Ideally I would like to stick with a size of 40” ish as the combined size of my 2 monitors now is 43” and I do use most of the space every day.
What sort of resolution do you all find acceptable for document work?
I’m beginning to suspect that I’ll be no better off in resolution by changing for a new screen, unless I spend a billion pounds on something really high end?
Thanks
95% of my work is documents/Word/Excel, and a little bit of RAW photo editing in Lightroom.
I currently use a pair of Dell IPS 24” monitors which, when I first bought them years ago, honestly looked really pixelated. Blocky text and so on. But then again I was comparing them to my MacBook Retina screen.
I’m now used to them, but they still don’t look amazing, and text does look so much crisper and nicer to read on my MacBook.
Seen as how I spend 7-8 hours per day staring at my screens reading and editing documents, I would like to upgrade to something better to look at.
Since my Dell screens are now a 10 year old model, I assumed that pretty much anything would now be better as everyone is throwing around terms like Ultra HD, 4K, 8K, etc, but it appears I am mistaken?
I have checked, and my Dell screens have a resolution of 92ppi. My MacBook screen has a resolution of 227ppi.
I was hopeful that a modern monitor would get me a bit more than 92ppi. I would also like to ditch the dual screen and go for a single larger screen as I dislike the break in the centre of the two screens.
I looked at an MSI 40” ‘Ultra HD screen at £299 and found it to be only 93ppi.
I then looked at a few more and it looks like once you get up to 40” or thereabouts the resolution is no better than what I have now.
Ideally I would like to stick with a size of 40” ish as the combined size of my 2 monitors now is 43” and I do use most of the space every day.
What sort of resolution do you all find acceptable for document work?
I’m beginning to suspect that I’ll be no better off in resolution by changing for a new screen, unless I spend a billion pounds on something really high end?
Thanks
This is something that has been alluding me as well.
I was thinking with Black Friday approaching, now would be a good time to get a larger monitor.
An ultra widescreen one maybe ... like at work.
Those are approx £1k so it's a hard swerve, and instead look at somewhere 1/3 of the price.
But like the OP, massively confused as most seem to be gaming monitors.
My time is spent on contracts so WORD / PDF files and mostly with Excel... not sure a refresh rate really matters too much.
No answer to the questions raised, but definitely interested to hear the wisdom of this parish.
Your not alone buddy.
I was thinking with Black Friday approaching, now would be a good time to get a larger monitor.
An ultra widescreen one maybe ... like at work.
Those are approx £1k so it's a hard swerve, and instead look at somewhere 1/3 of the price.
But like the OP, massively confused as most seem to be gaming monitors.
My time is spent on contracts so WORD / PDF files and mostly with Excel... not sure a refresh rate really matters too much.
No answer to the questions raised, but definitely interested to hear the wisdom of this parish.
Your not alone buddy.
It's not just about the PPI - Macs have a different way of scaling output for different screen resolutions which means you will get variable quality results if you aren't using a 5120x2880 display (or exact submultiple of it). Apple will sell you one if you open your wallet far enough.
https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Ma...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is...
There's lots of other links if you search. A 27" Dell 4K (3840x2160) screen has 163ppi but if you go up to the 35" 5120x2160 model it drops to 140ppi so in general a 27" wil have the highest ppi.
If you work a lot with documents have you tried turning the monitor to portrait orientation?
https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Ma...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is...
There's lots of other links if you search. A 27" Dell 4K (3840x2160) screen has 163ppi but if you go up to the 35" 5120x2160 model it drops to 140ppi so in general a 27" wil have the highest ppi.
If you work a lot with documents have you tried turning the monitor to portrait orientation?
Mr Pointy said:
It's not just about the PPI - Macs have a different way of scaling output for different screen resolutions which means you will get variable quality results if you aren't using a 5120x2880 display (or exact submultiple of it). Apple will sell you one if you open your wallet far enough.
https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Ma...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is...
There's lots of other links if you search. A 27" Dell 4K (3840x2160) screen has 163ppi but if you go up to the 35" 5120x2160 model it drops to 140ppi so in general a 27" wil have the highest ppi.
If you work a lot with documents have you tried turning the monitor to portrait orientation?
My apologies, this is my fault entirely for not mentioning it, but I'm using the screens connected to a PC (HP ProBook from work) via a newish HP dock. They are not connected to my MacBook.https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay/wiki/Ma...
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/what-is...
There's lots of other links if you search. A 27" Dell 4K (3840x2160) screen has 163ppi but if you go up to the 35" 5120x2160 model it drops to 140ppi so in general a 27" wil have the highest ppi.
If you work a lot with documents have you tried turning the monitor to portrait orientation?
I'm simply using the MacBook as a side computer for other tasks.
Appreciate the links, they are useful, thank you. Maybe another pair of Dell monitors is the way forward, but I would really like a single large one or ultra-wide.
Cupid-stunt said:
This is something that has been alluding me as well.
I was thinking with Black Friday approaching, now would be a good time to get a larger monitor.
An ultra widescreen one maybe ... like at work.
Those are approx £1k so it's a hard swerve, and instead look at somewhere 1/3 of the price.
But like the OP, massively confused as most seem to be gaming monitors.
My time is spent on contracts so WORD / PDF files and mostly with Excel... not sure a refresh rate really matters too much.
No answer to the questions raised, but definitely interested to hear the wisdom of this parish.
Your not alone buddy.
Yep, it is a bit confusing. I keep seeing loads of large monitors at a decent price, but they turn out to be for gaming and the resolution is quite low. This really surprises me as I would have thought the gaming community demanded uber-resolution to go with their super-duper ray-tracing graphics and all that sort of stuff.I was thinking with Black Friday approaching, now would be a good time to get a larger monitor.
An ultra widescreen one maybe ... like at work.
Those are approx £1k so it's a hard swerve, and instead look at somewhere 1/3 of the price.
But like the OP, massively confused as most seem to be gaming monitors.
My time is spent on contracts so WORD / PDF files and mostly with Excel... not sure a refresh rate really matters too much.
No answer to the questions raised, but definitely interested to hear the wisdom of this parish.
Your not alone buddy.
Mr E said:
Is this not just a function of resolution and screen size.
If you want high ppi on a big screen, you need mega resolution and will feel some pain in the wallet.
2x 27 @4k works for me.
It is, you are right about size and resolution, but considering you can buy a big 75" 8K TV (119ppi) from the likes of LG for £1300, I would have thought a 40" (ish) display panel of similar resolution, minus all the TV, computing, amps, and speakers stuff, would be fairly cheap? £400-500ish?If you want high ppi on a big screen, you need mega resolution and will feel some pain in the wallet.
2x 27 @4k works for me.
I'm probably getting too caught up in the ppi figures, but it seems to me the only way of selecting something that will actually produce a nice sharp image.
Edited by Mont Blanc on Wednesday 26th November 08:32
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