Monitor - What size and shape?

[buccaneer]

I use my wife's computer to view my images. I'm not sure what size it is but it's square (or very near square) in shape. I imagine a rectangular screen would be better and so I'm thinking of replacing it for her (me?).

What size do you recommend?

the square shape appears to have been introduced as a result of the tendency of un-optimised windows environments to use so many menu lines and tool bars and fixed dock that you need the square to have a normal rectangle left for the actual material

1440x900 resolution on LCD screen (speaking from mac end with nothing on screen except basic menu bar and collapsed window header on browsers) seem about OK and allows easy viewing of 1024x768 images and slightly larger at a pinch. The actual size is less important than the resolution, but for desks 20" nominal about the smallest worth bothering with (though my mac laptop does that resolution in 15.4")

[robski]

You may find these of interest

http://www.proaxis.com/~ferris/docs/dpi-monitor.html

http://www.thescreamonline.com/techn...nitor_res.html

http://www.prismo.ch/comparisons/

[buccaneer]

Thanks for the link Robski. However, I'm confused. My images are 3008 x 2000 whereas the largest size quoted in the column headed "MacOS resolution" in the first link entitled Resolution to Monitor Size Chart is 1600 x 1200.

Does this mean I should be resizing my images down to 1600 x 1200?

sorry to confuse

Viewing the images in a photographic-editing programme allows the whole image to be viewed at the magnification allowed by the monitor's largest resolution OR only in part. ie your 3000x2000 images would come up at, say, 50% magnification on a reasonably affordable monitor if set up "full screen view" (usually command 0/zero). OR if you want to look at it full size to deal with, most usually, the degree of sharpening needed, you would be looking at only 1/3 or so of the area of the image at a time and have to scroll around it.

It is normal to reduce images for posting on web and viewing via browser in, eg, WPF (where anything larger than 1024w gets reduced by the software to 1024w, and posting an image larger generates a 'click to enlarge' message and depending on the size of the image boundary left inside the browser's frame, you may still be able to see it all, or maybe have to scroll). That is the benefit of the larger resolution monitors (and setting your software preferences/settings so as not to waste screen space with tool bars etc not needed for the job in hand). It is usually necessary to reduce the image to get within the byte size allowed on the particular forum.

However, always keep a copy of the original image at full size, and if printing, print from the full sized image.

For more detailed advice, we would need to know your operating system and software.