Ask Slashdot: What Is Your Favorite Monitor For Programming?

First time accepted submitter BadassFractal writes "I'm in the market for a new large desktop monitor (or two) which I intend to use almost exclusively for programming and all sorts of software development-related work. I'm trying to keep the cost down reasonable, and I do enjoy as large of a resolution as possible. What do people 'in the know' out there use these days for that purpose? I'm thinking a 1920x1200 24" would be good, unless there's an affordable 2560xFoo option out there. I keep hearing about nameless Korean 27" screens, any thoughts on those?"

Comments

27" FTW

[opusman]

Dell U2711 or similar. 2560x1440 for great number of pixels, and if you want to use a higher DPI you still get a decent amount of information on screen.

I've tried 30" monitors and they were just too big, but for me 2x27" is perfect.

Re:27" FTW

[ottawanker]

2 monitors are much better than 1 large monitor in my experience, but that may mostly be because of the habits I've gotten into. Newer versions of windows work a bit better with single monitors, but its still not as convenient as having 2 separate ones.

Re:27" FTW

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

2 monitors are much better than 1 large monitor in my experience

I agree - one in portrait mode for a full-screen web browser for reading documents and the other in landscape mode for interactive work.

Re:27" FTW

[sl149q]

I've been using variations of this (non) integrated development environment for more than 15 years, current version:

    - 2x24" running linux with up to eight 130x80 rxvts in up to 48 desktops to use vim and make in...
    - 2x22" running linux with VM / windows for surfing, email etc
    - 2x19" with kvms to the multitude of test systems on the lab bench

The first system uses fvwm simply because I like its multi-desktop pager and I haven't bothered to update it for the last ten years.
The second system used to be Windows. Now it is Linux Mint with VMWare to run Windows. :-)

Re:27" FTW

[Keith Mickunas]

I too prefer a pair no matter the size. When developing in something like Visual Studio I have to run it in full screen. So the second monitor gets used for e-mail, web browser, references, etc.

I use 2 U2711 at home and it's wonderful. I also use a 17" alongside those. I use the smaller monitor for consoles or running something like uTorrent. Some people get caught up on the whole 16:10 vs. 16:9 issue, but at 2560x1440 there's plenty of vertical resolution there.

At work I use a pair of 22" 16:10 monitors. That's an ok setup and I've been using something similar at three jobs now. I'm considering picking up another pair of 27" monitors to use at work though. Either the 2713HM or perhaps some of the cheap Korean ones. Perfect color isn't a must for me when coding, so I don't need the 2711 or the better 2713 model.

Re:27" FTW

[cbhacking]

Eh... I'd say it's awesome that, out of the box, Win8 supports taskbar (and wallpaper, if you care) spanning across monitors. That used to require a third party utility. I love that it's finally supported in-box.

Re:27" FTW

[ChunderDownunder]

I'm glad someone else gets it - many tasks are suited to length rather than width. Whenever a company supplied me with 'pivotable' monitors, I used to get strange looks in the office, even from supposed techies, about why one of my monitors was rotated pi/2.

Monitors that come with a pivotable base aren't the norm, so perhaps it's worth investing in one of those dual vesa mounts that clamp to one's desk. They're typically adjustable for a variety of angles.

Re:27" FTW

[ls671]

Whenever a company supplied me with 'pivotable' monitors, I used to get strange looks in the office, even from supposed techies, about why one of my monitors was rotated pi/2.

I have worked in places where very many people used it so I guess you could now be the one giving strange looks at the ones giving you strange looks for that. Especially the "supposed techies".

I do not use it myself, but I might need to when I run out of 4:3 monitors.

Re:27" FTW

[cbhacking]

I actually have one of those 27" 2560x1440 ("WQHD") IPS monitors from Korea. $290 USD, included DHL express shipping (about 48 hours after it left the warehouse in Seoul to reach me in Seattle) via eBay. It's wonderful. Bright and clear, glossy screen but bright enough that reflections and background light are no problem, good stand, and simple but functional on-screen display. The DPI is nothing amazing, but it's comparable to my old 18" 1920x1080 monitor, and that's fine by me. I don't use the 5W speakers it has built in, so I can't say how those are.

The monitor does have a minor defect where if left turned on too long (several days straight) it will start getting "sparkles" on a black screen, but this is easily fixed by power-cycling the monitor or just turning it off every night (it starts very quickly, so that's no problem). It can also get pretty warm (especially at max brightness) and has a large-ish power brick (with a plug designed for Korean outlets, though they included a USA adapter for me at no extra charge) rated for 120W output.

Contrast is good but not incredible, but the lighting is very even. The in-plane switching works great; response time is excellent and the viewing angle is superb (the ~1/4" bezel gets in the way before the screen noticeably changes color). Color and saturation look good to my eye (untrained, but an amatuer photographer); it is something I look at and check calibration on.

I plan to buy a second one... just as soon as I figure out where I'm going to put it. I may just get a 1440x900 (or similar) instead and put it in portrait mode next to the big one. Otherwise, I'll probably need wall mounts; I'm running out of desk space.

One note of caution: It requires a dual-DVI input. That means no driving two monitors off one DVI connection, and many HDMI adapters, etc. won't work.

Re:27" FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

It works in other things as well. I'd rather have two girls at 115 lb each than one at 230.

Re:27" FTW

[ChunderDownunder]

Single-column PDFs and Word documents are invariably formatted for Portrait and yet the majority of displays are Landscape-only.

If governments were truly conscious of 'saving a tree', they'd mandate use of pivotable monitors.

Re:27" FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

If you've somehow got your hands on models with square pixels, that's great.
Otherwise you're retarded if you think stuff renders correctly in that orientation.

Re:27" FTW

[wanax]

I used to agree with you, and was religious about getting dual 24" 1920x1200s for my setups (usually Acer). However, last time I upgraded my home machine I finally decided to bite the bullet and shell out the 1k for a 2560x1600 30" (in my case, a DoubleSight DS-309W).. and I could not be happier. The difference in vertical screen space is surprisingly noticeable, and it just about fills my useful-field-of-view at about 22-24" viewing distance, so I don't find myself having to turn my head very much. I have a 27" 2560x1440 on the other wing of my L-desk (hooked up to my laptop while at home) and frankly I've been looking for an excuse to replace it with a 30" the last few months.

One other thing to keep in mind about large displays, is that they need to be mounted at the correct height to be comfortable: when you're sitting in a relaxed posture looking straight ahead, the center of the display should be at eye-level. That's about 4-7" higher for most people than the included stand on a normal height desk. Either get a wall mount/better stand, or make sure you have a few hefty books to put it on (mine is currently mounted on an old Principles of Neuroscience and A New Kind of Science, which I find to be perfectly sturdy).

Re:27" FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

I too prefer a pair no matter the size.

Mmmm, breasts.

Re:27" FTW

[v1]

it renders fine if your OS is smart enough to do the sub-pixel kerning intelligently.

Re:27" FTW

[steelfood]

It's a shame 4:3 and 5:4 monitors are so hard to find. That solves both the length and width issues when coding. I find one 4:3 is good enough to replace two 16:9 (one of which is portrait).

I'm also a huge fan of a low dot pitch, which also seems to have gone the way of the dodo these days. I'd rather code on a 15" 1600x1200 over a monstrous 27" 2560x1440 any day.

My setups are otherwise similar when I'm required to use 16:9 monitors. Otherwise, I'll go with a pair of old 4:3 whenever I have a choice. I'm usually significantly more productive on those than on the 16:9 (having to drag the right window to the right monitor is a huge distraction).

Re:27" FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

Any monitor with more pixels than 1920x1200 requires dual-link DVI (not "dual-DVI").

Re:27" FTW

[AdamWill]

I have 2xU2211H, both oriented portrait. I can see having one landscape if you need to work on video or something, but I don't.

I'd always go for the smallest display at a given resolution, to get the highest DPI: I much prefer 22" 1920x1080 to 24" 1920x1080. Still, I wish someone would make 200+ DPI desktop displays. Some day.

Re:27" FTW

[Anonymous Coward]

Dell 30" with ridiculous resolution here (2560x1600?).

I can relate to your vertical needs but not to *grandparent's complaint that 30" is too big.

I'm not using any fancy IDEs. Screen, vim, and make do the trick. Also running Ratpoison so split vertical and now I have 2 vertical spaces good for a browser to render my work; and with sufficient width to easily still be useful for code editing.

TL;DR 30" took a little getting used to but is my favorite.

Re:27" FTW

[Molochi]

Indeed, more is definitley better. If you own 5 monitors scattered over a couple of PCs and a couple of laptops (pretty conservative here) . Between cheap old dual head cards that you certainly already own, Synergy (google that if you have to), and/or Zonescreen ( everyone really needs this, it even works with my HP touchpad) you can get that evil genius wall of data effect. :)

And now you have a project that will kill your weekend.

Re:27" FTW

[Jaruzel]

2560x1440 is more pixels in EVERY direction. How is that *worse* than 1600x1200? Hell, think of 2560x1440 as two 1280x1440 displays side by side... *much* better than 1600x1200.

He's talking DPI, or density of the pixels. A 15" 1600x1200 monitor will have SMALLER pixels, than a 27" 2560x1440. Yes there maybe less pixels overall, but being smaller, the fonts* will appear less jaggy, which is a big concern for serious coders who stare at text all day.

* Of course, if the font is too small, it can be sized up in the editor, and STILL not be jaggy.

-Jar

Re:27" FTW

[TheRaven64]

A widescreen 27" monitor is fine for portrait windows. I typically have some terminal windows, web browsers, and PDF windows open, and most of them are portrait. The advantage of the landscape monitor is that I can fit them side by side easily. There's easily space for a couple of portrait-A4 windows on the screen for documentation / procrastination and for my terminals floating either below or between them.

The main reason for landscape monitors is that most humans have two eyes that are next to each other. This means that they have a field of view that is much wider than it is tall. You need fewer eye (and head) movements to see all of a wide monitor than a tall one.

Re:27" FTW

[Jaruzel]

Whereas I concede your point to a degree, most of us with non 20:20 vision have a set focal distance for comfortable reading, regardless of font size. I couldn't code on a 50" plasma from 8 feet away no matter how big the font was - it would give me a headache.

Re:27" FTW

[soccerisgod]

I've got three monitors:

• - left: portrait mode
• - middle: landscape mode
• - right: portrait mode

I'm doing a lot of work with wireshark, analyzing logs from serial consoles and stuff like that, so that configuration suits me perfectly. I also get this mediaval castle feeling because I'm perfectly shielded from my coworkers!

Re:27" FTW

[tompaulco]

Why the fuck does everybody insist on reading these things full-screen?
A sheet of A4 paper is far smaller than my screen.
The A4 paper was probably printed on a printer at 1200 DPI. Your monitor is probably lucky to have 100 DPI. Depending on font and other factors, it may be necessary to zoom in on your monitor to be able to read the A4 document.

Re:27" FTW

[v1]

And we are still discussing the display in pivot mode?

OS X has a standard option in display preferences to rotate the display 90, 180, or 270 degrees. (no special software to install, that might come with a rotatable display, for windows os) It doesn't offer mirroring though, I was rather expecting to see that option. The rotation option is only available for external displays, not built-in. (imac and laptop) So you can rotate as long as you can find a way to physically rotate your display. (OS X does offer Negative however, which may have its uses on a projector)

I need to test on an Apple display to verify that it adjusts the sub-pixel kerning correctly when rotated. I'm expecting it to either adjust, or disable kerning. Those displays you can detach the foot and attach a vesa adapter, and that will hook to a vesa arm or wall mount in any of the four standard rotations.

oookay, science done. Result: Apple fails! :P Sub-pixel kerning continues, but does not adjust for the new pixel orientation. pictures. That "W" is on the screen right side up. The two 0 deg show it with the display at 0 degrees. The display is then told to rotate 90 degrees, and an averaging picture (with pixie) is taken as well as another digital camera pic.

Look carefully at 90_deg_avg.png at the /\ part of the bottom of the W, visible on the right. Both the / and the \ are on the TRAILING edge of the pixel, which should cause them to have a blue tint, but one is red and one is blue, indicating incorrect SPK. If the W were on its side on the 0 degree picture, both of those edges would have a blue tint to them, a bit like you see on 0_deg_avg.png when you look at the right pocket on the upper left of the W, it's all blue. Or when you compare the right side of the leftmost / and the leftmost \ strokes, again they are both correctly blue despite being opposite slopes. I guess I have a bug to report ;)

And I'd still like to hear from someone with deeper Windows OS experience that can comment on sub-pixel kerning support.

Re:27" FTW

[oji-sama]

oookay, science done. Result: Apple fails! :P Sub-pixel kerning continues, but does not adjust for the new pixel orientation.

And I'd still like to hear from someone with deeper Windows OS experience that can comment on sub-pixel kerning support.

I haven't tested on the newest variants, but at least by default XP also fails. (thus the question about do those exist ^.^) I do wonder if with Windows 7 or 8 you could get clear type working by going to Adjust ClearType text and selecting the specific monitor in Pivot. I doubt that it helps, as the problem isn't really RGB vs BGR (which I believe it does handle), but vertical vs horizontal subpixel layout, and at least based on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/subpixel.php at least Vista did not support those. It does mention Gnome, but at least on my Ubuntu 12.04 this option seems to have disappeared...

Re:27" FTW

[AdamWill]

"don't see the point in going up to even 22" on a desktop. To compensate for the slight increase in view distance maybe a 19", but no more"

You can't get 1920x1080 at 19" or 20", unfortunately. At least not that I've found. Standard res at 19" and 20" is 1600x900. Basically, it's just about impossible to buy a desktop monitor higher than around 100dpi: it's a barrier. If you look at where the resolution jumps happen, it's _always_ at around 100dpi. The smallest monitor you can usually buy these days is 18.5", some of which come at 1600x900, which is 99.23dpi. The jump to 1920x1080 comes at 21.5", that's 102.46dpi. The next standard jump is to 2560x1440 at 27", which is - oh hey! - 108.79dpi. Everything around 100-110dpi. You just can't buy higher on the open market. http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html is a neat site I like - it has the DPIs of common sizes and various 'notable' displays. It's somewhat frustrating, though, as it provides details and links to various crazy professional high-res displays which cost thousands of dollars and were all discontinued years ago anyway. I had a Vaio P a while back, which was the champion of that list at 221dpi until the Retina displays started showing up...

It's difficult to get a really high quality 19" or 20" monitor. I picked the U2211 because it's the smallest of Dell's high-end line, with IPS panels and good build quality, color management, rotation etc. If they had a 20" model at 1920x1080 I'd go for it like a shot, but they don't, sadly.

Regardless go 16:10

[jdkc4d]

Bigger tends to be better, but shoot for a 16:10 ratio screen. The 16:9 screens are nice but that extra shortness tends to be really annoying when your code really starts to grow.

27" Korean's

[MasseKid]

The 27" Korean's are nice screens. For the most part they are the A- grade of the same ones going in to monitors that are twice to 3 times as much. You might have to live with a dead pixel or two, but I doubt you'll be disappointed.

definitely 16x10, and 2 screens is great

[Bronster]

I'm really happy with my two Samsung SA450s. I paid under AU$300 each for them, and they rotate, so it's a pair of 1920x1200 screens, one sideways for code. With a decent graphics card (I splurged and got one that costs about the same as one of the monitors so I could have two separate DVI links) it's a nice programming rig. The sideways one gets over 100 lines of code on screen at a readable resolution.

Size isn't everything...

[asmkm22]

The size isn't as important as the orientation (queue the jokes). Two wide screen monitors, one setup as landscape, and one as portrait. It's actually a great setup for anything that involves reading or writing.

Re:Non-letterbox

[LMariachi]

“Letterboxing” is the black bars on top and bottom that you get when you put a wide aspect ratio on a narrower-ratio monitor without stretching. It's not a synonym for “wide-screen.”

IBM T221

[elbonia]

I bought 2 IBM T221s on ebay and have them setup as a dual monitors for my desktop. It's like programming on 2 giant iPad rentias. The new macbook pros can drive of one these monitors.

Cost

[rjstanford]

I'm trying to keep the cost down reasonable,

Why? If spending $1,000 makes you 5-10% more productive, then do it. If you can find a cheaper one, great, but don't screw yourself in the name of a false economy.

30"

[the eric conspiracy]

My favorite is a 30" 2560x1600. The vertical pixel count is very nice. The Koreans can deliver these at a reasonable price. If you have money you can get them for about 1K in a nice IPS flavor.

I don't like the 27" 2560's because the dot pitch is marginal for my below average eyesight.

And I have yet to find a 1920 x 1200 27".

Right now I am using a cheap pair of 27" 1920 x 1080, but I am definitely going to at least one 30" 2560x1600 in the next couple of months.

Koreans

[radish]

I have one of the Korean 27" screens - they seem to be generally great. I went for a slightly higher end model to get HDMI etc, and I have no dead pixels at all. I can see slight variation in the backlight when it's full white but I've seen it at least that bad on every monitor I've ever owned (costing a lot more than this). Highly recommended (and if you don't want to go the eBay route, monoprice are now rebadging these themselves!).

Dell U2412M

[eyegone]

I purchased two of these a few months ago (replacing a couple of 1680x1050 Acer displays), and I couldn't be happier.

Re:12" ThinkPad hardware text-mode

[officialkirill]

560Z if you want details. 800x600 pixels, 100x37 with 16x8 characters -- perfect ssh client. Main machine has a 19" for opening GUI stuff when really necessary.

OMG SO HARDCORE

Dell U2412M or ViewSonic VP2770

[Chirs]

The U2412M is a competetively priced 24" 1920x1200 IPS screen with moderate anti-glare. (Less aggressive than U2711/U2410.) I have the older brother of this screen (U2407WFP) and have been coding on it for ages.

The 27" 2560x1440 monitors all have advantages and disadvantages, but the ViewSonic VP2770 seems like the best of the lot overall. It has no PWM in the backlight, has good uniformity, good quality panel, decent inputs, antiglare isn't too aggressive, no crosshatching or image retention (the main flaws of the U2713). The main downside is the price since it doesn't really go on sale like some of the others.

Take a look at the display forum on hardforum.com if you haven't already.

As for multiple monitors...I find one large monitor better than two smaller ones.

Monoprice IPS in March

[spire3661]

Monoprice.com is going to start stocking house-branded 27" ($400) and 30"($600-$700) IPS panels for a DEEP discount in March. Same LG panels as used in Apple Cinema Display. Monoprice is a great company and wouldn't call what they are offering nameless Korean screens. Here is a link http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=ips

Re:Monoprice IPS in March

[guises]

I haven't heard anything bad about Monoprice, but the question with buying monitors is always: what is their policy on bad pixels? Answer: up to five dead pixels are allowed, no mention of stuck pixels.

Some of the Korean shippers will let you pay a little extra for a monitor with no bad pixels.

Re:When are wee going to have iPad like monitors

[ChunderDownunder]

For programming? Writing code *is* a desk-bound activity. Or occupying a table at your local Starbucks cafeteria, if you prefer a hipster-coffee analogy. :)

HP ZR30w - 30" 2560x1600. Never going back.

[tomtefar]

Worth every one of the $800 I plunked down on it. In the beginning I didn't know what to do with all the real estate, but these days I cannot live without the massive scrreen area.

Re:DONT get a TV

[geminidomino]

You can look at your keyboard?!

I dont code for a living

[Osgeld]

most of the time, but I personally find widescreens to be mostly useless for large text displays unless stood in portrait mode (IDE's like visual studio do make use of the side area, I guess)

maybe I dont have 1037 nested if's in a billion line widget, but its sort of rare for me to go much over 80 columns

Re:Lot's of choices

[StillAnonymous]

HES MON 64 is a classic choice.

no single monitor...

[Lumpy]

3- 24" 1920X1200 monitors. It is getting HARD to find 4:3 monitors nowdays with the useless Widescreen trend. Works fantastic, I can have multiple Xterms open as well as multiple VM's Makes it all a breeze.

Ignore the idiots saying to get a 27" or 30"

[psypher69571]

3x 24" 1920x1200. My personal choice are the Dell U2412M, but you have to watch for them to get in the 260-270 price range. Don't pay more than that.

Re:12" ThinkPad hardware text-mode

[rnturn]

``No one will ever need more than 640 pixels...''

Or two colors: Black and green|amber|white