Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Case For Flipping Your Monitor From Landscape to Portrait

Posted by timothy on from the makes-it-hard-to-type dept.

Molly McHugh writes The vast majority of computer-related tasks see no benefit from a screen that is longer than it is tall. Sure, video playback and gaming are some key exceptions, but if you watch Netflix on your TV instead of your computer monitor and you're not into PC gaming, that long, wide display is doing nothing but hampering your experience. Let's flip it. No, seriously. Let's flip it sideways.

6 of 567 comments (clear)

  1. You're Doing It Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The examples show lots of web sites in a maximized browser window. I use my widescreen monitor in landscape mode so I can have multiple windows simultaneously visible side-by-side. The examples are doing it poorly!

  2. View angles by MrLogic17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some monitors are make to be viewed landscape, and when rotated have horrible view angles.
    I found some at work where the view angle was so bad, only one eye would get a good picture, while the other eye showed a faded & discolored image. Rubber-necking around would find a small sweet spot for viewing.

    TLDR; doesn't work well on some monitors.

    1. Re:View angles by Russ1642 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And here's the comment I was looking for. Monitors aren't designed to be placed into portrait mode. They completely suck. Each eye sees different brightnesses and colours. It's truly awful unless you're one of those people that doesn't mind a distorted image. You probably have your widescreen TV in 4:3 to 16:9 stretch mode at home too.

  3. Everything old is new again by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Portrait monitors were all the rage back in the 90's. All the desktop publishing people used them for working with Aldus Pagemaker.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  4. Re:Have Both by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I use my monitor rotated in portrait mode and rotated 270 degrees.

    I've rotated my screen 360 degrees :-)

    "The vast majority of computer-related tasks see no benefit from a screen that is longer than it is tall."

    Seriously, most of todays screens are so big that you can fit 2 pages side-by-side, which is a lot more convenient than one page at a time in portrait mode. Ditto for individual windows. Rotating them into portrait mode will cause neck strain as you have to tilt your head back to properly see the top.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  5. Re:Read one, write other by ArcadeMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess you've never seen a regular web user. They don't write documents at the same time they're reading a website.

    They just read websites.

    --
    Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins