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Screen size and productivity

Ghost of the dead horse

filling some space
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
3,553
MBTI Type
ENTJ
I came to understand the effect of good resolution to my productivity a few years ago. Using many applications at a time has been necessary in my work as long as I can remember. Well, since the first GUIs on a computer. Currently I use 1600x1200 .. 1792x1344 resolution on my main screen, and 1680x1040 on another. It's about 4Mpix total, and close to being adequate.

Any users of super-sized screens, starting from 2560 x 1600, or about 4Mpix? Have you noticed a productivity boost over a 2-screen setup of similar number of pixels, if you do web design, programming or work with CAD?
 

file cabinet

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
411
in a way, yes. I have found using a third-party tool such as SplitView (splitview.com) helps to make different windows more manageable and to use up the screen's real estate more effectively.
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,988
I still use a dual screen set-up at work both 1024x768. That little gap in the middle is annoying. I think I would prefer a large single screen.

Higher resolution and more pixels in general is rather useful. I can look at schematics and layout simultaneously--they both need a fairly large number of pixels.

I print stuff out a lot less often now.
 

aeon

Potoumchka
Joined
Sep 15, 2007
Messages
339
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
947
Instinctual Variant
sx
I think it very much depends on the application in question.

Sometimes a single screen with extended resolution is best. I find this to be true when the app is designed as such, or when there is use of a long timeline as in music and animation applications.

Dual setups tend to work best when the app has specialized windows, e.g., 3D animation where screen 1 is keyframe and timeline and screen 2 is real-time render. I also like dual setups when an app has a number of palettes that I like to keep discrete and open.

I find that a dual 2560 x 1600 setup is almost too wide visually in that it induces some degree of neck- and eye-strain.

I remember working on an SGI system in the 90s that had an 8-head 1600 x 1200 setup. That was great for the task (algorithmic/procedural animation and rendering).


cheers,
Ian
 

denzien

New member
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
1
MBTI Type
INTP
attachment.php



Portrait mode for the win...especially for viewing PDF documents or lots of lines of code.

Of course, this image shows 4 pages of Word document at a time.

Edit: Oh, and I use UltraMon to add a taskbar to each monitor and allow me to quickly relocate windows from one screen to the next.
 
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