Screen size and productivity

[Ghost of the dead horse]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.