How Many Pixels Do You Really Need?

13 points by ploum

doctor_eval

I started my career using green screen text based terminals and I am grateful, every day, for every extra pixel I now have.

Teckla

I find that resolutions beyond 1080p aren't worth the investment for me. Between my eyesight and the added strain on the GPU, high-res displays cost more in both money and hardware resources for a difference I literally cannot see. I prefer a display that matches my actual visual acuity rather than chasing specs I can't use.
- k749gtnc9l3w
  
  At 1080p I definitely need to drop antialiasing, and the need to drop AA means that there are probably some ways of potentially useful underlining that are impossible to do well because of not enough resolution to put them exactly where they should be given my preferred font size. I don't feel that would be worth it but can understand the improvement.
- doctor_eval
  
  I can absolutely tell the difference between 1080 and 4K. I was recently running the two side by side and the lower resolution monitor became a real pain point for me, to the point where I replaced it with a new one.
  
  Obviously all experience is subjective and if 1080p is enough for you then that’s great. But there is a huge qualitative difference for many of us and 4K significantly improves our interaction with computers.
jummo

I like high dpi because it look sharper.
- donio
  
  Not as sharp as the bitmap fonts we used on lower resolution displays.
  
  I can't stand the fuzziness of anti-aliasing on lower resolution displays so I still go back to bitmaps fonts in some situations.
  - k749gtnc9l3w
    
    I use normal OpenType fonts but forbid antialiasing as much as possible. And then 1080p becomes fine.
  - nugget
    
    This is just the exact opposite of my experience. We must have different ideas of what the word "sharp" means.
    
    Higher resolution -- in the form of higher DPI -- makes everything so much easier to read and discern to my aging eyesight. I'm on a 5K 27" display currently (217 dpi). Modern printers are 1200dpi and I remember when 300dpi was state of the art. We've got a long way to go before diminishing returns on monitors.
    
    k749gtnc9l3w
    
    Comfortable distance to 27'' display is quite a bit larger than to an A4 sheet, and I am not sure whether 1200dpi is kind of «we actually use it for dithering but why not let it be used otherwise too».
  - mhd
    
    I'd need a lot fewer if 4:3 displays were still around…
    
    k749gtnc9l3w
    
    4:3 has more pixels than 16:9 for the same smaller side, though!
  - o5r
    
    By my count about five
    
    Relax
    
    Widescreen? 5x1? Or do you have some hipster monitor running at 2.5x2?
    
    k749gtnc9l3w
    
    Five independent RGB notification lights around the voice-interface mini-brick?
    
    incanus
    
    I love that that FVWM screenshot features what looks like AfterStep and KDE of the era as well, as I ran such combinations at the time.
    
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/incanus/3281445779/in/album-72157613842971230