On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Richard C. Steffens <[email protected]> wrote: > On 5/5/2011 7:33 AM, Word Wizard wrote: >> I'm not a big fan of the new "landscape" monitors. I use an older 4:3 20 >> inch LCD because I like the vertical space for text reading/writing >> work. I dread the day it gives out because only the band-aid form-factor >> monitors seem to be available now. They don't deliver the vertical size >> I like without going into something like a 27 inch or larger, a >> seriously spendy proposition. The 16:9 monitor may be great for watching >> movies online or for HD gamers but that's what I have a TV for; a 4:3 >> form-factor makes more sense for my desktop PS use. > > There used to be monitors that could be rotated 90 degrees. Do they > still make those? Would that solve your problem?
My flat panel, a Samsung SMB2330, has a feature called "MagicAngle" which helps me greatly because my desk actually was designed for old CRTs (I have a grand old desk) and thus, the screen is a bit high for normal flat panels. The "MagicAngle" feature does some wizardry (honestly, it just seems to adjust the brightness/contrast- but I'll admit I haven't researched what it's really doing) to make the screen viewable at non-standard angles. The reason I bring this up is because I had noticed before that one of the settings it had was something called "Side Mode": * http://i.imgur.com/PLaNP.jpg which helps with side-view angles... which I would imagine would help if you needed a flat-panel that had to be rotated and, as others have pointed out, didn't want a viewing penalty for doing so. The *big* problem, however, is that my monitor has *no* way to actually mount it sideways. Like most flat-panels out there, it's got one of these irritating stands that are built with the assumption that you want to view it *only* in landscape mode. Personally, I'm fine with that, but I'd still like to have the option. As a test (FOR SCIENCE!!!) I configured my X.org and rotated my screen with the "Side Mode" setting to see if it was usable: * http://i.imgur.com/k3OCa.jpg Turns out, it is actually quite nice. It's a bit skinny for my tastes, and obviously without any way to mount it I wouldn't want to use it this way (I mean, you can clearly see my hand in the photo :-) But the "Side Mode" did make it viewable when rotated 90 degrees and I could easily see myself using it that way if I maybe had two of them side by side (twinview vertical flat-panels that were viewable like this would be really nice :-) Anyway... just a data point for anyone interested. ---Sam _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
