Interesting monitor question

[IHateMyJob2004]

I frequently read PDF files at home. And simply put, I like to see the whole page at once. But I am usually on a laptop at home. The problem of course is that I can not easily see an entire page of a PDF at once like I want to. Adobe Acrobat is nice in allowing you to go full screen (ctrl-L) and rotate (ctrl-shift-plus) a pdf file.

At work, I like to turn my monitor sideways to turn my widescreen into a tall screen. This is awesome for reading documents. At work I do this with a dual monitor setup and it is awesome. I even have gotten a few others to adopt. It actually works out when coding. You can see alot more code at once by doing this.

One problem exists on all monitors That I have encountered though. They are not designed to be viewed by looking up at them. So, when you rotate a monitor sideways and look from one of the sides, the image gets distorted because of this. (At work, these effects are not so bad but they are still evident)

I tried turning my laptop sideways and it would work if it weren't for the side effects in doing so.

So, I have a simple question. What can I do in the laptop world to easily view PDF files one age at a time? Am I pretty much limited to getting a laptop with a very high resolution (1080 which is 2,073,600 pixels) and a large diagonal? I figure the diagonal is secondary. Probably not even an issue. What I really need is pixel count.

I have a 1280x768 (983,040 pixels) screen on my current laptop and the resolution doesn't really provide the pixel count I need to read a PDF file when rotated.

Any advice is appreciated. I basically want advice on best practices for purchasing a laptop when I am mostly concerned with reading PDF files/documentation.

 

[RedFiveSW]

Tablet

 

[mike pyne]

Hi IHateMyJob,
This is not a problem, if you want then you can reduce the font size of your pdf. You cannot read whole of a file at first sight, scrolling down the PDF is actually good to read the document.

Regards,
Mike

 

[corkyg]

I don't know about Acrobat these days - but my PDF program lets me right click on the file and I can select any number of zoom percentages, including one that simply saya "Fit to Page." Then PDF doc expands or contracts so I can see the whole enchilada.

 

[daw123]

First of all, generally if you turn a monitor on its side to best utilise the screen real estate when viewing a document (in portrait orinetation) it will look a bit strange due to the viewing angles for the monitor, simply because the LCD is not designed to be viewed like this. Supposedly you can do this with Dell Ultrasharp monitors according to this:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=750280

Originally posted by: corkyg
I don't know about Acrobat these days - but my PDF program lets me right click on the file and I can select any number of zoom percentages, including one that simply saya "Fit to Page." Then PDF doc expands or contracts so I can see the whole enchilada.

The problem with 'fit to page' is if your monitor is relatively small (like a laptop screen), the text is reduced to such a small size that it becomes difficult to read (for me at least). You are also not best utilising the screen real estate since there will be a large gap of wasted space to either side of the document.

I personally do what mike pyne mentioned; use the scroll button to scroll down the page and have the text 'fit to width'.

I suppose the obvious (but costly solution) is to buy a separate large monitor with a portrait viewing function or a laptop with the biggest screen size you can afford, so when you do the 'fit to page' on the laptop, the text size is maximised due to the height of the screen being bigger. Clearly, having to lug a separate monitor around defeats the object of having a 'mobile' laptop.

Edit: I've just found this which is the kind of thing you are looking for.

 

[0roo0roo]

you do need both. 1280x resolution is sh*t. the more resolution the better, the more screen the easier to read without squinting..depending on your vision.
but as said, if it takes a lot of your time, buy an external monitor that swivels to portrait mode and use it that way. the bigger the monitor, the better it will be.

 

[The Bakery]

Face it, you're reading PDF on a laptop that's meant to be portable. If you want to get a laptop with a large screen, you'll have to carry it's suitcase sized body around too.

I would zoom to the appropriate reading size and scroll down. This works well.

One of the reasons you may experience distortion at angles is that most if not nearly ALL LCD monitors on laptops are TN panels which have narrow(er) viewing angles.

Either way, it's a laptop not a desktop. You're going to run into real estate limitations.

Edit - A tablet may indeed be a good thing to check on