Monitor question : Widescreen or not

[Farmer]

In terms of total viewable area, non-widescreens will always have more (aspect ratio closer to 1:1/square), for instance, a 19" 5:4 is (1280)(1024)=1.311 MP, while a 19" 10:6 is (1440)(900)=1.296 MP.

Obviously, the widescreen footprint will be larger than a 5:4 or 4:3 (since it's, well, wider).

 

[corkyg]

??? The footprint of a monitor is the space that the pedestal occupies on the desk. It has nothing to do with the size of the picture.

 

[Farmer]

corkyg:

And of course, the confusion begins. I don't literally mean footprint. I mean the horizontal space the monitor will need; perhaps you wanted to put speakers there, or a stack of books, or a box of tissue. Who knows? It's bigger on the horizontal axis, is all I'm saying.

BTW nice photos, what do you use?

 

[justlnluck]

If you're not going to watch movies, I would pick a 22" 4:3 LCD with 1600x1200 resolution. If there isn't such a thing, then get the 20.1" model.

 

[Farmer]

You might want to look at the Dell E 22" 16:10; looks fairly good on paper at 1:800 300cd/m^2 for ~$330, with HDCP support.