FHD and QHD combination question

[rimvydukas]

Hi,

I have laptop with FHD with 13.3 screen. I use 1.3 fonts scaling. As Mint does not support multimonitor scaling - what external monitor with what resolution would you recommend? I thought about 24 or 27 screen with QHD resolution. As such resolution with no scaling is a little bit overkill for me I thought that QHD with 1.3 scaling option which I use on my laptop would look quite nice. What do you think?

[xenopeek]

13.3" FHD display has a resolution of 165.63 PPI (pixels per inch).
A 27" 4K (UHD) display has about the same resolution at 163.18 PPI.
I don't think a 24" is going to work; at WQHD it's at 122.38 PPI (1.3 text size is huge) and at 4K it's at 183.58 PPI (1.3 text size is likely too tiny) so missing the mark on both ends.
Sven's DPI/PPI calculator is handy: https://www.sven.de/dpi/

If you want recommendations from others for a specific monitor, indicate your budget, how you'd connect it to the laptop (display port, HDMI, DVI, what?), what you'll be using it for (is color accuracy most important because you work with digital media, or say refresh frequency because you're a gamer) and so on.

[rimvydukas]

Connection can be DP or HDMI, budget is not biggest issue as my main priority is my eyes. My main wish is to decide which monitor to get looking from the dpi/resolution/screen size point of view at first as at least for now it is not possible to use different scaling on different monitors and from that here goes major problems:( I'll be using it mainly at work: browser,thunderbird,office,shell,remmina.

Are you sure about 24" monitor? I think that text on 24" with QHD and no scaling will be more tiny that with the same resolution on 27" monitor.

[xenopeek]

Personally I find around 95 PPI readable with default text size for a screen at arms length away on a desk. So working back from that, yes a 24" WQHD with 1.3 text size would be about the same.

I went for same size of text on the screen. If you pull out a tape measuring and place that on the screens, with a 27" 4K and 1.3 text size the letters would be the same size as on the 13.3" FHD. The 24" WQHD would be much larger—about a third larger than on your 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text size. But yes, for me that would comfortable read for screen at arms length away on a desk.

[rimvydukas]

I saw how 27" 4K does look like without any text scaling and it seemed that everything was more tiny than FHD on 13.3 screen. I double checked my laptop - 1.3 text scaling are most comfortable for me. And I want to have more or less the same text size on external monitor, taking into account that linux mint is not able to use scaling per monitor. I have one more additional wish - I do not want to see pixelated text. I've tried 27" 2k monitor on native resolution with no text scaling in the past and it seems that text size was almost fine for readability so I think that text with 1.3 scaling on this monitor will be a little big in comparing with laptop text size. So I'm starting to think that 24" monitor with QHD resolution will be the best solution for me. What do you think? Worst part of this story is that I can't use different scaling on different monitors:(

[xenopeek]

24" WQHD (is that 2K?) at 1.3 text scaling has 30% larger letters than 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.
24" 4K (UHD) at 1.3 text scaling has 10% smaller letters than 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.
27" 4K (UHD) at 1.3 text scaling has the same size letters as 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.

If you find the letters on your 13.3" FHD the right size, I wouldn't go for a 24" 4K as that will make the letters 10% smaller. I'd go for a 27" 4K.

You didn't want to see individual pixels, or so-called retina display. Using calculator on https://www.designcompaniesranked.com/r ... is-retina/ I find:
- 24" WQHD monitor becomes a retina display at 71 cm / 28 inches viewing distance
- 24" 4K monitor becomes a retina display at 48 cm / 19 inches viewing distance
- 27" 4K monitor becomes a retina display at 53 cm / 21 inches viewing distance.
The latter two are both less than an arms length. I can't imagine you sitting that close to screens that big. Even the 24" WQHD, that's just over an arms length away, how far away do you normally sit from a large desktop monitor? Measure from eyeball to screen.

Before you commit to a size/resolution, how far away do you sit from your laptop screen? I'd imagine your eyes are closer to that screen and thus if you'd go for the same text size (27" 4K) or even smaller (24" 4k) that's going to cause some squinting.

[zejibuve]

24" WQHD (is that 2K?) at 1.3 text scaling has 30% larger letters than 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.

No it is not 2k.It is 1440p.

24" WQHD (is that 2K?) at 1.3 text scaling has 30% larger letters than 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.
24" 4K (UHD) at 1.3 text scaling has 10% smaller letters than 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.
27" 4K (UHD) at 1.3 text scaling has the same size letters as 13.3" FHD at 1.3 text scaling.

If you find the letters on your 13.3" FHD the right size, I wouldn't go for a 24" 4K as that will make the letters 10% smaller. I'd go for a 27" 4K.

You didn't want to see individual pixels, or so-called retina display. Using calculator on https://www.designcompaniesranked.com/r ... is-retina/ I find: http://bit.do/eQEm9
- 24" WQHD monitor becomes a retina display at 71 cm / 28 inches viewing distance
- 24" 4K monitor becomes a retina display at 48 cm / 19 inches viewing distance
- 27" 4K monitor becomes a retina display at 53 cm / 21 inches viewing distance.
The latter two are both less than an arms length. I can't imagine you sitting that close to screens that big. Even the 24" WQHD, that's just over an arms length away, how far away do you normally sit from a large desktop monitor? Measure from eyeball to screen.

Before you commit to a size/resolution, how far away do you sit from your laptop screen? I'd imagine your eyes are closer to that screen and thus if you'd go for the same text size (27" 4K) or even smaller (24" 4k) that's going to cause some squinting.