Hello,

I am currently looking at purchasing a new LCD monitor. The question I have is whether to get a standard size or a widescreen. I can see that a widescreen is shorter in height but is wider - and I am not certain if I like that or not. What are the benefits to one over the other? And the cons?

This is what I will be doing with the computer this monitor will be attached to:

Programming
Internet browsing and email
Word Processing
Typesetting and Page Layout
Image Manipulation (for creating custom artwork)
Sound Editing (i.e. Rosegarden, etc.)


I will not be viewing movies or playing games with this computer.



Advice, please!

Hi.

If I were you, I'd go for the widescreen option. For page layouts you can have page view and editing views open side-by-side to see changes without having to flip between windows. You can also get some seriously long piano scrolls going on in your audio tools with a widescreen monitor.

If you're doing image manipulation though, accurate colour reproduction might be an issue, so you might be able to get a better screen in standard size than in widescreen for the same money.

Just my £0.02

Dave

This is a totally subjective decision. Widescreen is excellent for video playback, as the aspect ratio of the monitor is similar to that of a movie theater. For video applications, widescreen can be a huge bonus; for pure text applications, the value/beauty of widescreen is totally in the eyes of the beholder as they say. Look at both first, then decide which you like more

The low-cost wide-screen monitors are tempting, but I decided against--simply because they achieve low cost by actually reducing total area (compared to--eg--a standard 19" 4:3 display).
I WANTED the same monitor I have in the office---Dell 24" (Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" widescreen LCD Flat Panel Monitor.450 cd/m² brightness, 1000:1 contrast, 16ms (black-to-white) response time. Black TCO99)

I settled on a viewsonic 20" (VP2030b--conventional 4:3) It has better specs than the typical 17 and 19" units--and the low-cost wide screens. It also was not cheap (just over $400 US), but certainly cheaper than the Dell 24....