Monitors #kristinetheenabler

In our next series we are looking at monitors.

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I have 15” laptop which gives me the flexibility to work anywhere. (like the hallway outside of the kids room when they decide going to bed is for the birds and I have a deadline.. not that they would ever do that, ha!)
However, it is not great for editing. So I like to have an additional screen that lets me see my work BIG and edit it more effectively.

I personally use a discontinued Apple Cinema Display, it is 27” at 2560 x 1440 pixels - that is a Quad HD (QHD) or 2K monitor. Apple now only sells 4K + monitors which I don’t personally recommend.

I talk about this in my video, the bottom line is if you want to use the monitor to edit images for print, 2K is the best resolution in the 27” size. A 4K, 5K or 8K monitor will look amazing, but will not translate well into print.

What specs?

• 27” (larger you will need to sit back farther from your monitor)
• 2560 x 1440 pixels, which is QHD/2K
You can go bigger with a higher resolution, above is what I have and what I like to work on. You should shoot for a pixel density of 100-110, you can check here: https://www.designcompaniesranked.com/resources/is-this-retina/

• IPS (In-Plane Switching)
• Wide colour gamut (covers at least 90% of sRGB and 70% of Adobe RGB)
• Minimum 10 bit colour depth
• DisplayPort (Windows), Thunderbolt (Mac), HDMI 1.4 (2K) or HDMI 2.0 (4k)

Nice to haves:
• Adjustable Height/Tilt
• I recommend a flat screen, I find curved screens make it difficult to judge distortion

Recommendations:

BenQ SW270C
Amazon.ca, Amazon.com

Size: 27”
Resolution: 2560x1440 QHD/2K
Colour Gamut: 99% Adobe RGB, 100% sRGB
Bit Depth: 10 bit
Connection: HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4

NEC MultiSync EA271Q
Adorama, Amazon.com

Size: 27”
Resolution: 2560x1440 QHD/2K
Colour Gamut: 78.3% Adobe RGB, 100% sRGB
Bit Depth: 8 bit (less than I prefer)
Connection: HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2

EIZO ColorEdge CS2731
B&H Photo, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com

Size: 27”
Resolution: 2560x1440 QHD/2K
Colour Gamut: 99% Adobe RGB
Bit Depth: 10 bit
Connection: HDMI 1.2, DisplayPort 1.3

Eizo ColorEdge CG279X
Adorama, Amazon.com

Size: 27”
Resolution: 2560x1440 QHD/2K
Colour Gamut: 99% Adobe RGB
Bit Depth: 10 bit
Connection: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.3
Matte Finish Screen