Post Your Mac Setup: Past & Present (Part 20)

[utgjon]

I'm a data analyst, and at work (on PC, not Mac), I have 2x24" external monitors for my laptop.

I have them set up with one vertical and one horizontal.

Emails/Code/PDFs etc = Vertical
Excel/Videos/DataViz etc = Horizontal

Having that extra real-estate for reading vertically is a godsend and my productivity has shot up as a result.

Depending on the work that you do, you might find that less distracting and easier to determine "what goes where" than the horizontal-wall-of-screen approach.

 

[bruleke]

I'm a data analyst, and at work (on PC, not Mac), I have 2x24" external monitors for my laptop.

I have them set up with one vertical and one horizontal.

Emails/Code/PDFs etc = Vertical
Excel/Videos/DataViz etc = Horizontal

Having that extra real-estate for reading vertically is a godsend and my productivity has shot up as a result.

Depending on the work that you do, you might find that less distracting and easier to determine "what goes where" than the horizontal-wall-of-screen approach.

Now THAT'S what I call a good use for two large monitors!
Do you mind sharing a picture? I'd love to see it! Without compromising your job, of course.

Maybe I could keep booth my displays and use one of them vertically. What do you think?
Do you think that might reduce my eye strain/ fatigue?

The problem is that I would have to buy VESA adapters and ship to my country, which is not cheap: about 165 dollars for both of them (shipping and taxes included). Plus, I would need the VESA desk mount, which also is not cheap


It's like for the first time I receive a gift that I've been dreaming for years and then, when I get to use them, it's a nightmare.

Thanks for replying the message! I consider myself a newbie in the "dual monitors" setup, to say at least...

 

[utgjon]

Here you go - excuse the dodgy angle and desktop-only but had to hide company info!



Realistically, you'd only need one vesa mount if the stands don't do a 90 degree rotation... you wouldn't need two necessarily.

 

[bruleke]

Here you go - excuse the dodgy angle and desktop-only but had to hide company info!

View attachment 741026

Realistically, you'd only need one vesa mount if the stands don't do a 90 degree rotation... you wouldn't need two necessarily.

Please, accept my apologies for my English. What I meant was that my monitors do not support any VESA mount, so I would have to buy two VESA adapters (3rd party) so I could attach them to a single VESA mount with two arms. (Check "Dell S2218H" at Google and you'll see that they don't support these VESA mounts)

Now that you've showed your setup, it came to my mind that I stay between 12-14 hours in my home office. Maybe THAT'S what's causing eye fatigue. I mean... 14 hours looking at two shiny monitors?

Well, I don't want to turn this thread into a big discussion, so I think I could say that... it's not for me (considering the time I spend here). Period.
:/

 

[Apple fanboy]

Please, accept my apologies for my English. What I meant was that my monitors do not support any VESA mount, so I would have to buy two VESA adapters (3rd party) so I could attach them to a single VESA mount with two arms. (Check "Dell S2218H" at Google and you'll see that they don't support these VESA mounts)

Now that you've showed your setup, it came to my mind that I stay between 12-14 hours in my home office. Maybe THAT'S what's causing eye fatigue. I mean... 14 hours looking at two shiny monitors?

Well, I don't want to turn this thread into a big discussion, so I think I could say that... it's not for me (considering the time I spend here). Period.
:/

Perhaps look for monitors that aren't as shinny? Monitor hoods can help reduce the eye strain associated with glossy monitors.
Running at 70% brightness sounds like a lot to me.

I have an 21" iMac and a 24" mat screen at home.
A pair of 27" BenQ's at work. All calibrated.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Please, accept my apologies for my English. What I meant was that my monitors do not support any VESA mount, so I would have to buy two VESA adapters (3rd party) so I could attach them to a single VESA mount with two arms. (Check "Dell S2218H" at Google and you'll see that they don't support these VESA mounts)

Now that you've showed your setup, it came to my mind that I stay between 12-14 hours in my home office. Maybe THAT'S what's causing eye fatigue. I mean... 14 hours looking at two shiny monitors?

Well, I don't want to turn this thread into a big discussion, so I think I could say that... it's not for me (considering the time I spend here). Period.
:/

I mounted my Dell monitor on a VESA mount. Remove the stand, then remove the mounting plate from the monitor stand (it's attached by 4 screws at the bottom center of the plate). Then all you have to do is drill holes in the removed plate to match the holes in a standard VESA mount and attach the plate to the VESA mount. Now, just attached the monitor to the plate attached to VESA mount... 10-15 minutes work and four bolts/washers/nuts.

 

[h9826790]

Hi!
You have a really beautiful setup! And what a great monitor, my Gosh!

But I came here to ask you something: how are you dealing with this HUGE monitor?
No eye strain?
What about distractions? 'Cause you have a lot of space to fill in with apps and webpages...

Let me be straight: I have recently received as a gift 2 DELL S2218H monitors (21,5", shiny screen, endless frames...), about three months ago! I was crazy about them back in September!

Just connected them to my mid-2014 15,4" MacBook Pro, bought a vertical stand and started the two monitors side by side.

Man... I've gotta tell you: I just can't stand using them.
My eyes hurt. I've got distracted a lot and I feel less productive.
So, naturally, I disconnect them and just use my MacBook Pro.
And then I got this feeling: UGH, tiny screen.

It's a love-hate situation.

What do YOU suggest?

What I've done so far:
- Black wallpapers;
- Brightness at 30% at night and 70% at daylight;
- Keep a good distance (a little bit more than my arms pointing to them);
- Bought a larger desk (more depth and width for me).

What I suspect that might help me (please, feel free to criticize me):
- Buy a VESA adapter for each one (I have to buy third-party adapters - US$32 at Amazon - since this model (S2218H) does not support VESA adapter);
- Install them in a dual-monitor stand...
...so I can adjust the height, for example.

My main uses: Internet surfing (reading), Office (Excel, a LOT!) and writing. I don't play any games, I am not a programmer (but sometimes I like to 'code' a little bit), I spend my whole day in front of the monitors working (stock market) and studying (university) and I'm 30 yrs old.

Below, I am posting my setup (in two different positions) so we don't just talk and talk without a real picture.
1. Monitors side by side, aligned;
2. Monitors forming a "V", for a more comfortable view.

Please, let me know what is your opinion, because I really would like to keep them (who doesn't love dual monitors? Or a ultra-wide one, like yours? ) but I've got this feeling that everybody knows how to use a dual-monitor setup, except me ¬¬
[doublepost=1512719410][/doublepost]Here you are, @h9826790

This is how I am using right now. Angled monitors:

View attachment 740941

This is the monitors side by side (I don't use them like that, tough...)
View attachment 740942
[doublepost=1512720564][/doublepost]

Hi!
I want to ask you the same question that I have just sent in the post above, regarding large monitors/dual-monitors.

Could you please share your knowledge and experience so far?

I am actually very happy with the current setup (a single large monitor). I usually put 3 windows side by side like this.

It could be 3 Safari like the above screen capture. Or Email + Message + Whataspp. Or Media Encoder + Terminal + Finder (the screen capture below). I just make 7 different spaces, most of them are with 3 main different windows to fill the screen (not necessary 33% size each, may be the middle one is bigger than the other 2).

My main working window is always the centre one. The 2 side windows are mainly for assistant.

What I found is with dual screen, the biggest problem is that you are facing directly to the gap (between the monitor), but not the screen. However, this is not a problem in my case. Because the main info is right in front of me. So, I can easily focus on the middle of the screen. The 2 side windows is no more than assist. They give me virtually zero distraction, but very helpful to provide extra info. e.g. on my 1st screen capture. You can see that when I typing this post. I have your questions on the right, and your monitor's spec on the left. They won't distract me, but make me much easier to compose my reply.

Besides, even though you can move a windows between them or across them, but there is no point to leave a window across 2 monitors that are not attached together flawlessly (no gap). At the end, you can move windows between them, but the way to use the space is not that flexible.

e.g. My "Finder space" is like this.

I can easily move files between all my 7 hard drives, desktop, and the NAS, or even Airdrop. If it's not a single large space, but across 2 different monitors, the setup need to be a bit difference to make it work "properly".

And in my own experience, glossy monitor is the worst to use (unless you are in a dark room). The reflection make your eyes constantly see some "ghost image", which increase fatigue a lot. To alleviate the reflection, users tends to increase the brightness a lots, until to a level that the monitor's backlight almost totally covers the reflection. However, this unnecessary extra brightness, again, create eye strain. I used few different monitors, the glossy 27" ACD is definitely the worst if in terms of eye strain.

And yes, IMO, use single large monitor (or multiple monitors), need more working space (large desk). It's better to stay a bit further away from the screen (this is why I prefer 1080P monitor more than 1440P, when I sit further, I want the items on the screen a bit bigger). My view point is more than 2 fleet away from the screen. I can sit back, relax on my nice comfortable chair, and use the computer. And because I have enough distance to the monitor, even though it's super ultra wide. My head rarely need to be moved, just my eyes occasionally need to scan the left or right.

About brightness. It's hard to tell what 70% brightness actually means on your monitor. I use Spyder to calibrate my monitor. At day time, it recommend me to set 46% brightness (but my monitor is 350cd/m², yours is 250cd/m²). And since my monitor has 3 profiles for me to set. I set A to 100% brightness, B to 46%, C to 0%. Both A and B are calibrated to display correct colours, but C is zero Blue, lots of red, make it very warm, and much more comfortable for me to look at night time. With these 3 profiles. Day time I normal use B, but gaming (or when I want) will use A, and night time use C. In fact, some time I may even use inverted colour to simulate "dark mode". This can be more comfortable when the screen it "too white". (I setup a keyboard shortcut for invert colour)

IMO, your setup may have few problems.

1) reflection from the glossy screen (looks pretty bad from your picture actually). It can be easily fix by installing a filter in front or the screen, but the filter of course will degrade the clarity a bit.

2) the monitor is actually quite small. 21" for 1080P deep inside the desk. I doubt if you can "comfortably" read all the font on it. If you often forced / tends to lean forward, than something is wrong already. Since 1080P monitors are not good enough to run 720P HiDPI, there is no perfect solution on this matter. But I suggest you zoom in more, rather than use 100% font size at native resolution.

3) Form them a V shape should help. However, it's hard to fix the problem that you are facing the gap, but not any monitor. You may consider put one monitor right in front of you, and the other one as assist on the side. So, you will focus on the main monitor more.

4) I personally prefer the centre of the monitor just tiny bit below my eye level. It's basically vertical to the desk, not at a angle. I this this is very personal, but if you believe the monitor's height is not at the optimum position, get a VESA mount may be the solution.

5) Wall paper also very personal, but simple and dark wallpaper do help reduce eye strain IMO.

 

[fcomstoc]

Updated my setup a bit, I took my gaming machine (Windows) off the desk because I have been doing a lot more contract work lately, and I cannot work on Windows.

I also bought a 43in 4K HDR Samsung TV (bottom screen) and the TV on the top is in old Visio I had laying around.

I love working in 4K, so much space

 

[Tucom]

Updated my setup a bit, I took my gaming machine (Windows) off the desk because I have been doing a lot more contract work lately, and I cannot work on Windows.

I also bought a 43in 4K HDR Samsung TV (bottom screen) and the TV on the top is in old Visio I had laying around.

I love working in 4K, so much space

Thumbs up for the South Park alone! Guy, buddy!

 

[fcomstoc]

Thumbs up for the South Park alone! Guy, buddy!

Thanks ‘friend’ but watch out for Scott, he’s a d**k LOL, I love South Park

 

[upintheclouds]

Thanks ‘friend’ but watch out for Scott, he’s a d**k LOL, I love South Park

I'm not your friend, buddy

 

[Tucom]

I'm not your friend, buddy

Buddy I'm not your friend, Guy!

 

[upintheclouds]

Buddy I'm not your friend, Guy!

I'm not your guy, friend!

 

[Tucom]

I'm not your guy, friend!

Looool. This could go on forever haha.

Brilliant.

 

[upintheclouds]

Looool. This could go on forever haha.

Brilliant.

It could. And I don't want to be such a rule breaker by not posting a photo of my Mac setup

 

[Raublinger65]

My setup, Alienware Desktop and MacBook Pro hooked to Dell U2718Q monitor.

 

[macgeek18]

My basic setup these days.

 

[bruleke]

I mounted my Dell monitor on a VESA mount. Remove the stand, then remove the mounting plate from the monitor stand (it's attached by 4 screws at the bottom center of the plate). Then all you have to do is drill holes in the removed plate to match the holes in a standard VESA mount and attach the plate to the VESA mount. Now, just attached the monitor to the plate attached to VESA mount... 10-15 minutes work and four bolts/washers/nuts.

View attachment 741043 View attachment 741044 View attachment 741045

I liked what you've done with your Dell monitor! Talented people rule the world!

But I think this solution wouldn't work for me. Here is why:

Below, you can see some pictures of the back of my monitor (from the oficial .pdf document). Look carefully and you will see that there aren't any screws to remove. Just a base mount. That's why I mentioned that I have to buy a VESA adapter (THIS ONE). This is sad, because two of them + taxes + shipping cost about 70% of the price of one monitor! :O

But, to be honest, this is better than having the default base mount, which I don't like because it doesn't allow me to adjust the height of it, plus it takes too much space (we, Mac users, like minimalistic setups, don't we? ).

[doublepost=1513042186][/doublepost]

Perhaps look for monitors that aren't as shinny? Monitor hoods can help reduce the eye strain associated with glossy monitors.
Running at 70% brightness sounds like a lot to me.

I have an 21" iMac and a 24" mat screen at home.
A pair of 27" BenQ's at work. All calibrated.

Well, if I had money to buy better monitors... =/
But as soon as you mentioned the brightness at 70% being a lot, I noticed the same. Reduced for 50% at daytime and even less in the night!

I would like to thank you for your contribution about calibrate the monitors. I will do that! Nice idea!
But... how can I start? Sorry for the amateur question...
[doublepost=1513043330][/doublepost]

I am actually very happy with the current setup (a single large monitor). I usually put 3 windows side by side like this.
View attachment 741078
It could be 3 Safari like the above screen capture. Or Email + Message + Whataspp. Or Media Encoder + Terminal + Finder (the screen capture below). I just make 7 different spaces, most of them are with 3 main different windows to fill the screen (not necessary 33% size each, may be the middle one is bigger than the other 2).
View attachment 741076

My main working window is always the centre one. The 2 side windows are mainly for assistant.

This is a very important information that you left here.
"Main working windows is always the centre one".
It might sound obvious, but when having TWO monitors it's not: sometimes I leave one monitor in front of me and the other one in the right, angled. And the right one, sometimes, become my main monitor because of the long time using it. Silly me. I will fix that.

What I found is with dual screen, the biggest problem is that you are facing directly to the gap (between the monitor), but not the screen. However, this is not a problem in my case. Because the main info is right in front of me. So, I can easily focus on the middle of the screen. The 2 side windows is no more than assist. They give me virtually zero distraction, but very helpful to provide extra info. e.g. on my 1st screen capture. You can see that when I typing this post. I have your questions on the right, and your monitor's spec on the left. They won't distract me, but make me much easier to compose my reply.

(...)"you are facing directly to the gap (between the monitor), but not the screen"
Couldn't have said better. EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now I can see how much better a single ultra wide monitor might be better than separated monitors, in some cases - like mine.

Besides, even though you can move a windows between them or across them, but there is no point to leave a window across 2 monitors that are not attached together flawlessly (no gap). At the end, you can move windows between them, but the way to use the space is not that flexible.

Yup. I can't leave a window in the MIDDLE. It's either in one monitor or another.

e.g. My "Finder space" is like this.
View attachment 741079

WOW. Simply WOW. :O

I can easily move files between all my 7 hard drives, desktop, and the NAS, or even Airdrop. If it's not a single large space, but across 2 different monitors, the setup need to be a bit difference to make it work "properly".

And in my own experience, glossy monitor is the worst to use (unless you are in a dark room). The reflection make your eyes constantly see some "ghost image", which increase fatigue a lot. To alleviate the reflection, users tends to increase the brightness a lots, until to a level that the monitor's backlight almost totally covers the reflection. However, this unnecessary extra brightness, again, create eye strain. I used few different monitors, the glossy 27" ACD is definitely the worst if in terms of eye strain.

I like glossy monitors JUST because of the beauty of it. But now that I use them frequently and taking all of these arguments you've written, I couldn't agree more: we really tend to increase the brightness to cover the reflection. That's a clever observation, if I may say. I wish they were not glossy :/

And yes, IMO, use single large monitor (or multiple monitors), need more working space (large desk). It's better to stay a bit further away from the screen (this is why I prefer 1080P monitor more than 1440P, when I sit further, I want the items on the screen a bit bigger). My view point is more than 2 fleet away from the screen. I can sit back, relax on my nice comfortable chair, and use the computer. And because I have enough distance to the monitor, even though it's super ultra wide. My head rarely need to be moved, just my eyes occasionally need to scan the left or right.

About brightness. It's hard to tell what 70% brightness actually means on your monitor. I use Spyder to calibrate my monitor. At day time, it recommend me to set 46% brightness (but my monitor is 350cd/m², yours is 250cd/m²). And since my monitor has 3 profiles for me to set. I set A to 100% brightness, B to 46%, C to 0%. Both A and B are calibrated to display correct colours, but C is zero Blue, lots of red, make it very warm, and much more comfortable for me to look at night time. With these 3 profiles. Day time I normal use B, but gaming (or when I want) will use A, and night time use C. In fact, some time I may even use inverted colour to simulate "dark mode". This can be more comfortable when the screen it "too white". (I setup a keyboard shortcut for invert colour)
View attachment 741097

Just a humble comment: I'm very impressed that you've looked for my monitor's specs (250cd/m²) before writing.
So, I think I have to calibrate my monitors? This "Spyder" is a software or some sort of professional equipment that I have to buy?

IMO, your setup may have few problems.

1) reflection from the glossy screen (looks pretty bad from your picture actually). It can be easily fix by installing a filter in front or the screen, but the filter of course will degrade the clarity a bit.

2) the monitor is actually quite small. 21" for 1080P deep inside the desk. I doubt if you can "comfortably" read all the font on it. If you often forced / tends to lean forward, than something is wrong already. Since 1080P monitors are not good enough to run 720P HiDPI, there is no perfect solution on this matter. But I suggest you zoom in more, rather than use 100% font size at native resolution.

3) Form them a V shape should help. However, it's hard to fix the problem that you are facing the gap, but not any monitor. You may consider put one monitor right in front of you, and the other one as assist on the side. So, you will focus on the main monitor more.

4) I personally prefer the centre of the monitor just tiny bit below my eye level. It's basically vertical to the desk, not at a angle. I this this is very personal, but if you believe the monitor's height is not at the optimum position, get a VESA mount may be the solution.

5) Wall paper also very personal, but simple and dark wallpaper do help reduce eye strain IMO.

1. You are absolutely right, because my desk is beside two huge glass doors! But I don't like filters... I think I will Re-arrange my desk and my whole setup this weekend - and then I post here!

2. "If you often forced / tends to lean forward, than something is wrong already". I just realized that I do that a lot. Another brilliant observation from you. Thanks a lot! About the size (21")... well... what can I do? I received them as a gift...

3. That's what I started doing right after I've read your message (I'm replying a little bit late, sorry for that)! It helps me a lot, but I feel that I lose a lot of space in my desk, behind the side-monitor. That's why I was thinking about buying that VESA adapter to install a VESA mount and free space in my desk, under the monitors. What to you think? Does it worth it, given the currently monitors I have?
I was thinking: "what if I sell both of them and buy a single one? An ultra-wide monitor?". Just a thought... because I don't want to spend more money.

4. Me too. About the VESA mount, as I said before, I will need to buy a VESA adapter because my monitor (S2218H) doesn't support a VESA mount.

5. Agree.

Thanks a lot! You really helped a lot here, sir!

 

[AZhappyjack]

I liked what you've done with your Dell monitor! Talented people rule the world!

But I think this solution wouldn't work for me. Here is why:

Below, you can see some pictures of the back of my monitor (from the oficial .pdf document). Look carefully and you will see that there aren't any screws to remove. Just a base mount. That's why I mentioned that I have to buy a VESA adapter (THIS ONE). This is sad, because two of them + taxes + shipping cost about 70% of the price of one monitor! :O

But, to be honest, this is better than having the default base mount, which I don't like because it doesn't allow me to adjust the height of it, plus it takes too much space (we, Mac users, like minimalistic setups, don't we? ).

Indeed we do prefer the minimalist look... but I had no idea that Dell had monitors that didn't use their "standard" stand design. Oh, so close... but still a miss.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I liked what you've done with your Dell monitor! Talented people rule the world!

But I think this solution wouldn't work for me. Here is why:

Below, you can see some pictures of the back of my monitor (from the oficial .pdf document). Look carefully and you will see that there aren't any screws to remove. Just a base mount. That's why I mentioned that I have to buy a VESA adapter (THIS ONE). This is sad, because two of them + taxes + shipping cost about 70% of the price of one monitor! :O

But, to be honest, this is better than having the default base mount, which I don't like because it doesn't allow me to adjust the height of it, plus it takes too much space (we, Mac users, like minimalistic setups, don't we? ).

View attachment 741601

View attachment 741602

View attachment 741603
[doublepost=1513042186][/doublepost]

Well, if I had money to buy better monitors... =/
But as soon as you mentioned the brightness at 70% being a lot, I noticed the same. Reduced for 50% at daytime and even less in the night!

I would like to thank you for your contribution about calibrate the monitors. I will do that! Nice idea!
But... how can I start? Sorry for the amateur question...
[doublepost=1513043330][/doublepost]

This is a very important information that you left here.
"Main working windows is always the centre one".
It might sound obvious, but when having TWO monitors it's not: sometimes I leave one monitor in front of me and the other one in the right, angled. And the right one, sometimes, become my main monitor because of the long time using it. Silly me. I will fix that.



(...)"you are facing directly to the gap (between the monitor), but not the screen"
Couldn't have said better. EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now I can see how much better a single ultra wide monitor might be better than separated monitors, in some cases - like mine.



Yup. I can't leave a window in the MIDDLE. It's either in one monitor or another.



WOW. Simply WOW. :O



I like glossy monitors JUST because of the beauty of it. But now that I use them frequently and taking all of these arguments you've written, I couldn't agree more: we really tend to increase the brightness to cover the reflection. That's a clever observation, if I may say. I wish they were not glossy :/



Just a humble comment: I'm very impressed that you've looked for my monitor's specs (250cd/m²) before writing.
So, I think I have to calibrate my monitors? This "Spyder" is a software or some sort of professional equipment that I have to buy?



1. You are absolutely right, because my desk is beside two huge glass doors! But I don't like filters... I think I will Re-arrange my desk and my whole setup this weekend - and then I post here!

2. "If you often forced / tends to lean forward, than something is wrong already". I just realized that I do that a lot. Another brilliant observation from you. Thanks a lot! About the size (21")... well... what can I do? I received them as a gift...

3. That's what I started doing right after I've read your message (I'm replying a little bit late, sorry for that)! It helps me a lot, but I feel that I lose a lot of space in my desk, behind the side-monitor. That's why I was thinking about buying that VESA adapter to install a VESA mount and free space in my desk, under the monitors. What to you think? Does it worth it, given the currently monitors I have?
I was thinking: "what if I sell both of them and buy a single one? An ultra-wide monitor?". Just a thought... because I don't want to spend more money.

4. Me too. About the VESA mount, as I said before, I will need to buy a VESA adapter because my monitor (S2218H) doesn't support a VESA mount.

5. Agree.

Thanks a lot! You really helped a lot here, sir!

To calibrate you need to buy (or borrow!) a colorimeter.
There are two brands. X-rite and Datacolor.
Their entry level Ines are called the colormunki smile or spyder 5 express.
If you can go for their middle option of Colormunki display or Spyder 5 Pro.
You should run the calibration process about once a month. Should get them to match perfectly that way.

 

[h9826790]

I liked what you've done with your Dell monitor! Talented people rule the world!

But I think this solution wouldn't work for me. Here is why:

Below, you can see some pictures of the back of my monitor (from the oficial .pdf document). Look carefully and you will see that there aren't any screws to remove. Just a base mount. That's why I mentioned that I have to buy a VESA adapter (THIS ONE). This is sad, because two of them + taxes + shipping cost about 70% of the price of one monitor! :O

But, to be honest, this is better than having the default base mount, which I don't like because it doesn't allow me to adjust the height of it, plus it takes too much space (we, Mac users, like minimalistic setups, don't we? ).

View attachment 741601

View attachment 741602

View attachment 741603
[doublepost=1513042186][/doublepost]

Well, if I had money to buy better monitors... =/
But as soon as you mentioned the brightness at 70% being a lot, I noticed the same. Reduced for 50% at daytime and even less in the night!

I would like to thank you for your contribution about calibrate the monitors. I will do that! Nice idea!
But... how can I start? Sorry for the amateur question...
[doublepost=1513043330][/doublepost]

This is a very important information that you left here.
"Main working windows is always the centre one".
It might sound obvious, but when having TWO monitors it's not: sometimes I leave one monitor in front of me and the other one in the right, angled. And the right one, sometimes, become my main monitor because of the long time using it. Silly me. I will fix that.



(...)"you are facing directly to the gap (between the monitor), but not the screen"
Couldn't have said better. EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now I can see how much better a single ultra wide monitor might be better than separated monitors, in some cases - like mine.



Yup. I can't leave a window in the MIDDLE. It's either in one monitor or another.



WOW. Simply WOW. :O



I like glossy monitors JUST because of the beauty of it. But now that I use them frequently and taking all of these arguments you've written, I couldn't agree more: we really tend to increase the brightness to cover the reflection. That's a clever observation, if I may say. I wish they were not glossy :/



Just a humble comment: I'm very impressed that you've looked for my monitor's specs (250cd/m²) before writing.
So, I think I have to calibrate my monitors? This "Spyder" is a software or some sort of professional equipment that I have to buy?



1. You are absolutely right, because my desk is beside two huge glass doors! But I don't like filters... I think I will Re-arrange my desk and my whole setup this weekend - and then I post here!

2. "If you often forced / tends to lean forward, than something is wrong already". I just realized that I do that a lot. Another brilliant observation from you. Thanks a lot! About the size (21")... well... what can I do? I received them as a gift...

3. That's what I started doing right after I've read your message (I'm replying a little bit late, sorry for that)! It helps me a lot, but I feel that I lose a lot of space in my desk, behind the side-monitor. That's why I was thinking about buying that VESA adapter to install a VESA mount and free space in my desk, under the monitors. What to you think? Does it worth it, given the currently monitors I have?
I was thinking: "what if I sell both of them and buy a single one? An ultra-wide monitor?". Just a thought... because I don't want to spend more money.

4. Me too. About the VESA mount, as I said before, I will need to buy a VESA adapter because my monitor (S2218H) doesn't support a VESA mount.

5. Agree.

Thanks a lot! You really helped a lot here, sir!

As the other pointed out. I am using the Datacolor Spyder colormeter to calibrate the monitor. This hardware is supported in both MacOS and Windows. Software can be downloaded from Datacolor webstie. But obviously need the hardware to run the calibration properly.

http://www.datacolor.com/photography-design/product-overview/spyder5-family/

 

[nieks]

To calibrate you need to buy (or borrow!) a colorimeter.
There are two brands. X-rite and Datacolor.
Their entry level Ines are called the colormunki smile or spyder 5 express.
If you can go for their middle option of Colormunki display or Spyder 5 Pro.
You should run the calibration process about once a month. Should get them to match perfectly that way.

I don't think he needs to calibrate the monitors. I think he needs to buy a decent monitor. To me, it doesn't sound like Bruleke needs professional tools to calibrate his cheap $150,- monitors.

What about distractions? 'Cause you have a lot of space to fill in with apps and webpages...

My eyes hurt. I've got distracted a lot and I feel less productive.
So, naturally, I disconnect them and just use my MacBook Pro.
And then I got this feeling: UGH, tiny screen.

Ehm, you "have a lot of space to fill in", you are thinking the wrong way. You don't use two monitors and then think of how to fill them, you use two monitors because you need the extra screen estate. And about the distractions: that is something in your head, not something on the screen.

To add to that:
- the Dell screens you own are two Full HD screens (so no Retina or 4K resolution) which is fine, just not the best. You could easily do with one 4K monitor.
- They have a terrible glare, judging from the photo's. I understand you got them as a present, but personally, I would never buy them.
- It looks like the things (dock, icons, text) on your screen are tiny (and by tiny, I mean miniscule). Maybe use a normal resolution??

I would suggest: sell the monitors and buy just one monitor (as apparently: you don't need two monitors, judging by your story), and if you buy one from dell, make sure it's a Dell Ultrasharp. For instance, the U2415:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/dell-24-ultrasharp-monitor-u2415/spd/dell-u2415

or any other Ultrasharp:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/monitors/ar/8141?appliedRefinements=2542&~ck=mn

 

[JamesMay82]

my setup from other nite after cleaning up my desk.

View attachment 740562

I can't believe anyone would be in a Hyundai owners club lol

 

[macgeek18]

Downsized a bit.

 

[elf69]

I can't believe anyone would be in a Hyundai owners club lol

bit off topic but I run the cornwall branch of the hyundai coupe owners club.
our club is actually quite big with members all over the world.