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Which is best for Digital Painting? Matte or Glossy?

DDar

DDar

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 9, 2007
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Well, I might get a MacBook Pro soon, so I just may have to choice to decide on whether I want Matte or Glossy. So I was wondering, which do you think is best for digital painting and other such things? I plan on someday maybe selling prints and such y'know. =/
But I'll be using this quite often so I don't want the screen to be ugly and dull or unseeable due to sunlight (I've heard this happens with Matte since the screen distributes light all over it instead of reflecting it like the gloss), so that's my main fear with the Matte since I won't ONLY be using this laptop for digital painting.

Now, I don't really have a Apple store nearby where I can compare, so I kinda need your opinions just in case I get to choose. Which do you think is best?

And if I'm not able to choose and have to stick to a Macbook, is the glossy screen REALLY horrible for Digital Painting on Photoshop CS3? =(

(Note: I can't afford an external display, and this is an X-Mas gift...)
 
you are going to get a lot of opinion and few facts in reply to your query.

in my opinion, i find that glossy makes colors on screen that will be impossible/very difficult to reproduce on a print. matte does this as well, but not nearly as extreme. matte in no way makes colors ugly or dull.
 
shecky said:
you are going to get a lot of opinion and few facts in reply to your query.

in my opinion, i find that glossy makes colors on screen that will be impossible/very difficult to reproduce on a print. matte does this as well, but not nearly as extreme. matte in no way makes colors ugly or dull.
Click to expand...
So Matte screens are still a pleasure to look at? =)
 
I am currently a GLOSSY guy. I edit photos and video on it no problem, but I may make the change back to MATTE on my next MBP. The blacks are richer and the colors are much more vibrant on the glossy than the matte, and editing photos and reproducing colors isn't a problem when you do it right, so it's still a matter of preference.

For me, the cause of the switch is the switching back and forth from an Apple Cinema Display and the MBP screen. Since the colors do change from one to the other, it hurts the eyes and gives my images a drastic color shift when I have to quickly unhook everything and carry my work on the road suddenly. Before, I edited and did all of my color editing on the MBP screen and kept everything consistent, but now that I have to switch back and forth, and I don't see that changing for a long long while, I am just going to go with the Matte display for consistency.

If I were grabbing one for personal use and personal photo/video editing and movie watching I'd still grab a glossy.
 
well here is all i know. Glossy screens tend to make colors more vibrant and images sharper. The problem with that is, it's an effect of the glossy screen and not of the image or color it's self. Matte screens tend to look more natural, allowing for more naturalistic color and image reproduction. A lot of that will also come down to calibrating your monitor or not. Glossy screen also have an awful glare in well lit areas, and i can usually not stand to look at them because all i see is myself, though matte screens tend to be hard to see in direct sunlight, because there is just not enough light to compensate, so it looks dark and washed out. I don't know if i helped you there, but my opinion will always be for a matte screen.

-JE
 
Matt, I am using a Glossy dell at the moment, it is very hard to work with. Depending on the angle of the screen the colours are different. For example if I have the monitor tilted at a 90degree angle to the base the header of this forum is very light blue, but if I have the screen tilted further back the blue is twice as dark. And I can also see the lights behind me. So I will definately pick a matt over glossy in the future, thats why I have ordered a matt MBP.
 
JasonElise1983 said:
Glossy screens tend to make colors more vibrant and images sharper. The problem with that is, it's an effect of the glossy screen and not of the image or color it's self. Matte screens tend to look more natural, allowing for more naturalistic color and image reproduction.
Click to expand...

Ideally you would produce content with a matte screen and then present the FINAL products with a glossy display (if you want to show a hyped picture)...
 
DDar, is there a local Apple Store you could go to, see what you like? I am sure they would have a matt and a glossy monitor there. There are only 5 Apple stores in england and I have never been to one :(.
 
DDar said:
So Matte screens are still a pleasure to look at? =)
Click to expand...

Yes they are. For me as well as others as it seems, glossy makes the colors vibrant and difficult to reproduce in print. This is true to some extent but if your printer and monitor are properly calibrated then there should be no problems really. However, the on-screen view looks overly artificial to me. Regardless, I can control the prints and such but what I can't control without some sort of additional cover for the screen are the glares. That is difficult on my eyes.
 
I had the same exact dilemma when I had to buy my MacBook Pro! I do a LOT of digital painting, and it's true--I found out that glossy screens don't represent accurate color. This is going to be difficult if you'r really color minded, as how I am. Even the slightest movement (like maybe changing my viewing angle even by an inch) changed the colors greatly (atleast for me). I'd say it's safer to buy a matte. I've watched movies on the matte and they're not bad at all. Glossy screens trick you into thinking colors are more rich/lush and well saturated but you'd realize how dull they really are if you ever printed it out or worse, if you emailed the file to a client.

Also, glossy screens cause glares from the littlest shiny/bright objects around you, but that didn;t bother me so much. Glossy screens also attract a LOT of dust!! I have to wipe it every 2 days! My matte's spotless even after 3 weeks of use. O, and this might not be so important but in addition to these problems that the glossy screens tend t cause, it just looks really cheap. Might suit a MacBook more cause of the simplicity (almost makes it look like a toy), but it's going to look really....well, out of place on the MacBook Pro with the "matte" Al finish.
 
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