Dual Monitor Question

I need a bit of education here. Why do some people connect an additional monitor to the computers for post processing? One obvious reason would seem to be that a computer's display might be woefully small (e.g. a laptop). Other reasons?

Thank you for the info.

That's the reason.
You can usually put the image on one monitor - full screen.
And then have the menus and tools on the other monitor(s).

It is cheaper than having a widescreen 24" (or larger) monitor.

The trend in applications (Lightroom for example) seems to be towards widescreen layout, with tools down the left/right edges leaving a 4:3 or 3:2 ratio space in the middle for the image.

Same for software development tools, our programmers are fighting over the larger, wider monitors at work so they can have the design tools and the code visible at the same time.
Only Marketing have dual monitors :)
I traded two 1024x768 screens for a single 1920x1200 24" in the office and it really helps when writing software. The width of the bezels on the dual monitor solution was distracting when I put them together.


Warning: three or more monitors and you're an evil genius in a secret lair: )

For photography purposes, I'm not sure you do need a second monitor. But if you're doing a lot of graphics work...........

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9638/workspaceu.jpg

.....then THIS is a really handy setup (once you get used to it). The second (larger) screen is for the image itself.

There are other reasons though too. If you're comparing images, it's nice to have a lot of room to enlarge them and get them all up at once.

But is it necessary? Definitely not.

- Joe U.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SmartWombat

That's the reason.
You can usually put the image on one monitor - full screen.
And then have the menus and tools on the other monitor(s).

---

OK, I have to ask a real bonehead question here. How do you display different content on the 2 monitors? I guess that I have always assumed that both monitors would display the same thing.

Thanks!

Quote:

---

How do you display different content on the 2 monitors?

---

Windows, or Mac?
Once you have two graphics cards with a monitor on each.
Or one expensive graphics card with two monitor outputs.
Then Windows will let you setup one as primary, and the other secondary.
It's good if they're both the same resolution, but they don't have to be.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SmartWombat

Windows, or Mac?

---

It's a Mac.