2K versus 4K monitor resolution for photo editing?

[Chris K]

If your eyesight is good (or corrected), a 27" 4K (163dpi) monitor will absolutely show more detail than a 27" 2K (110dpi) monitor at a typical desk viewing distance.

Check some displays around your house if you want to see how various DPIs look. Your phone is probably 300-500dpi. A laptop is generally 100-250dpi. A desktop display is often 72-150dpi. A 65" 4K TV is 67dpi. A 65" 1080p TV is 34dpi. DPI only matters in context of viewing distance, so put each display at your desk viewing distance and see at which DPI level you can no longer see additional detail.

Check out this site for DPI info:

DPI Calculator / PPI Calculator

High DPI monitors are a big functional improvement, IMHO. Think of all the times you zoom into your photo to see how sharp it is. Now imagine if you didn't have to zoom in to judge sharpness. You can review images much faster this way!

 

[Replytoken]

FWIW, Lloyd Chambers wrote this article about monitor resolution: https://diglloyd.com/blog/2017/20170107_1234-evaluating-images-pixel-density.html . Some might find it interesting reading.

Thanks,

--Ken

 

[RichF]

John, I also use Windows & PC as well IMAC, for the Windows part, I highly recommend EIZO 4K, just get it & be done with it.

Oliver

I have an Eizo 27" (not 4K) and really like it. Colors are excellent and mine has a built in calibration device which swings down from the top bizel.

 

[R_Warshaw]

I have a 2017 iMac and an old (2011) Apple Cinema display for menus. With regular calibration the iMacs built-in monitor more than meets my needs. Pity that Apple has so far chosen not to upgrade the 27 inch iMac with Apple silicon.

 

[Cameranut]

With my 27" monitor, I am sticking to lower resolution - 2560x1440. Challenge I see with 4K is that type is tiny. Even with my current monitor, I need to increase Excel and Word documents by 20-40%. Don't need to see 100% (actual pixels) when I view an image - a slightly compressed version works well for me. If I need to see 100% I just show the image at 100% - so what if I can not see the entire screen.

Just having higher resolutionn does not mean that you can't set type size to be as large as what you want it to be in windows anyway. But your photos will always look better on a higher resolution screen no matter what resolution the photos are.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

<sportscaster-voice for less words: joe piscopo>

• Color accuracy? Better than just 100% sRGB
• 27"? Size of panel. Bigger the better, depending on eyesight
• 4k? Resolution of panel (regardless of size). Lets you see more image at 1:1.

</sportscaster-voice: end>

Pick your poison. The color accuracy thing is arguable, I agree (lots of 'depends' here). Some folk here produce very nice images on 24" 2k sRGB panels. As my grandpappy always used to say "get the best you can afford and you'll always be happy".

Critical assessment of your image detail during editing? Zoom to 1:1 (which can be done with any size, any resolution).

I use a couple of BenQ SW321SW monitors. I hope I don't have to replace them in my lifetime <knock on wood>. I realize that these are not true 10-bit, but 8-bit + FRC works for me. Without FRC, editing 16-bit images for full color accuracy is a bit dicey.

Chris

PS: if you're not viewing 1:1, you are upscaling the image, regardless of resolution or monitor size, yes? No? UI elements on a hi-rez monitor are no longer a concern with modern software / OS.

 

[Roy]

I have a bit of a dilemma - would a 27” 4K monitor provide sufficiently better screen resolution than a 2K monitor for photo editing, enough to justify twice the price? Specifically, BenQ offers virtually identical models (BenQ SW270C and BenQ SW271C), except for screen resolution. The BenQ 270C retails for $800 and the BenQ 271C for $1600. For a dedicated amateur photographer like myself, just looking for a solid, color accurate monitor for editing images in Photoshop and Lightroom, and occasionally printing them, would the extra $800 be really worth it?

The only way to decide is to take an image you know well and try it at somewhere like B&H for yourself.
I wish my monitor only cost $1600 - But I spend many hours a day editing etc on it.
Dont forget to regularly calibrate or the images on any monitor wont look great ...