IaDell S2722QC 4K Monitor Text Difficult to Read?

[DazeMae]

I've seen several photo retouching recommendations for the Dell S2722QC monitor. However, a few say that the text on a 27" 4K monitor is too small when using other applications (Word, Excel, browsing). Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is a significant limitation?

 

[David Lal]

I've seen several photo retouching recommendations for the Dell S2722QC monitor. However, a few say that the text on a 27" 4K monitor is too small when using other applications (Word, Excel, browsing). Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is a significant limitation?

I do have a 27" 4K monitor, Philips, not Dell. Also, 2 elderly eyes! On my monitor under Windows 10 I can set a zoom level for the screen that most, not all, programs respect. All of MS Office respects it. So, for me, not difficult to read.

 

[Austinian]

I've seen several photo retouching recommendations for the Dell S2722QC monitor. However, a few say that the text on a 27" 4K monitor is too small when using other applications (Word, Excel, browsing). Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is a significant limitation?

IMO, a lot depends on how far you want to sit from the monitor; the farther you want to sit from the monitor, the bigger it should be. There are 13" laptops with 4K screens; there are giant TV sets with 4K screens. People buy them both and are happy.

 

[David Lal]

IMO, a lot depends on how far you want to sit from the monitor; the farther you want to sit from the monitor, the bigger it should be. There are 13" laptops with 4K screens; there are giant TV sets with 4K screens. People buy them both and are happy.

My eyes are 58cm from the centre of my 27" screen.

 

[skyglider]

I've seen several photo retouching recommendations for the Dell S2722QC monitor. However, a few say that the text on a 27" 4K monitor is too small when using other applications (Word, Excel, browsing). Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is a significant limitation?

It depends. If you're running newer programs that are scaling aware, then readability will be fine. But older programs that are not scaling aware can be a problem.

For instance, on my 27 inch, 2560 x 1440 monitor, using my old version of Photoshop, the text and toolbar are tiny and just barely readable for me. Wouldn't be able to use it on a 27", 4K monitor. The windows 10 scaling has no effect on the user interface for older programs that are not scaling aware.

So if you're running late versions of your programs, you may be fine with a 27", 4K monitor. Older programs, not so much.

Regarding Office programs, I use Libre Office and scaling is fine for Writer and Calc.

Sky

 

[Robert Zanatta]

Not a limitation. You can adjust display scaling for Windows, individually for specific applications, and within some applications.

 

[LynniePad]

I've seen several photo retouching recommendations for the Dell S2722QC monitor. However, a few say that the text on a 27" 4K monitor is too small when using other applications (Word, Excel, browsing). Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this is a significant limitation?

We use Office 365 on a variety of screens, including an Acer 28” 4k monitor. The screen defaulted to 150% scaling, and everything looks very good. The text actually looks as though it has been etched onto the screen, with the high resolution making the fonts nice and crisp. The only adjustment I’d recommend is slight enlargement of the mouse pointer.

The 28” screen is large enough to display two full-size A4 pages side by side for editing/comparison, while several Windowed applications can be running, with sufficient resolution for easy reading.

 

[Austinian]

IMO, a lot depends on how far you want to sit from the monitor; the farther you want to sit from the monitor, the bigger it should be. There are 13" laptops with 4K screens; there are giant TV sets with 4K screens. People buy them both and are happy.

My eyes are 58cm from the centre of my 27" screen.

I'm currently 22" from the center of a 32" 4K screen. I have used a 27" 4K monitor, but I was sitting closer than you, as I like a wider FOV for gaming. Scaling is set to 150% now, was 175% with the 27".

 

[Billiam29]

Don’t forget you can just go to a store that has a 27” 4K monitor with Windows available to play with. For the purpose of judging readability, you don’t need the exact monitor model you’re interested in so it shouldn’t be too terribly difficult to find a suitable store display. Play with the scaling settings and see for yourself how things seem for you.

All 27” 4K monitors are going to have the same pixel density, the same number of screen pixels per inch/cm. There’s probably going to be a few percentage points of tolerance in that statement depending on how “fast and loose” the monitor manufacturers are playing with their stated 27” screen size dimensions. For many practical purposes though, they should all be the same pixel density.

 

[BobKnDP]

This may be redundant, but a 27" 4k monitor with text scaling set to 150% (the Windows default for 4k) gives text that is quite readable to me, at my normal viewing distance (roughly 24"/60cm).

I admit that I'm currently using a 32" monitor, at the same scaling.

Older software (like Photoshop CS6) doesn't scale well for a 4k monitor. (There is supposed to be a work-around for that, but going to the CC subscription version eliminated the issue.)

One oddity: if you set the scaling to 150% with a 4k monitor, 4k YouTube videos will play in the browser at 2560X1440. You could set the scaling to 100%, and the videos will play at full resolution. The text will be too small, though.

 

[David Lal]

I'm currently 22" from the center of a 32" 4K screen. I have used a 27" 4K monitor, but I was sitting closer than you, as I like a wider FOV for gaming. Scaling is set to 150% now, was 175% with the 27".

Closer than me AND a larger monitor than mine? Don't you find you have to move your head a lot? I am already conscious of that.

I'm not into gaming but my partner and I do watch a lot of Scandinavian and French television via the Internet on my PC (we don't have a smart TV) in my study.

 

[Austinian]

I'm currently 22" from the center of a 32" 4K screen. I have used a 27" 4K monitor, but I was sitting closer than you, as I like a wider FOV for gaming. Scaling is set to 150% now, was 175% with the 27".

Closer than me AND a larger monitor than mine? Don't you find you have to move your head a lot? I am already conscious of that.

Hardly at all. My peripheral vision is good, and for gaming, away from the center of the screen I'm mainly watching for motion, not detail. For browsing, photo editing, etc. I simply locate the main application screen at the center of the monitor; effectively, it's a smaller monitor when the larger screen isn't necessary.

I'm not into gaming but my partner and I do watch a lot of Scandinavian and French television via the Internet on my PC (we don't have a smart TV) in my study.

Our TVs are 'smart' TVs, but we don't use the built-in smarts for a number of reasons. For streaming video to the OLED TV, a M1 Mac Mini works fine; the TV is basically a dumb monitor.

 

[GodSpeaks]

I have used a couple of different brand 4K monitors over the last few years. I am currently using an LG 42.5 inch IPS monitor. This is the first 4K monitor where I did NOT have to magnify the text to be able to read it. I normally sit about 1 meter from the screen.

By the way, the latest FPS games look absolutely fabulous in 4K on that monitor.

 

[Wayne Larmon]

Not a limitation. You can adjust display scaling for Windows, individually for specific applications, and within some applications.

Like Robert said, you can adjust scaling. I have Windows scaling set to 225% (Display Settings/Scale and layout). There are more scaling options for individual programs in Program Properties/Compatibility/Change high DPI settings.

A 4K 14" screen is about 320 PPI. Many consider 300 PPI to be the minimum resolution for printing. After working on my 14" 4K laptop screen, other 1080p 14" laptops look real coarse.

(225% does make fonts be on the small side. I had been using 250% (larger fonts), but I needed a bit more screen real estate for a few programs so I switched to 225%. Microsoft recommends 300%. 300% makes fonts larger than I need and screen real estate is very cramped.)

Wayne