Two monitors?

[Jennifer]

Hi -

This may be a stupid question (which is why I'm asking here instead of an open forum bc I know you guys would never make fun of me)! lol

I am considering getting a 2nd monitor for a few reasons - my question is whether it's better to get two of the same screen or does it not matter? I'm thinking one of the advantages of having two monitors is that I saw Damien had mentioned somewhere that you could have bridge open on one and photoshop open on another. Would this be better if both screens had the same color (although I know it wouldn't match perfectly) and the same resolution. I have the Dell U2412M currently and have enjoyed it for the most part - it's about $100 less than I paid for it originally (it was a Brian recommendation btw).

Or would I be better off getting a better monitor for the 2nd one?

Thanks - jen

 

 

[Damien Symonds]

Brian will have better wisdom than me.  But here's my 2 cents ... even if you get two screens exactly the same, it's very likely that they won't show exactly the same colour, even after calibration.  You'll find that one calibrated better than the other.  So that one would be your editing screen, and the other one would be your secondary screen, for emails and such.

So because of that, I've never thought it to be entirely necessary to have two matching screens.

However, I'm aware of the attraction of having two matching screens sitting on your desk - it sure does look smart

And strictly speaking, the two monitors don't even need to be the same size.  (Mine certainly aren't.)  But again - it looks nice if they do

[Brian]

While you will have a better shot of things matching if they are the same make/model, I agree with Damien...getting them to be identical through calibration is tough. Especially if your original display has some use on it. It's best to purchase two new identical monitors at the same time. But again, there are no guarantees in getting things to be 100% matched. 

Which leads us to Damien's recommendation: Having a normal-use display and one for editing. That's your best case scenario. As for what size to get: It depends. If you have the same monitor, you can get a cool bracket that makes things easier to mount on your desk. Otherwise you could have a large one and then a smaller one, which could be fine or drive you nuts. Again, this is a personal type of thing.

[Jennifer]

That is a cool bracket. What you guys said makes sense as far as the calibration between the two, especially your comment about the original one having been in use for a little while, Brian. 

I’ll have to think a little more about it- thank you both for your replies:)

[Jennifer]

Hey guys! So I ended up getting another Dell U2412M (got it for a great price btw bc Dell was willing to meet B&H's price for me). I was getting ready to calibrate it, and I got a window that said the Colormunki program "detected multiple displays connected to my computer."

It offers the option of matching the display on the new one to the one I already had profiled with colormunki. Should I do this or should I do the new monitor as a brand new calibration and reset to factory defaults first (as in D's xrite colormunki/desktop tute), and then follow the rest of the tute?

[Damien Symonds]

Try the matching thing first.  It may not work as well as advertised, but it can't hurt to try.

[Jennifer]

ok thanks!

[Brian]

Try it. You can always undo things. Let us know how it works.