And we're still stuck with 30 inches as the biggest mainstream computer screen, even though 42-inch monitors would provide decent productivity gains for most knowledge workers. Only 9 years wrong on that prediction :-( It's amazing how slow progress has been in the monitor field. In 1998, I thought decent monitors with 200 PPI would be available "in 5 years" (that is, in 2003). The phone people can do it - why can't the PC guys? Many non-Apple mobile-device vendors also offer HD screens, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus tablet at 316 PPI, the Nokia E6-00 phone at 328 PPI, and the Sony Xperia S phone, which seems to hold the current record at 342 PPI. The mobile-device market has done somewhat better Apple has delivered HD screens on the iPhone since 2010 (model 4's 326 PPI) and on the iPad as of this year (model 3's 264 PPI). It's a disgrace that the PC industry hasn't recognizably improved screen quality over the last decade - despite the fact that we've known since we have known for decades that 300 PPI screens offer dramatically faster reading speed than low-density monitors. Of course, this is not true: we need around 900 PPI for a screen so good that adding pixels wouldn't make it look any better.Īlthough Apple's screen quality isn't perfect, it's dramatically better than anything on offer from other computer vendors. This screen delivers a pixel density of 220 PPI (pixels per inch, corresponding to the DPI - dots per inch - that measure laser printer quality.)Īpple uses the propaganda term "Retina display" for screen qualities above approximately 200 PPI, under the theory that this is as much as the human eye can resolve.
#Serif typeface pro#
In June 2012, Apple introduced the first mainstream computer with a high-definition screen: the MacBook Pro with a resolution of 2880×1800 on a 15-inch display. Not only are computer screens getting bigger, they're also finally getting better - which might be more important.