Few people would dispute that the extra screen real estate of a second display can be a huge help in a computer setup. But let’s say you have two Studio Displays in landcape (horizontal) mode. Do you place them side by side perfectly straight or do you angle them in some way?
Today’s MacBook Pro workstation brought up the debate and surfaced a cool tip for getting wallpaper to appear half on one display and half on the other.
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In a computer setup, should dual monitors be angled or flat, side by side?
Redditor Z4YN389 (“Z4”) showcased the dual-Studio Display and MacBook Pro setup in a post entitled, “Dual Display Setup.”
It’s a lovely workstation, with a pair of Apple’s 5K displays on top of a nice dual-monitor desk shelf and the laptop tucked underneath. A set of AirPods Max over-ear noise-canceling headphones hangs off the right side of the shelf, and a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2 sit on a desk mat on the spacious desktop.
But a fairly typical reaction to dual monitors erupted with the post because the two displays are placed perfectly straight and flat, side by side.
Ergonomically suspect and impractical?
“I don’t like working with the split dead center,” said one commenter. In other words, the two bezels coming together can produce a pronounced seam that a user would be looking at if seated facing the middle of the two displays.
“I don’t understand how people do dual-display setups that are completely flat,” said another. “One, it looks funny, two, it’s not practical at all. Just terrible ergonomics.”
“Yeah, aligning two displays flat is only good for pics/looks nothing else,” agreed a third. And Z4 later added a comment indicating he made the monitors flat for the photo but normally angles them for easier viewing.
How about more than 2 displays?
That commenter also obfuscated the main question by adding that more than two displays “is 99% counter productive” with little use for the third one, which drew fire.
“Hmm have 3 displays at work. 2 at home. And the last thing I would ever say is it’s not practical,” a commenter countered. “As a software developer having multiple screens is a must. And who gives a shit if they are flat. lol.”
That last remark about flatness caused a bit of a dustup, but that’s beside the point(s).
They do take a nice photo when flat
While two monitors of the same size in landscape (horizontal) mode look sharp in a photograph, is that a healthy way to look at two displays? Ergonomics experts would probably counsel against it because of all of the head turning (or maybe rolling on a chair back and forth).
That’s why people often angle monitors or stagger them. My preference is to have one 27-inch 4K monitor be my main screen, straight ahead from where I sit, with the other one angled on the right side and a bit behind the main one, so I can glance to the right at secondary windows like messaging.
Neat trick getting wallpapers to split on 2 screens
“Could you share those wallpapers?” asked a commenter. “How’d you get it to share two monitors?” And while the poster didn’t share the wallpapers, someone else did share how to get the effect of a wallpaper spread across two screens, and Z4 confirmed it’s his method:
“You need to crop the photo perfectly in half and then export it as two photos,” they explained. “Then manually set the wallpaper for each display with the left and right half of the full photo.”
You can see the original poster’s splits work beautifully with the wallpapers in the images above and below.
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Photo: Z4YN389@Reddit.com
Computer:
Displays and desk shelf:
Input devices:
Audio:
If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches, challenges and plans for new additions.
Not as good as Apple's Pro Display XDR, but the 27-inch Apple Studio Display packs an impressive panel coupled with a six-speaker system and studio-quality microphones.
