Choosing a monitor for photo, video and design

Gamut: start from where the images go

A wider gamut is not better in itself; it is useful if the images you deliver use it. The chapter on colour, gamut and HDR explains the spaces; in practice:

A wide-gamut monitor must offer faithful emulation modes (sRGB, P3, Adobe RGB) that can be selected according to the project, with brightness left adjustable in each.

Accuracy and its proof

Three guarantees separate a screen for image work from an ordinary one.

• Factory calibration with a report measured on your unit: average Delta E 2000 under 2, maximum under 4, white point D65, gamma 2.2.
• Uniformity compensation: brightness and tint held within a few percent over the whole surface. Without it, a gradient corrected in the centre is wrong in the corners.
• Hardware calibration: the correction is stored in the monitor, without loss of levels, and can be redone with a colorimeter every few months as the panel ages.

For paid colour work, a colorimeter is part of the equipment. For serious amateur work, a good factory-calibrated IPS screen in the right mode is sufficient for the first years.

Size and resolution

Image work benefits from density: at 60 pixels per degree and beyond, you judge the sharpness of the photograph and not that of the screen. On a desk of 70 to 80 cm, that means 27-inch 4K (73 pixels per degree at 65 cm) or 32-inch 4K (72 at 75 cm), the second leaving more room for palettes around the image.

On macOS, 27-inch 5K and 32-inch 6K give exact 2x rendering at 218 PPI, without resampling: interface elements and images are pixel-perfect. For video, a 4K panel has the merit of displaying a UHD timeline at its native size.

An ultrawide suits editing timelines, with reservations: few ultrawide panels are sold with colour guarantees, and most are VA. Many editors pair an accurate 27-inch reference screen with a wider working screen.

Panel, depth and coating

• IPS remains the standard: stable from all angles, uniform. IPS Black improves shadows.
• OLED gives perfect blacks and suits video grading; its automatic brightness limiting makes it less predictable for print work, where a steady white is the reference.
• 10 bits (true or 8 bit + FRC) avoid banding in gradients; indispensable in HDR.
• Matte coating and, in a bright room, a shading hood. Work under constant lighting, neutral walls, brightness set at 80 to 120 nits for print matching.

HDR work

Grading HDR requires seeing highlights at their real level: at least 1000 nits at peak, with dark areas preserved next to them. That means a Mini-LED backlight with more than a thousand zones, or an OLED panel. A DisplayHDR 400 or 600 monitor can display an HDR signal; it cannot be used to judge it.