# Monitor on it's side? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641 "2000-08-16T23:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/1 "2000-08-16T23:37:44Z")
Often I would prefer to have a monitor where the screen is higher than it is wide. I find text is easier to read this way, with shorter lines, and more closely resembles the printed page. This got me thinking… Some computer cases are built so they can be placed horizontally on the desktop or vertically as a tower. It would be _very_ easy to build a monitor like this which could be used in both portrait and landscape positions. Then all you need is a video card that supports this which would be pretty straightforward. My card already supports different resolutions and it would be easy to provide new settings for the “portrait” vertical position. It would even be fairly easy to have the monitor autodetect its position. Does anybody know of any monitors / video cards that support this? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/2 "2000-08-16T23:40:42Z")
When I worked at a publishing company about 5 years ago they had all the monitors like this. The monitors were built on a swivelly cradle that allowed you to turn it either way, and there was software that adjusted the display accordingly. Unfortunately it was my first computer and I had no context for how relatively unusual that was and I made no effort to remember what the setup was. But yes, it’s out there. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/3 "2000-08-16T23:45:58Z")
After some searching I found this [http://www.portrait.com/pdicust.htm](http://www.portrait.com/pdicust.htm) Does anyone have any experience with this type of display? ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/4 "2000-08-16T23:54:48Z")
I haven’t used one, but do know that there are screens out there that are taller than wide. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/5 "2000-08-17T01:20:36Z")
The webpad that my company is going to be using (and hopefully the rest of you will eventually be using it too in some contexts 🙂 ), does both landscape and portrait modes. It’s very neat. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/6 "2000-08-17T01:23:03Z")
My dad’s friend had a monitor like that. It was cool. You grabbed the thing, jerked it clockwise 90 degrees, and it would switch to portrait position. Way nifty. ---
**Author:** ![irish\_bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ac91a4/32.png) [@irish\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irish_bill)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/7 "2000-08-17T08:10:17Z")
A company I worked for some years ago had a ‘page’ monitor, the viewing area was in the shape of a portrait sheet of paper. That b&w monitor came from the states and had a graphics card which was inserted into the base of the computer. It worked pretty well. I haven’t seen any since then. I guess people just get 21 inch monitors now… ---
**Author:** ![gEEk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed8c4c/32.png) [@gEEk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gEEk)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/8 "2000-08-17T12:52:40Z")
That would be a Radius Pivot monitor. They were mostly used with Macs as they were really good for page layout and the like. Radius has been purchased by KDS and no longer makes the Pivot model. You could probably find one used though. I found a link at Microsoft that said that there may be problems with the pivot feature in Windows 95 though. gEEk ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/9 "2000-08-17T13:14:05Z")
Engineering has been there and done that. Primarily used in MAC’s and workstations although PC adapters and drivers exist for some of these these units. The complexity and cost to engineer and manufacture these units did not justify sales for many pivoting models when price of other fixed 17"-21" monitors began falling several years ago. People asked why they should spend big dollars for a pivoting 15"-17" display when they could get a less expensive 19"- 21" display with almost the same ability to show a page and more overall functionality for other uses. Portrait monitors are still used in many specialized applications (publishing layout, financial and medical uses)but I don’t know if any switchable (pivoting) ones are still being made. Examples here: [http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=406032502](http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=406032502) [http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=411108944](http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=411108944) ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/10 "2000-08-17T14:04:52Z")
I used to have a Radius Pivot. It was mostly reliable, but would occasionally glitch when pivoting. The screen would flash, there would be an audible ‘pop’, then the screen would go black for a few seconds. This was not the behavior that it exhibited when I first purchased it and I suspect that this could have caused long term reliability problems. I replaced it shortly thereafter with a 21" because I was doing a lot of engineering drawings where I needed the most screen area I could get. There was another page display that came out shortly after the Pivot, but I can’t remember much about it except that it didn’t pivot. You had to manually flip it, which is probably why it never realized any success. Of course, many of today’s LCD monitors can flip… just thought I’d point that out… ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2000, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monitor-on-its-side/29641/11 "2000-08-17T14:21:06Z")
Thanks all for the input. It just seems like video cards do not normally support this. It seems such an easy feature to include in the video card and I am not even asking the monitor pivot easily. Just that you can put it on its side. I would think this could be done with little or no extra cost.