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How stunning is this magazine cover!
And how comforting is this image in your leisure time!
The fact of the matter is that we come across these visuals on a daily basis. But what binds them is our choice of remarkable optics of two orientation formats — portrait and landscape. These formats are the stimuli that we, as an observer, choose while viewing a certain type of object.
But have you ever thought how these portrait and landscape orientations came into existence? What makes them our only two options (so far) to visualize a rectangular page? We trace the history (and a little bit of future) in this blog.
But first, some definitions.
The Portrait Format
A portrait format is the one where the page is longer than it is wider. This format is used extensively in material with text. From a visual point of view, a portrait orientation originates from the capturing of a person’s face and bodily features in a painting. You basically are visualizing the person’s (or the object’s) portrait. In textual reference, a portrait format such as we see in books or magazines enables us to read as much as we can in a single frame or page of the written text. Even ancient manuscripts in the form of text and images drawn on a scroll of parchment were ultimately a form of portrait orientation since it is read from top to bottom.
In printing context, portrait format serves as the orientation for a combination of visuals and text, just like we see in a journal. Mostly, legal documents and contracts are also printed out in portrait format to enable reading and comprehending significant text. Another prime example is the newspaper that lands on our doorsteps. Reading pleasure sure comes alive when we have a portrait view of things, doesn’t it?
The Landscape Format
The landscape format is the one where the page width is greater than page height. Etymologically, the term ‘landscape’ is used to visualize a piece of land, i.e. scenery with a lot of objects and/or people. In a more physiological perspective, our eyes see the picturesque and transcending things in the world in a landscape mode. This is the reason why landscape format is employed in TV screens or movie theaters. Within landscape format, we tend to capture a lot of visuals and thus, landscape mode fits the formats where we want to see moving things.
Landscape is the mode where you play your video games and OTT platform sitcoms and dramas on your television. With this mode you portray wide scale maps and plans for better understanding.
But it all began with computers
Every time you press Ctrl+P in a word or graphical processing tool, you get the following property window in the options.
We have used this functionality to take printouts of our documents in the office countless number of times. But did you know that this functionality goes way back to the origins of modern desktop publishing? That is where the concept of portrait and landscape formats first came to life.
The Xerox Alto
The very first instance of using a portrait mode display, and also the very first in the graphical user interface in desktop computers, was the Xerox Alto computer developed around the 70s. Based on a simple, rather primitive yet quite a futuristic design, the Xerox Alto gave the user a viewing experience similar to a book. Mostly sold to laboratories and universities, the Xerox Alto sported a bitmap display that let the user process word documents and then print them onto a paper in a What-You-See-IS-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) format.
The Xerox Alto
Alto’s software components were also revolutionary and sported a portrait format of editing word documents with commands. Little did Alto’s developers know that they will be setting off many a first in their quest for simplifying document creation for computer users. The advanced WYSIWYG document preparation program in the Alto, called Bravo, was the first-ever to enable command based editing in personal computers. Graphically, since the display was in a portrait mode and was accustomed with the printing technology of that time, besides enabling font formatting and alignment features, the printed documents were all in a portrait mode to enable reading. Same goes for the next big thing in document creation, called Gypsy, which enabled mouse operations along with the WYSIWYG interface.
Long story short, the Xerox Alto, though not mass produced (only 2,000 units built), lay the groundwork for how we want to present our documents in a readable format, i.e. the portrait orientation.
After Alto
Several desktop computers and applications became popular after the Alto. The most prominent was the IBM DisplayWriter which brought about advanced word processing functionalities with a portrait mode monitor. You could just type away your documents and print them onto the paper just like you wanted it to. Later Macintosh also entered the market with its word processing enabled personal computers, but by this time the portrait mode had set quite well with computer manufacturers. Later the IBM PC took over the manufacturing of landscape monitors and rendered the DisplayWriter and other portrait mode PCs useless.
The IBM DisplayWriter
A mixed bag for users, these PCs were simply not that advanced when it came to image printing capabilities. But since text printing and then spreadsheets was the staple for office documentation at that time, the portrait mode stayed around for quite as long as we kept typing on old-age computers (which now adorn several museums of technological history). Technology became better and the MS DOS/IBM PC 2.0 featured the print command for word processing software that later became the basis for the modern-day print commands asking for portrait and landscape orientations for printing.
Video game consoles
We have all felt that adrenaline rush while playing our favorite Nintendo video game at the arcade. But did you know that your gaming spree on the TV (a landscape mode display) started from very basic portrait mode consoles? In fact, the earliest of such consoles was the Vectrex Console that displayed arcade games in portrait mode. You could play Pac Man or Donkey Kong. The earliest consoles were a far cry from the modern gaming consoles that we have attached to our monitors today. But with time, computer engineers and game developers understood the need for bigger displays in landscape mode that formed the basis of the modern day video game marvels.
      The Vectrex ConsoleÂ
Portrait and Landscape: Why did they get stuck with us?
Since visual art and technology have advanced hand-in-hand, modern-day monitors have adapted to our optical frame of reference too. But since human vision finds it easy to comprehend just the vertical and horizontal spans of movement, the portrait and landscape modes have stuck with us and rather trickled down into the methods by which we conceptualize and objectify graphical stimuli. Here’s what we mean by that:
Painting
What is the most obvious choice when you want to paint a person’s face onto a canvas? It will be a canvas that is longer than it is wider. In portraits, we tend to detail and stylize our subjects, capturing their emotions and features. On the other hand, when you are standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking a mountain valley, you will certainly use a wider canvas to capture whatever your peripheral vision can take in. Art history has showed our inclination towards choosing a page orientation when describing and portraying a subject. And since humans have observed, admired and received all that visual stimuli, the concept has stuck with us through the ages.
The Mona Lisa
The Last Supper
Photography
Speaking of visualization, the concept of portrait and landscape formats has been effective in photography techniques as well. These formats are synonymous to camera modes that an artist can use to capture various subjects. The optical technology has been mirroring how our eye sees the world. It is only that light capturing and lenses add that depth to our perception of a particular subject or scene. And without a doubt, photographs have been the heart and soul of captivating media used in business scenarios as well. Geometrically, light rays and lens functions enable capturing photos onto a film strip in a rectangular format. The subject envisioned on the film can be printed out as per the portrait or landscape format.
               
An interesting concept of aspect ratio comes into play in photography when it comes to orientation. When you are defining the aspect ratio of a rectangular photo in landscape mode, you are basically defining the ratio of its width to its height. Represented with colon in the middle, the ratio x:y is written as 4:3, 16:9, and so on. Basically the portrait and landscape modes get replaced by the aspect ratio in a cameraman’s parlance. The aspect ratio can be an indicator of sizing standards in advertising and graphical media documents as well.
Videography
The landscape orientation concept has given people the bliss of videography and video watching. Everywhere you see something in landscape mode, it is almost always to observe a bigger subject and receive more expansive visual stimuli. With the advent of new visual art technology, videography tools have been able to capture objects in motion just like a human eye would. The same has been replicated in TVs and computer monitors of the modern-age. In fact, a prominent example of how landscape mode has become our power to do more is the multi-monitor personal computer setups. It is thus no surprise that such setups are used by multimedia motion graphic content creators.
A multi-monitor display
But the lines do get blurred
What’s the first thing you check in the morning? It’s not the sun, or the pleasant outdoors. It’s your phone. Glued to the portrait style screen of the device, the millennials go about their day, checking everything from their schedule to their pictures and watching videos. If it’s a human in 2020 or even a baby, chances are that he or she has a smartphone in their hands. The concept of portrait and landscape has thus gotten intermixed to suit to their needs.
Adaptive orientation
Technology has developed enough to make devices having a display responsive to how the user holds them. But the basic concept of portrait for reading and landscape for videos has still stuck with us when it comes to gadgets with displays. Smartphone manufacturers have come up with wider displays for role playing gaming experience. In fact, almost all of these high-intensity games are designed with a landscape format in mind. For simple apps to play videos or even the YouTube app, the manufacturers have dabbled with the ability to change the orientation by holding the device according to it.
Changing trends
But of course, the more we tread on the path of better things, the more we are seeing a shift in what we let catch our attention without much distraction. We are talking about how apps with audio and video content have adapted to portrait mode.
If you have been on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, you have come across all these advertisements that do not necessitate you tilting your phone to watch a full-screen view. Instead, advertisers have adapted to portrait mode on the basis of the fact millennials would rather not tilt their phone to watch a video in landscape mode. Now this may seem like a smart little tweak, considering that users swipe along mobile news feed (portrait) 41% quicker than that of a personal computer (landscape). But reportedly, Facebook advertisers have also seen a paradigm shift in traction and conversion when it comes to portrait mode ads.
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As far as research and data have indicated, at SlideTeam we have also observed how the common long-winded meeting room presentation using a projector or a mirrored screen — a landscape orientation concept — is switching on to comprehensive one-pagers — a portrait mode concept. The shift is indicative of how the need to grab attention and relay information quickly is becoming the pulse of businesses across the globe.
For instance, check out how this 20-slide deck (all landscape mode slides):
Can be a foolproof deal maker one-pager (portrait design) right here:
Show me more of these one-pagers you talk of
What the future holds
The future is ever-changing. The technology we use today may even become obsolete in a few years. This applies to the screens that we stay addicted to day and night. Portrait and landscape perspectives have been our window to the world that surrounds us. But what does the future hold? Here’s what.
Augmented reality is changing the way we interact with multimedia day by day, besides changing how we view it as well. Your portable PlayStation device with buttons has come a long way to morph into a control stick coupled with virtual reality headsets that give you a full-on interactive gaming experience. With this 3-D or 4-D or 5-D visual modes, you can actually feel yourself become one with the character you play in let’s say the hit RPG masterpiece that is The Assassin’s Creed.
Speaking of transcending dimensions, 3D holograms like we see in the movies are also in tow. Projected display with tactile interaction with projections is the call of the technological future that we feel surprised by. Even print technology has taken the next step with 3D printing and rendering of objects using a hi-tech printer.
But until we usher into that new normal, we will just have to wait and watch the digital future take its course (with stunning portraits hung beside our TV screens of course).
