Happy New Year!! Let’s talk about resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions? Naaah. Let’s discuss screen resolutions.
First, let’s get some definitions down.
Resolution - The degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of pixels across and down on a display screen.
Pixel - The basic unit of the composition of an image on a television screen, computer monitor, or similar display. Basically, one “dot” of light is one pixel.
CRT – Cathode Ray Tube, the big, thick tube displays that were the only options before flat panels came around.
LCD – Liquid Crystal Diode flat panel displays (see our blog entry from July 2007 titled LCD vs. Plasma for more info).
Plasma Display – Another type of flat panel (again, see the July 2007 blog entry for more info)
Aspect Ratio – The ratio of the height of an image to its width. 4:3 aspect ratio is the “old standard” for TVs and computer displays (not wide screen).
Let’s start easy with CRT displays. I say easy because for the most part, the screen resolutions of CRT displays don’t vary much in comparison to other screen types. For the most part, computer CRTs are all sized based on a 4:3 aspect ratio. CRTs resolutions are flexible with a fixed upper limit. The most common resolutions for these monitors are 1024x768 and 1280x1024 but they can go over 1600x1200 depending on the particular unit.
LCDs and Plasmas are less “standard” as far as aspect ratio. Nowadays we are seeing many different wide screen formats with resolutions from about 480x234 to more than 2560x1280. Although you can “change” resolutions on these displays, the quality really suffers unless you are set at the native size for that particular hardware.
So why do you care? Well if you are preparing a program or slideshow for your exhibit or for display, it will always look its best when it’s designed at the correct resolution. If you are using a CRT display, your best bet is to find the highest resolution that the display can support and build your application at that EXACT size. For Plasmas and LCDs, you want to build your application at the native screen resolution for your particular display. Beware, flat panels can stretch your application to fill the screen. This is most often seen on widescreen televisions displaying a non-HD or non-widescreen video source. You probably have seen your favorite TV personality looking a bit “wider” than usual. These displays can distort your applications also. So your perfectly circular logo can appear more like an egg.
Another note for all you PowerPoint users, preparing your inserted images for the correct resolution will do wonders for your presentations. I have seen both extremely low and extremely high resolution images used in PowerPoint presentations. Very low resolution images will look very grainy and blurry. Very high resolution images will make your presentation and effects run slowly and will make your file size overly large. Don’t think that by using high resolution images you are displaying better quality on your screen. As we have discussed here, computer displays can only display a limited resolution and the use of any images of higher resolution forces the computer to interpolate the pixels. The best looking images in a PowerPoint will be the ones that are sized from high resolution source files to the exact size they will be displayed on the screen. It can be tricky to figure out, but well worth the effort.
Do you have any screen or image resolution questions? Any experiences worth sharing? Please take a moment to post a comment here by clicking the “Comments” link below. We’d love to hear from you!!
Chris Meyer
President
CD Meyer, Inc./point2explore
point2explore is product line of customizable touch screen kiosk programs including interactive games and informational programs. point2explore products are currently running in over 60 museums and have been used in corporate events across the country. Visit our web site at www.point2explore.com.
