The greater the number of pixels in the screen image, the better the
resolution . The greater the resolution, the sharper the image
appears. The lowest resolution seen in modern PCs is found in text based
DOS screen images, which are 640 x 480 pixels. That is called a VGA image
and was the standard until Windows came on the market.
As the PCs became more powerful a demand developed for better screen
resolutions. Windows is a graphic environment, and it works fine in all
screen resolutions. VGA was the last "real standard" working on any PC.
Screen resolution has since improved relative to VGA, and the term SVGA
(Super VGA) came into use. Later came XGA and other names, which each described
different resolutions. The terms SVGA and XGA are rarely used anymore.
Instead we are looking at resolution, image frequency and color depth.
Normally, the bigger the screen the bigger the possible resolution. Below,
you see a table with different resolutions:
| Standard |
Resolution |
Number of pixels |
Recommended
screen size |
| VGA |
640 x 480 |
307,200
|
14"
|
| SVGA |
800 x 600 |
480,000
|
15", 17"
|
| SVGA |
1024 x 768 |
786,432
|
17", 19"
|
| XGA |
1152 x 864 |
995,328
|
17", 19", 21"
|
| Vesa 1280 |
1280 x 1024 |
1,310,720
|
19", 21"
|
| Vesa 1600 |
1600 x 1200 |
1,920,000
|
21"
|
Screen and resolution need to be matched
The greater the resolution the more detail you can view on the screen.
On a Windows 95/98 desk top, you can see 2-3 as many icons in a 1280 x
1024 resolution as in a 800 x 600. The individual monitor can be set to
different resolutions. However, not all resolutions are suitable. On a
small screen the icons get too small, if you choose too high a resolution.
Therefore, resolution and screen size must be matched! |
