Optimum Screen Resolution Settings

If you believe that your Notebook or Desktop Computer comes factory-fitted with the best Monitor Screen Resolution, think again. For, your Screen Resolution is your personal choice. Moreover, it is a fact that people change their Computer's screen resolution - temporarily or permanently, for one reason or the other. Some of the reasons why you might want to change your screen resolution are;

When you share a Computer with someone whose screen setting preferences are different from yours
Change in the settings of your Computer/ working area
With increase in your age or deteriorating vision
When you purchase a new (and usually larger) Monitor
When you upgrade from an older Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) or add a new GPU for the first time. A GPU lets you run your Computer at much higher screen resolutions, while still improving the quality of text and graphics, in comparison with the in-built Graphics processor on your Computer's (Notebook or Desktop) motherboard
When you need to play graphics-intensive games and your current resolution is too low to let it play at all, or play it optimally
When you need to 'see' more in a single screen - for example, if you want to see more rows or columns (or both) in a spreadsheet

With Computers, you can always revert to your earlier choice, without having to reformat your Hard Drive and re-install all applications, mercifully!

Ease of viewing Computer Screens depends on the following:

Size of the Monitor/ Screen. (it is common to refer to CRT as Monitors and LCD as Screen). Today, screen sizes begin at 14" and go on to 17" for Notebooks, with normal and Wide Screen varieties being available. For Desktops, screen sizes ranging from 15" to over 21" are available, again in both traditional as well as Wide Screen formats
The distance between your eyes and the Screen/ Monitor. Recommended distance is 150* of the screen size. Therefore if your screen is 15" (screen size is always measured diagonally), you ought to be sitting at a distance of between 20 and 22 Inches away from it
The condition of your eyes. If you are short-sighted/ long-sited (Myopia/ Hypermetropia), you would not feel comfortable viewing the same screen from the same distance, as someone who has perfect vision
Type of Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). High-end GPUs are capable of displaying very high resolutions, even on common 15" screens

Currently, the largest number of Monitors (both CRT and LCD put together) have the 15" size. For a 15" Monitor, a screen size of 1024 x 768 would suit most users. However, there is no single screen resolution that fits every user, every screen size and every Graphical Processing Unit. Hence, the best way to find out the settings that suit you best, we recommend you experiment with the settings, checking the most likely ones.

Screen Resolution is expressed in Pixels. Each of the dimensions - Length and Breadth - are assigned Pixels. The higher the number of Pixels, the smaller will be the text and image sizes. However, since the size of the displayed text and images are smaller, more text and images can fit into the same screen size. Here are some typical Screen Resolutions:

640 x 480
800 x 600
1024 x 768
1280 x 960

All these are screen resolutions that are found in the older Square screens. Note that the ratio of Breadth to Depth is 4:3 in all the above cases. The Breadth to Depth ratio is called Aspect Ratio

You would also have come across Wide Screen Computers. These have different Aspect Ratios, like 16:9 and 16:10. There are different technologies at play here, with each having a different name, depending on the Aspect Ratio. Here are some of these technologies, along with their Screen Resolutions, Aspect Ratios and expanded names:

PCs: Hardware, Software and Computer Services. And, People who use PCs

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Terminology	Screen Resolution		Aspect Ratio	Technology
WXGA	1280	768	5:3	Wide Extended Graphics Array
	1280	800	16:10
	1366	768	16:9 (approx)
WXGA+	1280	854	3:2 (approx)	Wide Extended Graphics Array Plus
	1440	900	16:10
	1440	960	3:2
WSXGA	1600	900	16:9	Wide Super Extended Graphics Array
WSXGA	1600	1024	16:10	Wide Super Extended Graphics Array
WSXGA+	1680	1050	16:10	Wide Super Extended Graphics Array Plus
WUXGA	1920	1200	16:10	Wide Ultra Extended Graphics Array
WQXGA	2560	1600	16:10	Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array
WQUXGA	3840	2400	16:10	Wide Quad Ultra Extended Graphics Array

Although your Computer may be able to display very high resolutions, the display may prove to be too small for you to view comfortably - and view comfortably for long periods of time.

On the other hand, too small a resolution (meaning, larger size of text) is not recommended either: to view a page, you will need to scroll that much more, be it a web page, Word document, Spreadsheet, whatever...

Here is a link that tracks Browser Resolutions and Screen Color Settings on a yearly basis. It is difficult to capture the screen resolution or color settings used by a Computer user while he/ she is working on, say, a Word processor, but relatively easy to do these while the user is browsing. Moreover, it is unusual for any user to change screen resolution or the color settings for browsing alone. Therefore, these statistics apply very well to to Screen Resolution and Color Settings trends worldwide.

Here is the link that tracks Screen Resolution and Color Settings on a yearly basis:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp

To experiment with your Screen Resolution settings and arrive at the optimal one, follow the steps outlined below:

Right-click anywhere on the vacant space on your Desktop, to get the pop-up menu you see in the screenshot above. Now, left-click on the MenuItem Properties (highlighted in Blue), to get the Display Properties pop-up shown below

You will get to the second screen shown to the left, when you click on the Settings Tab.

Look at the area for Screen Resolution, Setting the Slider closer to the Less side will decrease the screen resolution. My minimum screen resolution is 800 x 600 and my current setting is at 1024 x 768 pixels.

My maximum settings can go up a few more notches - right up to 1400 x 1050 pixels, which is what I usually prefer. However to create these web pages so that they display nicely on screens set up for 1024 x 768, I have reduced my display resolution to the same too.

If you do not like your new resolution, you may either cancel it, or wait for 15 seconds - if you do not press any keys (and do not click your mouse buttons too) during this period, Windows will not change to your newly-chosen resolution! However if you click OK as shown in the first screenshot to the left, all that you have are the choice to apply the new settings and re-start your Computer, or to apply the new resolution and continue, without re-starting your Computer. These options are shown in the second screenshot to the left.

Either way, the next time you start up your Computer, your new settings will get applied.

Once you click the OK button shown at the left though, you will not be able to go back to your original resolution - to do so, you will have to click-drag the slider back to your original settings!

Experiment with all possible screen resolutions - you can check a resolution by clicking on the Apply button at the bottom of the window - in the screenshot, it is grayed out - it will become clickable the moment you change your screen resolution though...