>>For those who are new to computing, a quick primer on Screen Resolution from our resident curmugeon - Tim (Your turn).<<
The nutshell version of the Video Resolution Primer goes something like this...
Kinda like pictures in a newspaper, the images you see on your screen are made up lots of little tiny dots called 'pixels'. The color each dot or pixel displays is controlled by your video monitor. The number of dots the monitor is told to display is controlled by the computer's video adapter card. Both monitor and video card have limits on the fewest and greatest number of dots each can work with and these two pieces of hardware are the biggest factors in determining the level of quality you can achieve on your screen.
Video resolution (aka 'rez) is described in terms of the number of dots displayed in a single horizontal line and a single vertical line. So when someone says their resolution is 640x480 that means their monitor is displaying a total of 307,200. (640 times 480 = 307,200).
The industry has some relative standards and the most common resolutions are 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 and higher are generally used for fine detail work such as CAD (Computer Aided Drawing).
The size of the video screen does not change. Thus a higher video resolution means more dots are packed into the same area.
Roughly this means two things:
1) a given image is made up of more dots at a higher resolution - this is akin to a photo with a higher grain - thus permitting more detail. At a higher resolution there are more pixels in the same space therefore they are packed closer together. Fewer pixels (lower rez) means more unlit (uncolored) space between each. Because lower rez video has the dots further apart, icons appear larger at lower rez than higher rez.
2) More dots per image means more different colors can be used to create the image at a higher resolution than at a lower resolution. Therefore the higher resolution can yield an image with more different hues - this amounts to more opportunites to reflect subtle shadings and color variation within the image.
Thus the images created under a 1024x768 resolution (786,432 dots) tend to be sharper, more detailed, and colorful than a resolution such as 680x480 (307,200 dots). This may account for the phenomenon John describes.
By increasing both your resolution and the size of your monitor you can get more images or individual windows showing on the screen at the same time. Hence we see 17" 19" and 20"+ monitors growing in popularity.
The overall number of colors (different shades of red green and blue) is governed by the number of bits available to designate an individual color. More bits means more possible combinations of red, green and blue. This capability is a function of your video card and generally the more memory it on your video card, the more colors it can offer. (This has nothing to do with the amount of memory used by your computer to run its programs).
On a side note: the web browser built into the AOL program is basically the same thing as Internet Explorer 4 and AOL has a licensing arrangement with Microsoft. (How AOL came to chose MS over Netscape, with whom they originally had a deal, is one of the issues raised in the current DOJ proceedings against Schloss Redmond)
We've covered more than just video resolution alone but there is still much more information we can get into by way of explaining why one computer's video "looks better" than another's. (As with many things, better quality video tends to cost more money.)
Fear Not - if you've read this far you'll not read much further.
From deep within the Fog Signal Building,
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/im ['can you go over that "nutshell" part again?' :-) ]
