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Free Desktop Wallpapers |
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What Are Screen And Image ResolutionsThe screen you are currently looking at will most likely be either a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). CRT monitors typically have an aspect ratio of 4:3, whereas LCD monitors and laptops will tend to have an aspect ratio of 5:4. The "Resolution" refers to the number of pixels wide by the number of pixels high that your monitor is displaying - eg: 800x600 or perhaps 1024x768. The same principle applies to images which can have any number of pixels wide by height, but for our purposes here we want to find images that match or compliment our monitor resolutions. Many current LCD monitors have a native resolution of 1280 by 1024, whereas wide screen LCD monitors are not standardized yet so they might have any aspect ratio depending on the manufacturer. |
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Some Common Image Resolutions According To Screen Type |
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CRT MonitorsIf your current CRT screen resolution is set to 800x600 or 1024x768 you can in fact use wallpapers at any of the resolutions above in the left hand table, and even larger if you wish, and likewise if you do have your monitor set to 1600x1200 you may also use any of the lower resolutions. A good 800x600 image can appear crisper and sharper in detail than many larger images, the simple reason being that often larger images on the internet are compressed to facilitate faster downloading but with the penalty of loss of detail.
LCD MonitorsIf you are using an LCD monitor, then images with resolutions such as in the left hand table above will tend to be distorted if "stretched" to fit the screen (or leave blank borders at the sides) when used as desktop wallpapers or in full screen projects, so ideally you need to find images with resolutions such as in the right hand table. Here is a simple on-line tool that will inform you of your current screen resolution setting: http://www.whatismyscreenresolution.com/ It is true to say that images using the CRT 4:3 aspect ratio are much easier to find than images designed for LCD and wide-screen monitors, although this situation is constantly changing and many websites now offer a selection of normal and wide-screen images and desktop wallpapers. Meantime, if you have found some "Must Have" images that you wish to use as desktop wallpapers, or in a project, you can resample/crop an image to suit your own display. I will show you how in the sections "HELP - IMAGE TOOLS" and "IMAGE RESAMPLING" A general advice when choosing an image with a selection of resolutions to choose from, is go for the bigger image - as your collection of images grows (and it will) you are more likely to be using higher resolutions in the future than lower resolutions. Going for the bigger images will ensure that your image collection remains relevant with the advent of ever higher screen resolutions. For Dual or Multi monitor displays the wide-screen images are the best ones to use. Perhaps an abstract image can be stretched and still look ok, but when you are displaying people, animals, or landscapes they will tend to look distorted. There are several websites dedicated to ultra-wide and multi monitor images - you can check out our own here at ScreenScapes.com Enough to say we have tried multi monitors and there is no way we are going back to using just one. But we digress - a "Cool Image" wakes people up, they take notice, and as we all know a picture is worth a thousand words, but a real Cool Pic is worth a million. |
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