|
Screen
Resolution - Then and Now
In 1982, the IBM Personal Computer
was introduced and the PC industry identified various screen
resolutions by the name of the IBM or equivalent display adapter
having the corresponding maximum resolution. In other words,
a user whose machine was equipped with an Enhanced Graphics
Adapter (EGA) only had to look for monitors labeled as "EGA
Compatible". As technology improved on display resolution
as well as compute speed, higher resolutions appeared and
therefore the need for additional acronyms emerged. Many of
the current acronyms build upon each other. For example:
QSXGA = "Quad SXGA", where "SXGA" = "Super
XGA", and where "XGA" = "Extended Graphics
Array.
The following
tables are broken up by screen aspect ratio and should shed
more light on display resolutions. For each display mode the
width and height in pixels, the total number of pixels, and
the name from which the acronym was derived is given. The
"H/V" ratio gives the ratio of the image width to height in
pixels, as a fraction if exact, otherwise to two decimal places.
(Some are currently being used while others are anticipated
as being used for forthcoming higher-resolution products*).
4×3 Screen
Aspect Ratio
When adjusted to fill a screen with 4/3 width to height ratio,
only those display modes with an H/V Ratio of precisely 4/3
will have "square pixels". If the pixel size ratio differs from
the physical screen size ratio, the number of pixels per unit
of length will differ in the vertical and horizontal dimensions,
and circles drawn with a uniform radius in pixels will appear
as ellipses on the screen. To avoid this distortion, graphics
software must differentially scale images to compensate for
the disparity between pixel and physical screen size ratios.
| Acronym
| Name
| Width
× Height
| Total
Pixels
| H/V
Ratio
|
| CGA
| Color
Graphics Adapter
| 320×200
| 64,000
| 16/10
|
| EGA
| Enhanced
Graphics Adapter
| 640×350
| 224,000
| 1.83
|
| VGA
| Video
Graphics Array
| 640×480
| 307,200
| 4/3
|
| SVGA
| Super
VGA
| 800×600
| 480,000
| 4/3
|
| XGA
| Extended
Graphics Array
| 1024×768
| 786,432
| 4/3
|
| SXGA
| Super
Extended Graphics Array
| 1280×1024
| 1,310,720
| 5/4
|
| SXGA+
| Super
Extended Graphics Array +
| 1400×1050
| 1,470,000
| 4/3
|
| UXGA
| Ultra
Extended Graphics Array
| 1600×1200
| 1,920,000
| 4/3
|
| QXGA*
| Quad
Extended Graphics Array
| 2048×1536
| 3,145,728
| 4/3
|
| QSXGA*
| Quad
Super Extended Graphics Array
| 2560×2048
| 5,242,880
| 5/4
|
| QUXGA*
| Quad
Ultra Extended Graphics Array
| 3200×2400
| 7,680,000
| 4/3
|
| HSXGA*
| Hex
Super Extended Graphics Array
| 5120×4096
| 20,971,520
| 5/4
|
| HUXGA*
| Hex
Ultra Extended Graphics Array
| 6400×4800
| 30,720,000
| 4/3
|
The resolutions
are emerging as nomenclature for high-resolution displays.
"Quad" refers to a mode with four times as many pixels (hence
twice the vertical and horizontal size in pixels) as a previous
mode, while "Hex" denotes a display with 16 times the pixels
(four times the vertical and horizontal pixels).
16×9
or 16×10 for HDTV-Style Wide Screen Displays
Most of the Wide Screen Display modes have a pixel width to
height ratio of 16 to 10. The reason being that the pixel
array dimensions produced are easier to cope with in computer
hardware and software. One side note, the WXGA mode, with
a dimension of 1366×768 pixels, is within one pixel of 16
by 9 ratio.
| Acronym
| Name
| Width
× Height
| Total
Pixels
| H/V
Ratio
|
| WVGA
| Wide
Video Graphics Array
| 852×480
or 858×484
| 408,960
or 415,272
| 16/9
|
| WXGA
| Wide
Extended Graphics Array
| 1366×768
| 1,049,088
| 16/9
|
| WSXGA
| Wide
Super Extended Graphics Array
| 1600×1024
| 1,638,400
| 1.56
|
| WSXGA+
| Wide
Super Extended Graphics Array +
| 1680×1050
| 1,764,000
| 16/10
|
| WUXGA
| Wide
Ultra Extended Graphics Array
| 1920×1200
| 2,304,000
| 16/10
|
| WQSXGA
| Wide
Quad Super Extended Graphics Array
| 3200×2048
| 6,553,600
| 1.56
|
| WQUXGA
| Wide
Quad Ultra Extended Graphics Array
| 3840×2400
| 9,216,000
| 16/10
|
| WHSXGA
| Wide
Hex Super Extended Graphics Array
| 6400×4096
| 26,214,400
| 1.56
|
| WHUXGA
| Wide
Hex Ultra Extended Graphics Array
| 7680×4800
| 36,864,000
| 16/10
|
"Quad"
and "Hex" denote higher resolution multiples of the base wide
screen modes, as for the 4 by 3 modes.
One interesting
fact: CGA (Color Graphics Adapter) actually has a pixel
ratio of 16/10, just like the new wide-screen HDTV displays.
But, If you blow up a CGA image to fill a large screen HDTV
monitor, the pixels will be square and about the size of a thumb. |
