Resolution Resolved
What is it?
Screen Resolution represents the size of your digital desktop or workspace. A pixel is the smallest controllable unit of measurement available to any monitor, whether it uses the newer Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or the older Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technologies.
There are standardized resolution sizes from as low as 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall (usually referred to as 800 x 600) seen on 15" and 17" monitors up to 1600 x 1200 on huge 22" or 24" monitors.
That the 800 x 600 resolution is now the most popular is due in large part to Windows 98; this is when the Microsoft engineers began using it as Window's default resolution. But this doesn't necessarily mean it is the best resolution for you; as always, we have some fairly strong opinions on the matter.
(Editor's note: Since this article was first published in 2003, the two most popular screen resolutions are now 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768; this is due, in large part, to lower prices on LCD monitors. A 15" LCD monitor's native resolution is 1024 x 768
We should also note when measuring available screen real estate, there just more with an LCD than a CRT. Why? Because LCDs show you everything; CRT's are measure by the size of the cathode ray tube, but some space is lost behind the bezel that holds it in place.)
Why it matters:
Larger resolutions are, in our opinion, just plain better. Larger resolutions give you more screen real estate to play with—more room to work, more room for simultaneously opening windows from a variety of programs, more room to see web pages with less scrolling. Larger resolutions, combined with the appropriate color resolution (see below) make your computing experience smoother by using your computer's resources more efficiently.
The first thing you'll notice is everything on your screen appears smaller. This is the part that makes most users change back to their older, smaller resolutions—they're more comfortable with larger fonts and icons, not realizing these are almost infinitely customizable.
The thing that you should notice is your work area: it's a lot bigger. Larger resolutions might make some things look smaller, but it's not all bad.
In our illustrations to the left, look at the Windows taskbar along the bottom of the screen at the 640 x 480 resolution and compare it with the 1280 x 1024 resolution; you could fit four 640 x 480 screens inside one 1280 x 1024 screen.
Color Resolution? There's a Color Resolution, too?
Color resolution is just as important, though harder to detect. The computers we use in our homes and offices are capable of showing us millions and millions of colors. Sadly, the office suites and other productivity software we use require quite a bit less.
NextTech Magazine recommends setting your color resolution at 16-bit, which still gives you thousands of colors and uses much less of your systems resources, freeing them up for you and your work.
In order to see the difference between a 16-bit ands the much higher 32-bit setting, you would have to be a graphics professional—the rest of us won't even notice a change.
The beauty of these settings is what computer professionals call—set it and forget it—you do it once and never have to think about it again—now that's our type of computing.
Updated: November 18, 2005