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Resolution for LCD monitors

wildernessbob

wildernessbob

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2006
89
7
Pender Island, BC, Canada
Hello all knowing peoples,
I need to buy an LCD monitor, but i'm a bit confused about the whole resolution situ. i'm looking at 22" monitors with resolutions of 1680x1050 but as far as i can tell my powerbook g4 1.67 GHz has a max resolution of 1440x960. is this going to be a problem?
also, what's the diff between 16:10 and 16:9 aspect ratio. i read somewhere that some monitors will squeeze an image in to fit the aspect ratio. with CAD I can't afford to have any image distortion.
thyanks,
wb
 
22" monitors should definitely have no lower then full HD (1920 x 1080) or else it will look ugly to the vast majority of people. Also, it doesn't matter what (within reason) you plug in, you can have a 30" ACD with it's huge resolution connected to a 1440x900 laptop and OSX will configure the second display to use its native resolution. Nothing to worry about :)
 
Your Mac can use an external display in one of two ways: mirroring and spanning. Mirroring means that the two displays show the same thing. This will be limited to the highest commonly possible resolution, and it may result in a distorted picture on one or both displays.

Spanning means that each display is independent and shows something different. Both displays are free to display at native resolution, and as long as you pick an appropriate resolution, there is no distortion on almost any display.

Basically, you want to use Spanning. You can purchase a display that uses whatever resolution you want, and then you will get that resolution on the external display and continue to get 1440x960 on the internal display. Neither display will be distorted.

Does that make sense?
 
wildernessbob said:
Aea said:
22" monitors should definitely have no lower then full HD (1920 x 1080)
Click to expand...
I have yet to find any monitor under 26" to have a resolution higher than 1680x1050. where can i find a 22" with higher resolution? brand name? model?
wb
Click to expand...
You won't find any 22" monitors with more than 1680x1050, but there are 24" monitors with 1920x1200 resolution - for instance the Dell 2407WFP
 
plinden said:
You won't find any 22" monitors with more than 1680x1050, but there are 24" monitors with 1920x1200 resolution - for instance the Dell 2407WFP
Click to expand...


Hmm, you're right. You are right, but 1680 x 1050 seems really small for a 22" screen to me. Guess you have to see it in person.
 
wildernessbob said:
how is it that 20" and 22" monitors can have the same resolution?
wb
Click to expand...

Lower density of the pixels (aka DPI).

So a 22" monitor will have a lower DPI than a 20" monitor of the same resolution. If you are doing graphics work across multiple machines or monitors, getting displays with similar DPI or dot pitch values will help make sure that 1" on one display, is 1" on another.

I wouldn't worry about distortion/stretching as long as you use the native resolution of the panel.
 
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