Christine said:
I have always used a 19" monitor and my daughter just bought me a 22" wide
flat screen monitor. My question is: what is the best resolution for this
size. When I go to MSN.com there is so much space on both sides of the
screen and all the information is in the center. Any and all help is
greatly
appreicated.
There is no "best resolution for this size". There may be a "best" for your
situation.
Using the native resolution gives the sharpest image because there is no
interpolation between resolution sent by video card and resolution of the
screen. Your old analog monitor had to interpolate no matter what
resolution you chose, and you could probably expand or shrink the display
area with controls on the front of the monitor. I imagine that you set the
resolution to a value that you were most comfortable with, not necessarily
the highest resolution available for the old monitor. That is the
definition of "best" you should use with your new monitor.
For some video card/screen combinations, like my 5-year old Sony laptop, if
I choose a lower resolution than the screens native resolution, it just uses
a smaller space in the center of the screen for the display. Other laptops
I've used will use the full size of the screen, making everything bigger but
a little fuzzy due to the interpolation. Your new monitor may stretch the
image to make it fill the screen, causing distortion when you choose
resolutions that don't match the wide screen height to width ratio.
I would advise trying different resolutions to see what is the most
comfortable (least stressful) for you. There are utilities that sit in the
tray that require just two or three clicks to choose and change resolution.
Maybe you will have a different best resolution for different tasks.
-Paul Randall