The resolutions built into Windows were limited, so if you did not have the driver for your video card, you would be stuck with the lower-resolution screen that Windows provided. The choices available were determined by the capability of the video card, and they differed from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Since the beginning, the resolution has been described (accurately or not) by the number of pixels arranged horizontally and vertically on a monitor. In this article, we are using the term as it is commonly understood, rather than the absolutely technologically correct usage. 'Resolution' is technically the number of pixels per unit of area, rather than the total number of pixels.

That is covered by another metric, called PPI (Pixels Per Inch). That says nothing about how densely the pixels are clustered. The term 'resolution' is not correct when it is used to refer to the number of pixels on a screen. Let's look at what today's terminology is, and what it means: The screen is what by what? However, this also means that there are a lot more options to choose from, with something to suit almost everyone's preferences. With the advent of high definition video and the increased popularity of the 16:9 aspect ratio (we explain aspect ratios in a bit), selecting a screen resolution is not the simple affair it once was. What an image rendered on a CGA display looked like For the sake of nostalgia, here is a look at how things looked on a once well-known CGA display. Regardless of the capability of your monitor, you would still have to choose from one of the few options available through your graphics card's drivers. CGA was first, followed by EGA and VGA - color graphics adapter, enhanced graphics adapter, video graphics array. The color graphics technology was first developed by IBM.

Do you have any other questions about screen resolutions?.

How does the size of the screen affect resolution?.

Is there a relation between aspect ratio and display orientation?.

Can you see high-resolution videos on lower resolution screens?.

The problem with 2K is that it does not exist for consumer devices.

Mind your P's, and I's about screen resolutions.

Resolution for picture sizes