Computer display standard

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Display standards comparison. Sizes are colored in blue, red, yellow, green, and purple to represent aspect ratio

Various computer display standards or display modes have been used in the history of the personal computer. They are often a combination of display resolution (specified as the width and height in pixels), color depth (measured in bits), and refresh rate (expressed in hertz). Associated with the screen resolution and refresh rate is a display adapter. Earlier display adapters were simple frame-buffers, but later display standards also specified a more extensive set of display functions and software controlled interface.

Until about 2003, most computer monitors had a 4:3 aspect ratio and some had 5:4. Between 2003 and 2006, monitors with 16:10 aspect ratios have become commonly available, first in laptops and later also in standalone monitors. Productive uses for such monitors, i.e. besides widescreen movie viewing and computer game play, are the word-processor display of two standard letter pages side by side, as well as CAD displays of large-size drawings and CAD application menus at the same time. The VESA industry organization has defined several standards related to power management and device identification. Ergonomics standards are set by the TCO.

[edit] Standards

A number of common resolutions have been used with computers descended from the original IBM PC. Some of these are now supported by other families of personal computers. These are de-facto standards, usually originated by one manufacturer and reverse-engineered by others, though the VESA group has co-ordinated the efforts of several leading video display adapter manufacturers. Video standards associated with IBM-PC-descended personal computers include:

[edit] Display resolution prefixes

Although the common standard prefixes super and ultra do not indicate specific modifiers to base standard resolutions, several others do:

Quarter (Q)

A quarter of the base resolution. E.g. QVGA, a term for a 320×240 resolution, half the width and height of VGA, hence the quarter total resolution. This prefix is usually for "Quad" in higher resolutions.

Wide (W)

The base resolution increased, and not lowered, for square or near-square pixels on a widescreen display, usually with an aspect ratio of either 16:9 or 16:10.

Quad(ruple) (Q)

Four times as many pixels compared to the base resolution, i.e. twice the horizontal and vertical resolution respectively.

Hex(adecatuple) (H)

Sixteen times as many pixels compared to the base resolution, i.e. four times the horizontal and vertical resolutions respectively.

Ultra (U)

eXtended (X)

These prefixes are also often combined, as in WQXGA or WHUXGA.

[edit] Other resolutions

There are also some other 4:3 ratio resolutions such as 1400x1050 SXGA+ and unnamed ones like 1152x864 (sometimes referred to as XGA+).

[edit] See also

• Visual display unit
• Display resolution
• List of common resolutions
• List of display interfaces

[edit] External links

• Calculate and compare display sizes, resolutions, and source material
• Display the resolution and color bit depth of your current monitor
• Calculate screen dimensions according to format and diagonal
• An interactive guide to the computer display standards

v • d • e Computer display standards Video hardware MDA · HGC · CGA · PGC · EGA · VGA · MCGA · 8514 · XGA Size comparison Display resolutions QQVGA · HQVGA · QVGA · HVGA · VGA · FWVGA · SVGA · XGA · XGA+ · SXGA · SXGA+ · UXGA · QXGA · QSXGA · QUXGA · HXGA · HSXGA · HUXGA Widescreen variants WQVGA · WVGA · WSVGA · WXGA · WSXGA/WXGA+ · WSXGA+ · WUXGA · WQXGA · WQSXGA · WQUXGA · WHXGA · WHSXGA · WHUXGA

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.