I've just read this article and I want to ask about the following: "Since color CRTs use discrete phosphor dots or stripes instead of a continuous coating like monochrome CRTs, their resolution varies, based on how close together the dots or stripes are. So color monitor manufacturers sometimes quote a specification called dot pitch or stripe pitch in the marketing brochures. Dot or stripe pitch is simply the distance between each dot or stripe. The smaller the distance, the smaller the dots--hence, better vertical and horizontal resolution." This comes close to answering a question that I have been pondering for a while now, but it doesn't quite get there. My question is: If I have a colour monitor with a physical resolution (i.e. number of colour dots) of 1600x1200, I can easily display an image with a resolution of 800x600 because I just use a 2x2 grid of dots to represent each pixel. However, what can I do if I want to display an image with a resolution of 1280x960 or 1152x864? Do monitors apply their own resizing algorithms for each frame? If so, surely this means that I am only seeing a loose representation of what the screen should be displaying. Also, what do TFT screens do? They are limited in the same way, so how do they display resolutions which are not direct divisions of their physical resolutions? I really need to know the answer to this, because it's bugging me so much.
all i can tell you is that a monitor always looks best in its native resolution and you really shouldn't run it in anything but that. if you're monitor is capable of 1600x1200, then run it at 1600x1200, not anything less.
Yeah, that would make sense, because the precise 1:3 pixel to phosphor dot ratio would make a perfectly clear image, but I want to know what the screen does when it's a 1:4 or 1:5 ratio, for example. If the screen uses some sort of algorithm to 'shimmer' the image, then surely screens should also be able to display resolutions higher than their native resolution, and they shouldn't display the "out of range" message until the ratio becomes 1:12.
