Screen-Resolution Ads Even More Misleading

In “Computer Firms Feeling the Heat on Monitor Size” (Aug. 29), you complain about the misleading dimensions of monitor screens attached to computers. The complaint should be extended to the even more misleading statements about screen resolution.

The monitor manufacturers do include specification sheets in their brochures and manuals. These spec sheets tell all about the actual dimensions of the viewable screen, the spacing of the colored spots on color screens and brag about the wonderful resolution you can expect.

With monochrome monitors, these resolution claims could be believable. But with color monitors, where each screen pixel is made up of three colored spots (red, green and blue), there is a minimum spacing between the spots (specified in millimeters). If you take the dimensions of the viewable screen and divide them by the spot spacing, you get the maximum number of spots that the screen can display. Nevertheless, the resolution claimed (typically 1,024 x 768) is much greater than the number of spots the screen is capable of displaying.

When I called the monitor manufacturers about this, at least one of them claimed they got the resolution by using a technique called “pixel sharing.” Pixel sharing is merely a euphemism for saying “we really can’t do it.” What it really means is that more than one picture pixel is displayed on the same spot on the screen. Thus the resolution they claim is false.

DAVID FEIGN

Santa Ana