Desktopro :: FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

Whats With All This CRT, LCD, and Widescreen Stuff - What Does It Mean?

Isn't It A Waste Of Time Displaying Large Resolution Wallpapers On Lower Resolution Monitors ?

Do Laptops Support Dual Monitors ?

Are You Downloading Distorted Desktop Wallpapers ?

My Laptop Screen Is 1680x1050, Does That Mean I Can Only Use Wallpapers At That Resolution ?

My Monitor Screen Is Permanently Set At 800x600, Does That Mean I Can Only Use Wallpapers At That Resolution ?

What Are The Most Popular Screen Resolutions ?

What Are These "Animated Gif" Desktop Wallpapers That I Am Seeing ?

Why Are My Desktop Wallpapers Displaying Jagged Lines ?

Whats With All This CRT, LCD, and Widescreen Stuff - What Does It Mean?

Answer:

Whichever screen you are using at the moment to view this page (apart from mobile phones) you are definitely using one of the following monitors:

To find desktop wallpapers on Desktopro that are the optimum resolution for your screen simply select the "Category" for your type of monitor, or multi-monitor display setup, so you will not be wasting your time browsing desktop wallpapers that do not fit your screen/monitor.

All the desktop wallpapers offered in each "Category" represent the largest and best quality desktop wallpapers that we have created or that we can find on the internet. Our larger desktop wallpaper resolutions will provide excellent displays even on smaller screen resolutions.

Isn't It A Waste Of Time Displaying Large Resolution Wallpapers On Lower Resolution Monitors?

Answer:

While there may not be a huge advantage in using a 1600x1200 desktop wallpaper on a monitor which is set to display only 800x600 (your monitor will "drop" all excess image pixels) the end result will certainly NOT be worse, and the fact remains that you are definitely most likely to upgrade your current monitor, and the newer monitor will almost definitely offer higher resolutions - so if you have been creating a personal desktop wallpaper collection over the years based on 800x600 resolutions, and you upgrade your monitor to 1024x768 you now have a problem - all those 800x600 desktop wallpapers CERTAINLY WILL LOOK WORSE on your new monitor (your monitor is now missing image pixels). Are you now going to go around the internet looking for your favorite desktop wallpapers all over again? Screen resolutions continue to increase, and we have no reason to believe that screen resolutions will reduce in the future.

This is why we recommend getting the best/highest resolution quality available while you can and this applies to all screens and monitors - it will save you frustration and headaches in the (not so distant) future.

Do Laptops Support Dual Monitors?

Answer:

YES, and they have done for many years. Check at the back or along the sides of your laptop and you will most probably find a standard monitor connector for most standard CRT and LCD monitors where you can connect another monitor while continuing to use your laptop monitor at the same time. If you happen to have an old monitor laying around, or have spotted one at a garage sale, or perhaps even consider buying a new monitor, then yes, you can connect it unless you have a really old laptop. Go for it - it works really well.

So what can you do with two monitors? Well, imagine this... how about surfing internet on one monitor while working with Office Word on the other! How about watching a video on one monitor while chatting in messenger on the other! Less clicking around maximizing and minimizing windows makes for a much more relaxed and natural use of a computer. No wonder most people say that after using 2 monitors that they will never again use just one.

While Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 manage the 2 monitors well, there is a small utility software called Ultramon that makes using 2 monitors an absolute pleasure (for Win XP and Vista). With just one click send your open applications or web page to any monitor and send another application, web page, or whatever to the other monitor. Ultramon has a whole load of other features included also - and Ultramon remembers your choices! Ultramon is not free, but it is not too expensive either, and after using it for the 30 days free trial period you most probably will never want to part with it. Don't just take our word for it - Check out Ultramon here

We are not affiliated with Ultramon in any way, shape, or form - We just happen to like their product!

Are You Downloading Distorted Desktop Wallpapers?

Answer:

Many desktop wallpapers are created by the original artist in just one size, eg: for standard CRT monitors. Since the advent of widescreen LCD monitors and laptops many websites now try to cater for those newer screen resolutions and aspect ratios. They do this by "stretching" the original image to fit the newer sizes of 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050 and 1920x1200. This of course distorts the original image... circles become ovals and squares become rectangles, people and objects become fatter. Some even do it the other way around... when the only original image they have is a widescreen image they "compress" the original widescreen format to fit the standard 4:3 aspect ratio - once again you get a distorted image, oval circles, rectangles instead of squares, and thinner people and objects.

To produce "true" widescreen formats from standard 4:3 formats and vice versa requires resizing/resampling an image while "maintaining correct proportions" and then by cropping excess (more so in the case of widescreens). Perhaps with certain desktop wallpapers the distortion might not be so obvious or important, perhaps certain wallpaper websites do not know or care, however, do bear in mind that your desktop wallpaper collection may consist of stretched distorted versions of 1024x768 originals.

Here at DESKTOPRO we correctly "Resample" our images using the Lanczos Filter method (most accurate but slowest method) and/or "Crop" images to cater for the different screen resolutions. Except for simple abstract wallpapers which have no real defined shapes, we do not simply stretch them to make them fit, and we do all our work by hand and eye - no batch processing software. You can easily check this out both with us and other wallpaper websites - download one standard 4:3 ratio wallpaper and the same widescreen 5:4 ratio wallpaper, and flip between each image on your computer image viewer- if it's stretched and distorted, you will clearly see the difference.

PS: If we find a desktop wallpaper that is distorted, or incorrect/low quality it will be deleted, or if we have stretched an "abstract image", we will mention the fact - but of course you are still free to use it if you like it.

Lanczos Resampling Filter --- Resampling Filter Comparison

My Laptop Screen Is 1680x1050, Does That Mean I Can Only Use Wallpapers At That Resolution?

Answer:

As with other similar questions regarding resolutions, a desktop wallpaper at 1680x1050 would ideally match your laptop screen resolution pixel for pixel, and should give optimum results, but a lot also depends on the quality of the image and whether it has been down-sized or up-sized from another previous resolution. Some smaller resolution images at 1280x800 (same aspect ratio) can certainly be crisper and clearer than larger resolution images - it simply depends on the quality of the image. We would suggest that you generally aim for the higher resolution images, you can certainly use 2560x1600, 1920x1200 desktop wallpapers on your laptop and any of the other widescreen resolutions such as 1600x1000, 1440x900 or 1280x800... however, where there is a choice get the largest resolution - this will serve you good for the future.

My Monitor Screen Is Permanently Set At 800x600, Does That Mean I Can Only Use Wallpapers At That Resolution?

Answer:

You can use any CRT desktop wallpaper resolution that you like. In an ideal world a desktop wallpaper at 800x600 would match your monitor resolution pixel for pixel, and should give optimum results, but a lot also depends on the quality of the image and whether it has been down-sized or up-sized from another previous resolution. Some images at 800x600 can certainly be crisper and clearer than larger resolution images - it simply depends on the quality of the image. We would suggest that you generally aim for the higher resolution images. You can certainly use 1600x1200 desktop wallpapers on your monitor and any of the other resolutions such as 1280x960, 1200x900, or 1152x864, and 1024x768 - however, where there is a choice get the largest resolution - this will serve you good for the future.

What Are The Most Popular Screen Resolutions?

Answer:

According to website visitor tracking programs such as ExtremeTracking, and StatCounter, the most popular screen resolutions with approx. 44% of users are standard CRT monitors set at a resolution of 1024x768 with color set at 32 bits.

32% of users are using standard LCD monitors set at a resolution of 1280x1024.

12% of users are still using standard CRT monitors set at a resolution of 800x600.

Widescreen resolutions such as 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 are still amongst a very small percentage of users - around 4%.

What Are These "Animated Gif" And Clock Desktop Wallpapers That I Am Seeing?

Answer:

Unfortunately the term "Animated Desktop Wallpapers / Screensavers" has come to be associated with those nasty and highly repetitive images (usually badly designed fish or dolphins doing nothing useful), however desktop wallpapers or, desktop backgrounds, do not need to be static. We can, for example through the careful use of animated GIFs incorporate "subtle" effects that "change, or morph" over time. We can also use Flash based objects embedded in HTML files for use with Windows Active Desktop on Win 98, 2000, ME, and XP, or Dreamscapes for use with Win Vista and Win 7. So as not to be too repetitive or annoying, longer time frames and subtle effects are preferable. These effects, when used creatively can produce some interesting effects, and in the case of clocks, calenders, etc. useful desktop wallpapers.

Why Are My Desktop Wallpapers Displaying Jagged Lines?

Answer:

Yes, we have noticed this issue also, and it seems especially apparent on flat panel LCD monitors. Please try this test first:

Open the wallpaper which has issues with the standard Windows, or Mac, "Image Viewer/Presentation" utility and look at the image in full screen mode. Does it now look correct?

When we open images in the Windows Image Viewer/Presentation utility all our desktop wallpapers looks crisp and clean - no jagged edges at all. Now if we set the same desktop wallpapers as our desktop backgrounds the jagged lines are there. This is especially notable with hard edged images such as cars, 3D abstract images etc. but less so with natural images such as landscapes, people, etc.

So what is happening?

Usually you will have selected "Stretch" in your desktop properties menu, and what this does is increase the resolution of smaller images to fit your screen or reduce larger images to fit your screen, however, although the desktop background is also "full screen" it just doesn't seem to do as good a job as your normal Windows Image Viewer/Presentation utility.

Provided you are using desktop wallpapers with the correct "Aspect Ratio" for your monitor then we know that our desktop wallpapers here at Desktopro, will meet, or surpass in quality most available screen resolutions.

CRT monitors are mostly free from such problems, however we doubt anyone will be wanting to return to CRT monitors if they are already using LCD monitors. For us, our monitors are a Compaq 19" LCD Widescreen set at 1440x900 and a HP 17" CRT monitor set at 1024x768 which are used for testing and development, the problem of the jagged edge is certainly annoying when we know our desktop wallpapers do display perfectly both on our website and with the Windows Image Viewer, yet they do not display so cleanly when we set them as desktop wallpapers. The problem seems to be universal also, no matter where or from whom we download a desktop wallpaper and set it as a desktop background, the jaggies are there.

The immediate cure is to download desktop wallpapers that are exactly the same resolution/aspect ratio as your monitor, however, since it is pretty much impossible for us to provide all possible desktop wallpaper resolutions for all existing monitors your choice of desktop wallpapers will be severely limited.

What we are left with is a Windows issue, and/or a monitor issue. The quality of your LCD screen might have something to do with this, as will the graphic display drivers that your operating system is using. Since we currently have 5 computers here running a combination of Windows XP and Windows 7 on a variety of platforms and monitors we can state the following based on our own experience:

1 - Windows 7 provides for higher quality graphics, and therefore desktop backgrounds, than Windows XP.

2 - Our HP and Dell All In One Desktops have superior graphics displays than our current Compaq 19" widescreen test display monitor - Monitor quality certainly plays a role, although HP and Dell might not necesarily provide the best quality, they are certainly better than some others.

3 - CRT monitors (with regards to display) continue to provide superior graphics displays over LCD monitors.

4 - Next time you wish to buy a new monitor, take your USB with you armed with a selection of different desktop wallpapers (low and high resolution) and videos (same rules apply) and check out the quality of display based on some of the points we have discussed here. You will be surprised at the variation in quality!

5 - While that new monitor you have your sights set on might look cool, at the end of the day it will not be the monitor that you will be spending months and years looking at - it will be the monitor's display - get this part right and you will definitely enjoy your investment!