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Is a pixel a square or rectangle on an LCD screen?
I have an LCD screen, set to the native resolution of 1024 X 768. I was editing a photo in Photoshop that was 150×150 pixels wide. I noticed it looked rectangular on the screen. Checking this with a ruler confirmed that it was. (However, when printed on a laser printer, it printed as a square.)
Using the help feature with Windows 98, I was able to find out how to "calibrate my display to actual dimensions" in the Display –> Settings –> Advanced tab by making the ruler under the Font Size window exactly match the dimensions of a ruler. The 150×150 image now looks square on the computer screen.
This got me thinking about other programs, and, indeed, before I made the adjustment, a circle looked elliptical in Word Perfect and Word, but the printed images were circular.
I can see where this "distortion" is probably more of a problem in illustrating programs, but since I use Photoshop for some image work (making buttons and similar items), I’m now a bit perplexed.
This said, I’m not sure what questions to really ask, but I am interested in knowing what other users have done to either solve or just cope with the problem. Since different monitors have different resolutions AND the vertical/horizontal ratios do vary–usually between .75 and .8–I must not be the only person to have encountered this issue.
I have an LCD screen, set to the native resolution of 1024 X 768. I was editing a photo in Photoshop that was 150×150 pixels wide. I noticed it looked rectangular on the screen. Checking this with a ruler confirmed that it was. (However, when printed on a laser printer, it printed as a square.)
Using the help feature with Windows 98, I was able to find out how to "calibrate my display to actual dimensions" in the Display –> Settings –> Advanced tab by making the ruler under the Font Size window exactly match the dimensions of a ruler. The 150×150 image now looks square on the computer screen.
This got me thinking about other programs, and, indeed, before I made the adjustment, a circle looked elliptical in Word Perfect and Word, but the printed images were circular.
I can see where this "distortion" is probably more of a problem in illustrating programs, but since I use Photoshop for some image work (making buttons and similar items), I’m now a bit perplexed.
This said, I’m not sure what questions to really ask, but I am interested in knowing what other users have done to either solve or just cope with the problem. Since different monitors have different resolutions AND the vertical/horizontal ratios do vary–usually between .75 and .8–I must not be the only person to have encountered this issue.
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