Design images for your display's resolution and aspect ratio

[mjstrand]

When making image designs, it is best to design it for the highest resolution screen. Also remember the screen's aspect ratio. Traditional televisions and older computer screens have a 4:3 aspect ratio (the ratio of the width to the height) while LCD and plasma displays and some computer and laptop displays use a wider, more movie screen-like 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio. This affects all of your designs and means that you should not mix traditional and wide screen digital signs on the same network if possible.

Some digital signage software systems (like StrandVision) allow the image to be handled in different ways. You can allow it to fit the height and width of the display region and keep the scale. That will shrink it with a border on the left/right side or the top/bottom depending on how it best fits. You can stretch the image to fit the screen real estate (which does not keep the image's proportion). You can also clip the image and keep the aspect ratio. That is usually the best option to design for. Design your image for a 4:3 aspect screen that looks equally as good with the top and bottom portion of the screen chopped off.