Image Scaling

Submitted by skipclarke on 28 August, 2008 - 17:33

Article Type: 
FAQ
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These terms deal with how an image is display on the actual computer display. Scaling can be handled by either the video card, or the display itself (when dealing with external monitors)

Scaling

This stretches any given image across the full screen, regardless of aspect ratio. This will cause 4:3 images to stretch and appear distorted.


Aspect Scaling

This type of stretching is often used when playing a non-widescreen game on a widescreen monitor. This stretches the game image to fill the vertical resolution of the display, while maintaining the 4:3 aspect ratio. This will produce a "pillarbox" effect (e.g., black bars down the left and right side).


1:1

This option offers no real scaling. It simply uses the smaller number of pixels, and centers them on the display. Thus, a 1680x1050 image scaled 1:1 on a 1920x1200 panel would produce "black bars" on all four sides of the image.