Crazy Question

[Kaye]

Help. I just purchased my first LCD monitor. It is a widescreen. Yea, I'm a computer dummy. All my pics are fat. Can that be fixed? I read the book and the cd that came with it and just can't figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[B..]

You need to consider two things about your monitor.

(1) The resolution. How many pixels across and up/down.
(2) The aspect ratio. If it's a widescreen LCD than your aspect ratio is quite likely "wider" than you are accustomed to.

I'm on a Mac, and if I go to my settings and look at all the available resolutions, some of them are notated "stretched". That means my stuff will look fatter. On my DH's Windows machine, his available resolutions aren't notated. So he just would need to experiment with various resolutions to find one that isn't "stretched".

If that isn't enough help to get you to a better looking screen resolution, then let us know exactly what hardware you're working with and maybe someone will have a better answer.

[Kaye]

The new monitor is a Acer, 22 inch widescreen. The box says 1680 x 1050. And 2500:1... I was able to find the resolution and the pics aren't as fat now. But i'm still not that happy with the color/sharpness of my photos on it. I don't mind spending a little more money to get better quality, but I'm just not sure what I should be looking for. Any advise would be helpful. Also thinking about purchasing a laptop and would appreciate any advise on that also.

The graphic/photographs quality are the most important to me. I took some pics this past week at the beach and saw them on a HP laptop last night and they really looked nice. Wish I was seeing that same quality at home. I'd probably be a lot happier with my photos if I did (because they almost always look sharp on the LCD screen on the camera).

Thanks

[Quo Fan]

Clearly, the monitor is defective. You need to send it to me and purchase another one.

[Quo Fan]

Seriously, what the monitor probably needs is color calibration. There are many color calibration tools available.

[morts]

Make sure you've set the colour profile to either Adobe RGB 1998 or sRGB.

Monitor options >
Monitor (where you set your resolution) >
Advanced >
Color Management >
Click the shiny button >
Pick your monitor from the list, tick "Use my settings for this device" >
Click "ADD" >
Pick one of the colour profiles I said above >
Close the page

Reopen your image and see if it's any different.

Also, go look up colour profiles on Google to give you a better understanding of what it means.
Also also, please don't say "I can't work computers". It's the 21st century. Unless you are a certified idiot, you can learn some basics about them and it'll help you understand what's going on instead of blindly following step-by-step instructions! As some great Japanese martial artist type said once: "Learn a technique and you will know a technique. Learn the underlying concept and you will know a thousand techniques"

[Kaye]

Morts:
Thanks for the advise, at least until we got to the "certified idiot" remark. As my 93 year old grandfather used to say "Manners don't cost a thing, try them"

[Jim Bryant]

Originally Posted by morts
Also also, [B

please[/B] don't say "I can't work computers". It's the 21st century. Unless you are a certified idiot, you can learn some basics about them and it'll help you understand what's going on instead of blindly following step-by-step instructions! As some great Japanese martial artist type said once: "Learn a technique and you will know a technique. Learn the underlying concept and you will know a thousand techniques"

hahahahah that's pretty funny. I guess you hit a nerve with someone who either has no sense of humor or ..........

[candleman]

Originally Posted by morts

"Learn a technique and you will know a technique. Learn the underlying concept and you will know a thousand techniques"

thats a cool quote..

[Kaye]

Actually I have a very good sense of humor. But I have never allowed the words "stupid" or "idiot" to be used in my home. People who have family members that have special needs would understand that some just don't find that type of thing funny. Sorry if I "insulted" anyone. I was just hoping for some help, not an assessment of my intellegence.