Is The Picture Quality Poor On Your Monitor?

Many computers leave the factory without every being set up properly. The number of colors output by the graphics card to your computer monitor may only be set to 256. The many shades in-between get simulated by mixing in pixels of a different color.

To determine if the colors for your monitor are improperly set, examine the two colors in the block above. There is a light and a dark shade of green. The color for each shade of green should be pure. Do you see a pattern of little dots or pixels of a different color mixed in with the pure colors? They will be very obvious; you won't need to squint or use a magnifying glass. If so, follow the short procedure below to make an adjustment to your computer which will vastly improve picture quality. This may not work if the graphics card is old in the computer.

Procedure for PC's Running Under Microsoft Windows:

  1. Right-click your mouse anywhere on the desktop outside of any windows you have open.

  2. When the pop-up menu appears, select PROPERTIES. (If you didn't get a pop-up menu, try clicking the other mouse button.)

  3. When the "Display Properties" window opens, click on the tab labeled "Settings".

  4. Under "Color Palette" select "High Color (16-bit)". Do not be tempted to select the 24-bit color option; you won't be able to see any improvement in color and it will slow down your computer.

  5. Now look at the control setting labeled "Desktop Area". If it is set way down to "640 by 480" pixels, you should at least set it to "800 by 600" pixels because most web pages now-days are being designed with this setting as the minimum requirement for display. Things will look a bit smaller on the screen, but unless your eye-sight is poor, you will get used to it quickly and be very happy to have the extra viewing area.

  6. Now click on the OK button at the bottom of the "Display Properties". Windows will give you a message about your changes and may ask if you want to reboot. It's a good idea to do so, and if not, you should at least close the applications you have open, then re-open them so they will recognize the new display settings. You're done!

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