NEMA Specifications

Computer Display Standards

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Various computer display standards or display modes have been used in the history of the personal computer. They are often a combination of display resolution (specified as the width and height in pixels), color depth (measured in bits), and refresh rate (expressed in hertz).

Until recently, most computer monitors had a 4:3 aspect ratio and some had 5:4. Recently, monitors with 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios have become available, leading to new widescreen formats. Productive uses for such monitors, i.e. besides widescreen movie viewing and computer game play, are the word processor display of two standard letter pages side by side, as well as CAD displays of large-size drawings and CAD application menus at the same time. The VESA industry organization has defined several standards related to power management and device identification. Ergonomic standards are set by the TCO.

• 16:10
  • QUXGA-Wide
    Widescreen Quad Ultra XGA: 3840 × 2400, with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Also known as WQUZGA. This resolution generally requires 2 DVI connections between the monitor and graphics card.
  • WUXGA
    Widescreen Ultra XGA: 1920 × 1200, with a 16:10 aspect ratio.
  • WSXGA+
    Widescreen Super XGA+: 1680 × 1050, with a 16:10 aspect ratio.
  • WXGA+
    Widescreen XGA+: 1440 × 900, with a 16:10 aspect ratio. WXGA+ can also refer to 1200 × 854, which is a 3:2 aspect ratio.
  • WXGA
    Widescreen XGA: can refer to 1440 × 900 or 1280 × 800, both with a 16:10 aspect ratio, or to 1280 × 768 with a 5:3 aspect ratio.
• 16:9
  • 1080i/1080p
    HDTV resolutions that some monitors accept, they are 1920 × 1080 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The resolutions are used with interlaced (1080i) or progressively-scanned (1080p) video.
  • 720i/720p
    HDTV resolutions of 1280 × 720 and aspect ratio 16:9, either interlaced (720i) or progressively-scanned (720p). These resolutions work with many multisync SXGA displays, though the video will appear horizontally squeezed if the vertical range of the scan beam is not changed.
• 4:3 (Displayed aspect ratio. Some standards utilize non-square pixels)
  • QUXGA
    Quad Ultra XGA: 3200 × 2400 pixels. This resolution generally requires 2 DVI connections between the monitor and graphics card.
  • QXGA
    Quad XGA, quad meaning four, so the display has four times the pixel amount of XGA, with 2048 × 1536 pixels. Also called Super Ultra XGA (SUXGA).
  • UXGA
    Ultra XGA, a de facto standard with a resolution of 1600 × 1200 with 32 bit pixels, true color.
  • SXGA+
    Super XGA+, 1400 × 1050.
  • SXGA
    Super XGA, a de facto standard with a resolution of 1280 × 1024 with 32 bit pixels, true color. This is an unusual resolution because the numbers work out for a 5:4 display rather than a 4:3 one, so many images appear wider on SXGA displays than most other resolutions. The resolution probably should have been 1280 × 960 (a popular standard resolution for Unix workstations).
  • XGA
    Extended Graphics Array is an IBM display standard introduced in 1990. XGA supports a resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels with a palette of 256 colors (8 bits per pixel), or 640 × 480 with high color (16 bits per pixel). XGA-2 added 1024 × 768 support for high color and higher refresh rates, improved performance, and supports 1360 × 1024 in 16 colors (4 bits per pixel).
  • SVGA
    Super VGA, a video display standard created by VESA for IBM PC compatible personal computers. The resolution is 800 × 600 4-bit pixels. Each pixel can therefore be one of 16 colors.
  • VGA
    Video Graphics Array is actually a set of different resolutions, but is most commonly used today to refer to 640 × 480 pixel displays with 16 colors (4 bits per pixel) and a 4:3 aspect ratio. Other display modes are also defined as VGA, such as 320 × 200 at 256 colors (8 bits per pixel) and a text mode with 720 × 400 pixels. VGA displays and adapters are generally capable of Mode X graphics. It is identical to MCGA.
    • MCGA
      Multicolor Graphics Array. What IBM called VGA.
    • 8514
      released about the same time as VGA. 8514/A cards had a maximum resolution of 1024 × 768 with 256 colors (8 bits per pixel), interlaced at 43.5 Hz.
  • QVGA
    Quarter VGA
  • EGA
    Enhanced Graphics Adapter, with a resolution of 640 × 350 pixels of 16 different colors (8 bits per pixel) selectable from a 64-color palette (10 bits per palette item).
  • CGA
    Color Graphics Adapter, developed in 1981, IBM's first color graphics card for IBM PCs. CGA can display 80 × 25 or 40 × 25 text in 16 colors (4 bits per pixel), 640 × 200 pixels graphics in 2 colors (1 bit per pixel) or 320 × 200 in 4 colors (2 bits per pixel) (IBM PC video modes 0-6).
  • Hercules
    a monochrome display with a resolution of 720 × 348, capable of sharp text and graphics. Very popular with the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, which was the PC's first killer app.
  • MDA
    Monochrome Display Adapter, the original standard on IBM PCs and IBM PC XTs. Supports text mode only at 720 × 350 pixels.