Screen resolution is measured in dots horizontally by dots vertically. For example, 800x600 means the screen of the display device uses 800 pixels across the screen (from left to right) and 600 pixels down the screen (from top to bottom). How does this translate into dpi (or ppi)? That depends on the physical dimensions of your display device. Using the same resolution, a larger display will result in fewer dots per inch. The following table provides some examples (using the standard screen aspect ration of 4:3):
| Screen Diagonal Meas. |
Approx. Screen Width |
Approx. Screen Height |
Screen Resolution |
Approx. dpi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
17"
|
13.7"
|
10.2"
|
800x600 |
58.4 |
1024x768 |
80 |
|||
1152x864 |
84.1 |
|||
1280x1024 |
93.4 |
|||
19"
|
15.2"
|
11.4"
|
800x600 |
52.6 |
1024x768 |
67.4 |
|||
1152x864 |
75.8 |
|||
1280x1024 |
84.2 |
A larger screen with the same resolution will produce the same display with everything looking bigger. The same size screen with a larger resolution will give more space for screen elements, but everything will look smaller.