Expert: Scott Valentine - 12/10/2008

Question
QUESTION: As far as you know, has anyone using Photoshop 6 or CS2 had problems with graphics they have created?  I have an LCD Dell E248WFP Flat Panel Monitor(new)and am running Windows XP sp2.  My graphics don't display properly - when I create a circle in CS2(for instance), the display comes out horizontally more oval than circle.  I know this is a monitor issue.  I've called Dell and they say "that happens on all wide screens".  I find that hard to believe - can't imagine serious graphic people putting up with that.  I just wondered if you could mention a better graphics monitor that wouldn't skew my graphics. None of the available resolutions I've tried on this Dell monitor resolves the skew issue.  Thank you for your time.

ANSWER: Hi Emily,

Dell is almost right; it does happen on all wide screen monitors. However, the solution is simply to choose the correct aspect ratio for your screen. I believe your monitor is capable of 1920x1200, which should give you the right relationship between X and Y axes.

Whether you can run that resolution depends on your graphics card - presumably it is capable of powering that monitor, so you should be good to go.

Under WinXP, simply Right-Click on an empty part of your desktop, choose Properties, then go to the far right tab called "Settings". There is a slider there called Screen Resolution, and you should be able to slide it all the way to the right. Simply click "Apply" and check to see if everything looks normal.

One other possibility you should be aware of is pixel-based aspect ratio in Photoshop itself. If everything else looks fine, check the help files for setting your pixel aspect ratio to square (I don't remember the CS2 settings, but it should be easy to find in the help documents).

If you have further questions, or need some clarification, I'm happy to help :)

-Scott

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Regarding Scott's 12/9/08 response to my monitor issue:  Thanks, Scott.  I have tried the 1920X1200 aspect ratio in properties, but all the words and icons are teeny-teeny-tiny - smaller than my husband's laptop....  But you are correct in that the monitor will give a 1 to 1 aspect ratio for my graphics purposes.  I guess I want the best of all worlds - a 1 to 1 ratio AND larger icons/words like my old CRT had.  While it was only a 17" monitor, words/icons were larger.  I'm guessing the words with the 1920/1200 aspect ratio look like a font size of 4!!!  Yoicks!  So is there any monitor out there that can give me size AND a 1 to 1 ratio???  Thanks again for any help you can offer.  Emily

Answer
Your current monitor will support lower resolutions and still be able to give you 1:1 for graphics. On the same menu described above, simply move the slider to the left and choose one of the resolutions that has a 1.6 ratio when you divide the larger dimension by the smaller.

I should clarify that there are two ways I'm using the term "ratio": first is the pixel ratio where the computer thinks horizontal and vertical are the same length; second is the actual real-world ratio between the length and height of your monitor. The pixels in the menu above are a unit of measure, and relate to the physical dimensions of your monitor. For purposes of setting up your *aspect ratio*, that is the number you need to pay attention to.

So, just move the slider to one of the other sizes, but make sure you check to see that they give you the 1.6 result you need for your monitor (for example, 1280 x 800 also gives a 1.6 ratio, and 1640 x 1024 does, but with a very slight error).

Let me know if that works for you!

-Scott