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Supported Screen Resolutions and Guidance for Good Viewer Experiences

Gary Ditsch avatar
Written by Gary Ditsch
Updated over 8 months ago

Recommendations

  • For best viewing experience, view on a Desktop with a minimum resolution of around 1920 x 1080px

  • Other resolutions will still allow viewing VividCharts reports, though the experience may change.

    • A few examples:

      • if a user views a report on a smaller device (1280 x 720 for example), they will likely need to zoom/pan on their device to see the content at a readable size since the content’s size is pre-determined when building reports. This means that if text was set to 14px during editing, it will appear smaller for these users if they’re viewing the report in full-screen mode.

      • If viewing a PDF that has been downloaded from VividCharts, the exported file format will match the dimensions of the canvas upon which the reports were built. So if a user has a very large monitor and views a report in full-screen mode, the text and images may start to appear pixelated since the screen size is larger than the canvas.

      • If using VividCharts' viewer in a browser, and a user has a very large monitor and views a report in full-screen mode, the text, charts and images will scale with high fidelity, since the content hasn’t been exported.

  • For best editing experience, it may be best to work with the canvas at 100% if possible. This gives the most realistic expectation of what your viewers will experience if they will be viewing on screens with similar resolutions.

  • If builders know that viewers will be on screens with a particular resolution, builders can shrink or enlarge the canvas during the building process to match the viewer screen resolutions.


A Quick Lesson on Resolutions/Screen Sizes/Zooming

Zooming affects the display of content on your monitor but does not change the actual resolution of the screen. Here’s how zooming interacts with resolution:

1. Zooming In:

  • Magnifies Content: When you zoom in, such as by using a zoom feature in a web browser or document viewer, the content is enlarged. This makes text and images appear larger and more detailed on the screen.

  • Perceived Resolution: As you zoom in, individual pixels become more noticeable, which can lead to a perceived reduction in image quality. This is because you are effectively spreading the same number of pixels over a larger area, making pixelation more apparent.

  • Scaling: Modern operating systems and applications often use scaling algorithms to make zoomed-in content appear smoother, but this is not a substitute for increased resolution. The content is still being displayed at the monitor’s native resolution, but it’s being stretched or scaled.

2. Zooming Out:

  • Reduces Content Size: Zooming out makes text and images smaller, allowing more content to fit on the screen at once.

  • Perceived Resolution: Zooming out generally reduces the visibility of individual pixels because the content is scaled down. This can give the appearance of a sharper image, but it doesn’t change the actual resolution or increase the number of pixels.

  • Scaling: As with zooming in, scaling algorithms are used to resize the content, but this doesn’t alter the monitor’s native resolution or improve image quality.

3. Screen Resolution vs. Zoom Level:

  • Resolution: The resolution is the number of pixels available on the screen (e.g., 1920 × 1080 pixels). This defines the maximum detail the screen can display.

  • Zoom Level: Zooming changes how content is displayed relative to the resolution. It affects how content appears but does not change the screen’s pixel count.

Practical Implications:

  • Detailed Viewing: If you need to view very detailed images or text, higher resolution monitors provide more detail, even when zoomed in.

  • Legibility: Zooming in can help with legibility if the resolution is insufficient, but it’s often a temporary fix rather than a solution to poor display quality.


Data from the Most Used Monitor Sizes in 2024 According to Browser Stack

  • 1920 x 1080

  • 1366 x 768

  • 1536 x 864

  • 1280 x 720

  • 1440 x 900

  • 1600 x 900


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