Q: What is “aspect ratio” and why should I care?

Aspect ratio refers to the ratio of a display screen’s width to height. Historically, video screens have been almost square with a ratio of 4:3. Recently, this has been replaced with 16:9 or 16:10 ratios, which show a much wider image when compared to height. If you are showing presentations in any of the MedIT or Mississauga Academy supported rooms, such as the lecture rooms: MSB 3153, MSB 3154, HSC 130, HSC 140 or the meeting rooms MSB 3174, MSB 3175, HSC 170, or HSC 210, you may be interested to know that they display in the 16:9 ratio. In MSB 3175, the 2 LCD displays are 16:9, while the Smart Screen display is 4:3. The default ratio for creating Microsoft Powerpoint presentations is usually set to display in 4:3; changing this setting to create 16:9 presentations or changing your existing 4:3 presentations to 16:9 allows you to take advantage of all of the screen real estate and makes for a more visually appealing presentation.