Aspect ratio

The ratio of the horizontal to vertical size of the screen. Some monitors display rectangular pixels which can make the picture or image appear stretched. Software that allows images to be resized and changed with respect to aspect ratios greatly facilitates authoring. Otherwise, images have to be transported to other software for such changes and then transported back in a cumbersome process that makes authors grateful when aspect ratios and image sizes can be modified without such difficulties. Macromedia Director is one of the very few hypermedia authoring systems that has a utility for changing the scale and aspect ratios of imported bitmap pictures as well as rotating and inverting such pictures.

In computer graphics, the relative horizontal and vertical sizes. For example, if a graphic has an aspect ratio of 2:1, it means that the width is twice as large as the height. When resizing graphics, it is important to maintain the aspect ratio to avoid stretching the graphic out of proportion.The term is also used to describe the dimensions of a display resolution. For example, a resolution of 800x600 has an aspect ratio of 4:3.

The ratio of width to height of a pixel,image,or display screen.Square pixels (1:1) are considered preferable but displays are usually 5:4.