Screen Resolution is expressed as the number of pixels for the width and height of your screen. Images, especially photographs, will look MUCH better in at least 800x600 resolution. (That's 800 pixels for the width and 600 for the height). The images will appear much sharper and clearer, and if you are able to select a higher color depth as well, photographs will begin to look like they were intended to look. If you are set up with 640x480 resolution with 256 color, many things on the web will look grainy and generally ugly.

Using a higher resolution will make things appear sharper but they will also be smaller. The good news here is that you can fit more information on your screen at one time. If the print is too small in a higher resolution for you to read comfortably, you can compensate for the smaller size of the type by choosing a larger font size in Windows as well as in Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Changing the resolution is a very simple matter in Windows 95. (If you are still using Windows 3.1 or a Macintosh, you can also make these changes, but this helpfile is exclusively for Windows 95.) All you need to do is go to the Start Menu in your taskbar and choose Settings > Control Panel. If you have not used the Control Panel before, relax... it is your best friend in getting to know your computer. Double-click on the Display icon.

A little dialog box called Display Properties will appear. You should be under the Background tab where you will see a little image of a monitor which has your wallpaper displayed on it. This is the background or Desktop on your screen. Note: you can change it to any of the options listed there (or add any .bmp images you like to your Windows directory and then select it here). There are other tabs at the top for Screensaver and Appearance, which you can explore at your leisure. For now, choose the Settings Tab.

Under the Settings tab, below the monitor image is a section called Desktop area with a little slider. This will tell you what resolution you are presently in. If you are in 800x600 or higher resolution, that's fine. Leave it alone and click cancel to close the Display Properties box and the Control Panel.

If it reads 640x480, try changing it now. If you have a relatively recent monitor and drivers**, you should be able to select 800x600. Hopefully you also have the option under Color palette to choose High Color (16bit). (You may also see an option for True Color (24bit) but this is unnecessary for most purposes.) Click OK and your computer may prompt you to restart for the settings to take effect. New versions of Windows 95 (OSR2) do not require a reboot and will prompt you as to whether you wish to save the new settings. In either case, choose OK and when your system either reboots or changes screen resolution, things will look quite a bit different. It may take a little getting used to at first, if you have always used 640x480. But most people with normal eyesight prefer a higher resolution for the greatly improved graphical representation.

If the typeset is too small you can go back into the Display Properties box and change the font size... You can select either Small fonts or Large fonts or click on the Custom button and pick a size that suits you. Personally, I use 800x600 resolution with small fonts and have no problem.

You can also modify your font size only for Netscape. Open Netscape, and from the menu bar at the top, choose Options > General Preferences and select the Fonts tab. Under Proportional font click on the choose font button and change the point size to a higher number. Point size 12 is the default choice I think, which is what I am comfortable with. You can do the same in Microsoft Internet Explorer by clicking on View > Options and under the General tab, hit the Font Settings button.