Screen Aspect Ratio (Projection Screen Aspect Ratio) — Definition & Context in B2B Laptop Rental

Screen aspect ratio is the ratio of the image area's width to its height, written width:height. Four formats come up most often when renting a projector and screen: (1) 4:3 — the format of older XGA (1024×768) projectors and legacy slide decks; (2) 16:10 — the native format of many WXGA (1280×800) and WUXGA (1920×1200) business projectors; (3) 16:9 — the format of HD/Full HD video and modern PowerPoint slides (the default size since PowerPoint 2013); (4) 1:1 — the square format common on tripod screens, the most flexible because one surface can take either a 4:3 or a 16:9 image, with the unused band simply left unlit. Two things often trip up procurement: first, screen size is quoted as a diagonal, so a 100" screen in 16:9 is wider but shorter than a 100" screen in 4:3; second, tripod screens in Indonesia are usually named by their side length rather than the diagonal — the Arental catalog included — so a "70 inch" tripod screen measuring 178 × 178 cm has a diagonal of about 100" and is often also called a "100 inch" screen. Rule of thumb: match the screen ratio to the projector's native resolution (XGA → 4:3, WXGA/WUXGA → 16:10, Full HD → 16:9), or choose 1:1 when the content is mixed. See also screen gain.