For multimedia applications to look their best, the resolution and color depth capabilities of your monitor must match those of your video card. For example, if you have a SVGA video card, you need a SVGA montior to experience full SVGA capabilities.
In fact, it is your video card that controls the three electron beams that scan your monitor screen to produce images. The way the electron beams pass through a shadow mask, a black metal screen with holes, determines the color of different pixels. Pixels are actually groups of phosphor dots. The dots in the pixels glow red, blue or green according to the intensity of the electron beam that hits them. You see images because the electron beams scan over your entire screen once about every 60 seconds, or more if you have a multi-scan monitor. The color that you see is produced similarly to colors in a color wheel. For example, if the red and green phosphor dots are struck at a high intensity by the electron beams, and the blue dot is off, the color that you see is yellow.
The picture that you see is also affected by the dot pitch of your monitor. The dot pitch is simply the distance between the groups of red, green and blue dots on your monitor screen. The dot pitch determines the density of the image on your screen, or how many pixels are included in an inch on your screen. For example, if your monitor has a .28 mm dot pitch, one inch of your monitor screen would contain 90 pixels. If your monitor has a .25 dot pitch, one inch of your monitor contains 101 pixels. As the density of your pixels becomes greater, your image becomes sharper. Therefore, a lower dot pitch means a better picture. You can figure out how many pixels per inch your monitor has by dividing 25.4 by your monitor's dot pitch.
