# Wide display:  Can I letterbox full-screen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wide-display-can-i-letterbox-full-screen/535764>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 11, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wide-display-can-i-letterbox-full-screen/535764 "2010-04-11T20:44:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wide-display-can-i-letterbox-full-screen/535764/1 "2010-04-11T20:44:44Z")

</div>

I recently got a new monitor, and it’s a widescreen. When I play old full-screen games, it sets the resolution to 800x600 or whatever, and stretches the image to fill the whole width of the screen. Since the games were designed for a 4:3 aspect ratio, this looks really ugly. I’d prefer instead to have the game running in a 4:3 ratio box in the middle, with black stripes on either side. Is there any way to do this?

The monitor is a ViewSonic VA2223wm, and the computer is a Mac G4 running OSX 10.4

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wide-display-can-i-letterbox-full-screen/535764/2 "2010-04-11T21:08:17Z")

</div>

> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I recently got a new monitor, and it’s a widescreen. When I play old full-screen games, it sets the resolution to 800x600 or whatever, and stretches the image to fill the whole width of the screen. Since the games were designed for a 4:3 aspect ratio, this looks really ugly. I’d prefer instead to have the game running in a 4:3 ratio box in the middle, with black stripes on either side. Is there any way to do this?
> 
> The monitor is a ViewSonic VA2223wm, and the computer is a Mac G4 running OSX 10.4

According to the manual for the VA2223 available online (and which I’m sure was included in your purchase ;)), there’s an aspect ratio function under the Manual Image Adjust option in the monitor’s menu. Not sure if that’ll give you exactly what you’re after or not.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wide-display-can-i-letterbox-full-screen/535764/3 "2010-04-11T21:50:09Z")

</div>

Ah, OK, that’s grayed out when at normal resolution, but it works when running at low resolution. Thanks!

(and yes, I probably was being lazy when I posted this thread)