Whenever you go out to buy a new PC or even a Television for that matter, it is always important to take note of the screen resolution. Resolution is the number of pixels contained on a monitor. The resolution of a monitor is typically explained in terms of the number of pixels on the horizontal axis and the number on the vertical axis. The clarity of an image, or it's sharpness, depends on the resolution and size of the monitor. The same resolution will appear clearer on a smaller monitor and lose clarity on larger monitors. This is because the same number of pixels are being spread out over a larger surface.
When buying a monitor, the resolution is its main selling point. In today's day, the most common resolution is 1920x1080. This means that there are 1,920 pixels on the screens horizontal axis and 1,080 pixels on the vertical axis. This resolution has been generalized as "High Definition" over the last couple of years. Nowadays, 1920x1080 is considered as the standard, which means that there are resolutions that are far higher than that of "High Definition". For example the newest craze is 4k. 4k resolution consists of the pixel dimensions of 3840x2160, meaning that it contains double the amount of pixels both in it's horizontal and vertical axis compared to that of high definition. With the extra pixels, 4k is able to produce sharper images on conventional screens and even allows for sharper images to be produced on larger screens. As the image on the left demonstrates, the more pixels that an image has, the clearer the image. As technology in the resolution department advances, we can expect resolution to increase to a point where we can't distinguish an artificial image from the real thing. This will also lead to wider and larger screens as there will be more pixels that can be used to be spread across a larger canvas without compromising clarity.