Tip 175: Determining the Current Screen Resolution

December 5, 1995

Abstract

This article explains how to determine the current screen resolution in a Microsoft® Visual Basic® application.

Determining Horizontal and Vertical Screen Resolutions

When developing a Microsoft® Visual Basic® application, it may be necessary to determine the current screen resolution. You can do this by retrieving the TwipsPerPixelX and TwipsPerPixelY properties of the Screen object.

To determine the horizontal resolution of the screen, you retrieve the value of the TwipsPerPixelX property. Next, you divide the screen's current Height property by this value.

To determine the vertical resolution of the screen, you retrieve the value of the TwipsPerPixelY property. Next, you divide the screen's current Width property by this value.

Example Program

This program shows how to determine the current screen resolution in a Visual Basic application.

1. Create a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
   
   
2. Add a Text Box control to Form1. Text1 is created by default.
   
   
3. Add a Command Button control to Form1. Command1 is created by default.
   
   
4. Add the following code to the Click event for Command1:

   Private Sub Command1_Click()
       Dim XTwips As Long
       Dim YTwips As Long
       Dim XPixels As Long
       Dim YPixels As Long
   
       XTwips = Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
       YTwips = Screen.TwipsPerPixelY
   
       YPixels = Screen.Height / YTwips
       XPixels = Screen.Width / XTwips
   
       Text1.Text = Str$(XPixels) + " x " + Str$(YPixels)
   End Sub
   

Run the example program by pressing f5. Click the Command Button control. The current screen resolution appears in the Text Box control.