Well based upon Dave W. input (and yes I checked a number of manfac )
it appears I am stuck with 1280X1024 if I go with LCD. I have reset my
current monitor to 1280X1024 to see how I will adjust. I also measured
the diagonal distance of my GLASS monitor and it really is 17.5 inches
viewable. So if I go with 19" LCD I do get a small break. Other issue
I am trying to assess is what happens when I edit a photo, now I use the
highest resolution I can get from my CRT, but not sure what that means
if I use LCD for editing.
Especially with photo editing, you do not want to use a
non-native resolution. With any non-native resolution you
cannot set a monitor resolution beyond the native (above it)
and retain per-pixel precision, won't be able to see
individual image pixels accurately represented on-screen
anymore.
I have just started looking at the wide verse normal LCD. I looked at
a wide at a store (the wide being driven by a normal VGA? display). The
distortion on the wide was very noticeable. My guess is unless one gets
a capable video card ..oh well??.
Define distortion in this context.
Any current generation video card with DVI output is the
ideal. It should display per-pixel accuracy with zero
distortion due to it being widescreen vs. regular.
In light of your desire to edit photos, it might be more
appropriate to go with a 20 or 21" 1600x1200 resolution
monitor. The higher the native resolution, the less
degradation there would be if you "must" set it to 1024 x
768 (even though I'd still suggest it better to get used to
the native resolution rather than doing that).
Further for photo editing you will want an 8 bit panel with
fairly high contrast ratio, at last 700:1 but even better
higher... but this raises the cost too, budget may be a
factor at some point.