Fullscreen (aspect ratio)

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Fullscreen, or full screen, refers to the 4:3 aspect ratio (about 1.33:1) used by early television sets and computer monitors. Widescreen formats became common in the 1990s and 2000s. A film originally made in 4:3 can be shown full-screen without changes. Other aspect ratios can be adapted to full-screen using methods like pan and scan (cropping the sides), open matte (using extra image from the film negative), or reframing (repositioning image elements, often used for CGI).

The 4:3 format has been used since the early days of moving pictures and computers. It roughly matches the old Academy ratio of about 1.375:1, which helped many 35mm films look right on early TV. As cinema attendance declined, Hollywood moved to wider formats (such as 1.85:1) to distinguish film from TV. By the early 2000s, broadcasters largely stopped using 4:3, and 16:9 became the standard for modern HDTVs, broadcast cameras, and computer monitors.