History of Screensavers

At the start of screensavers, they were mainly used to prevent or minimize burn-in to occur with CRT computer monitors. These CRT or cathode ray tube monitors were similar to television sets. To under this you must first understand a bit about the tubes that were used at this time. The front inside part of the tube is coated with phosphor compound. The phosphor compound glows when it comes in contact with high-speed electrons that are blasted out of the electron gun, which is located at the back of the tube. When the phosphor is hit by the electrons, it turns this kinetic energy into light. Of course, it was known that the ability of the phosphor compound to glow would slow however; the problem was not in the degradation but in the burn in that was caused by an unmoving image that was displayed on the monitor screen for long periods of time.

The screensaver was created to minimize the degradation of the screen. The very first screensaver developed was the black screen. This black screen is still used today by many and comes on by itself after your computer is inactivity for a certain amount of time. Black of course means no light thus no damage to the computer monitor’s screen. At this time, the Windows monitor uses this screensaver during its sleep function.

Shortly after the black screen came the idea to place moving images on the screen with a black background. This soon became a fun and exciting endeavor with several companies creating fun, amusing, and awesome images flying across the screen. Next, in line were animated images instead of solid images that moved around the screen. These animated images were found in cartoon, psychedelic patterns, and various visual effects.

Before long, more advancements were made and screensavers were introduced with 3D animated images. Most of the 3D screensaver are large when compared to other screensavers. On average, they are over 2 GB in size and can be as large as 47 GB. Of course, many of these when they were introduced were too large for the average person to download using dial up connections which were sent over phone lines at 56 kbps.

The size of the screensaver is based on the type and size of the graphics or images that are used along with the programming language. Programming languages do pretty much the same thing only some are easier to use and are smaller is size. The pixels that are used to create and display the image along with the resolution of the computer screen increase the size of the images. As an example, if you have a slide show screensaver that utilizes high-resolution photos this screen saver will be a lot larger than drawing or patterns. In most cases, the more detail you see, the larger the screensaver size will be.

Today, many people are creating their own screensavers using family photos, vacation pictures, or their own favorite designs. Screensavers can be found to download, create, or even purchase. They come in all styles, designs, and of course sizes with or without password protection.