What is 4:3 Aspect Ratio?
4:3 gives you 4 units of width for every 3 of height - a decimal of 1.333, noticeably squarer than modern widescreen. It was the shape of standard-definition television, early computer monitors (VGA, SVGA, XGA) and remains the native shape of Apple's iPads and of medium-format digital sensors. A generation of photographs, home videos and classic games was composed for 4:3, which is why old content shows pillarbox bars on modern screens and why some creators deliberately return to the shape for its retro, square-ish framing.
Common Uses for 4:3 Aspect Ratio
- iPad and tablet displays
- Retro game emulators and classic console content
- Medium-format and large-sensor photography
- Deliberately nostalgic or vintage-style video
From 4:3 to 16:9 and back
Converting 4:3 content to 16:9 means either cropping 25% of the height (losing heads and titles - classic pan-and-scan territory) or padding with bars. Going the other way, a 16:9 frame cropped to 4:3 loses 25% of its width. The crop-size calculator gives exact numbers for any pair, which matters when remastering archive footage or composing for a tablet-first design.