How do I get monitor resolution in Python?

Question

What is the simplest way to get monitor resolution (preferably in a tuple)?

Answer 1

I am using a get_screen_resolution method in one of my projects like the one below, which is basically an import chain. You can modify this according to Your needs by removing those parts that are not needed and move more likely ports upwards in the chain.

PYTHON_V3 = sys.version_info >= (3,0,0) and sys.version_info < (4,0,0):
#[...]
    def get_screen_resolution(self, measurement="px"):
        """
        Tries to detect the screen resolution from the system.
        @param measurement: The measurement to describe the screen resolution in. Can be either 'px', 'inch' or 'mm'. 
        @return: (screen_width,screen_height) where screen_width and screen_height are int types according to measurement.
        """
        mm_per_inch = 25.4
        px_per_inch =  72.0 #most common
        try: # Platforms supported by GTK3, Fx Linux/BSD
            from gi.repository import Gdk 
            screen = Gdk.Screen.get_default()
            if measurement=="px":
                width = screen.get_width()
                height = screen.get_height()
            elif measurement=="inch":
                width = screen.get_width_mm()/mm_per_inch
                height = screen.get_height_mm()/mm_per_inch
            elif measurement=="mm":
                width = screen.get_width_mm()
                height = screen.get_height_mm()
            else:
                raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
            return (width,height)
        except:
            try: #Probably the most OS independent way
                if PYTHON_V3: 
                    import tkinter 
                else:
                    import Tkinter as tkinter
                root = tkinter.Tk()
                if measurement=="px":
                    width = root.winfo_screenwidth()
                    height = root.winfo_screenheight()
                elif measurement=="inch":
                    width = root.winfo_screenmmwidth()/mm_per_inch
                    height = root.winfo_screenmmheight()/mm_per_inch
                elif measurement=="mm":
                    width = root.winfo_screenmmwidth()
                    height = root.winfo_screenmmheight()
                else:
                    raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
                return (width,height)
            except:
                try: #Windows only
                    from win32api import GetSystemMetrics 
                    width_px = GetSystemMetrics (0)
                    height_px = GetSystemMetrics (1)
                    if measurement=="px":
                        return (width_px,height_px)
                    elif measurement=="inch":
                        return (width_px/px_per_inch,height_px/px_per_inch)
                    elif measurement=="mm":
                        return (width_px/mm_per_inch,height_px/mm_per_inch)
                    else:
                        raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
                except:
                    try: # Windows only
                        import ctypes
                        user32 = ctypes.windll.user32
                        width_px = user32.GetSystemMetrics(0)
                        height_px = user32.GetSystemMetrics(1)
                        if measurement=="px":
                            return (width_px,height_px)
                        elif measurement=="inch":
                            return (width_px/px_per_inch,height_px/px_per_inch)
                        elif measurement=="mm":
                            return (width_px/mm_per_inch,height_px/mm_per_inch)
                        else:
                            raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
                    except:
                        try: # Mac OS X only
                            import AppKit 
                            for screen in AppKit.NSScreen.screens():
                                width_px = screen.frame().size.width
                                height_px = screen.frame().size.height
                                if measurement=="px":
                                    return (width_px,height_px)
                                elif measurement=="inch":
                                    return (width_px/px_per_inch,height_px/px_per_inch)
                                elif measurement=="mm":
                                    return (width_px/mm_per_inch,height_px/mm_per_inch)
                                else:
                                    raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
                        except: 
                            try: # Linux/Unix
                                import Xlib.display
                                resolution = Xlib.display.Display().screen().root.get_geometry()
                                width_px = resolution.width
                                height_px = resolution.height
                                if measurement=="px":
                                    return (width_px,height_px)
                                elif measurement=="inch":
                                    return (width_px/px_per_inch,height_px/px_per_inch)
                                elif measurement=="mm":
                                    return (width_px/mm_per_inch,height_px/mm_per_inch)
                                else:
                                    raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
                            except:
                                try: # Linux/Unix
                                    if not self.is_in_path("xrandr"):
                                        raise ImportError("Cannot read the output of xrandr, if any.")
                                    else:
                                        args = ["xrandr", "-q", "-d", ":0"]
                                        proc = subprocess.Popen(args,stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
                                        for line in iter(proc.stdout.readline,''):
                                            if isinstance(line, bytes):
                                                line = line.decode("utf-8")
                                            if "Screen" in line:
                                                width_px = int(line.split()[7])
                                                height_px = int(line.split()[9][:-1])
                                                if measurement=="px":
                                                    return (width_px,height_px)
                                                elif measurement=="inch":
                                                    return (width_px/px_per_inch,height_px/px_per_inch)
                                                elif measurement=="mm":
                                                    return (width_px/mm_per_inch,height_px/mm_per_inch)
                                                else:
                                                    raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)
                                except:
                                    # Failover
                                    screensize = 1366, 768
                                    sys.stderr.write("WARNING: Failed to detect screen size. Falling back to %sx%s" % screensize)
                                    if measurement=="px":
                                        return screensize
                                    elif measurement=="inch":
                                        return (screensize[0]/px_per_inch,screensize[1]/px_per_inch)
                                    elif measurement=="mm":
                                        return (screensize[0]/mm_per_inch,screensize[1]/mm_per_inch)
                                    else:
                                        raise NotImplementedError("Handling %s is not implemented." % measurement)

Answer 2

To get bits per pixel:

import ctypes
user32 = ctypes.windll.user32
gdi32 = ctypes.windll.gdi32

screensize = (user32.GetSystemMetrics(0), user32.GetSystemMetrics(1))
print "screensize =%s"%(str(screensize))
dc = user32.GetDC(None);

screensize = (gdi32.GetDeviceCaps(dc,8), gdi32.GetDeviceCaps(dc,10), gdi32.GetDeviceCaps(dc,12))
print "screensize =%s"%(str(screensize))
screensize = (gdi32.GetDeviceCaps(dc,118), gdi32.GetDeviceCaps(dc,117), gdi32.GetDeviceCaps(dc,12))
print "screensize =%s"%(str(screensize))

parameters in gdi32:

#/// Vertical height of entire desktop in pixels
#DESKTOPVERTRES = 117,
#/// Horizontal width of entire desktop in pixels
#DESKTOPHORZRES = 118,
#/// Horizontal width in pixels
#HORZRES = 8,
#/// Vertical height in pixels
#VERTRES = 10,
#/// Number of bits per pixel
#BITSPIXEL = 12,

Answer 3

It's a little troublesome for retina screen, i use tkinter to get the fake size, use pilllow grab to get real size :

import tkinter
root = tkinter.Tk()
resolution_width = root.winfo_screenwidth()
resolution_height = root.winfo_screenheight()
image = ImageGrab.grab()
real_width, real_height = image.width, image.height
ratio_width = real_width / resolution_width
ratio_height = real_height/ resolution_height

Answer 4

Old question but this is missing. I'm new to python so please tell me if this is a "bad" solution. This solution is supported for Windows and MacOS only and it works just for the main screen - but the os is not mentioned in the question.

Measure the size by taking a screenshot. As the screensize should not change this has to be done only once. There are more elegant solutions if you have a gui toolkit like GTK, wx, ... installed.

see Pillow

pip install Pillow

---

from PIL import ImageGrab

img = ImageGrab.grab()
print (img.size)

Answer 5

In Windows, you can also use ctypes with GetSystemMetrics():

import ctypes
user32 = ctypes.windll.user32
screensize = user32.GetSystemMetrics(0), user32.GetSystemMetrics(1)

so that you don't need to install the pywin32 package; it doesn't need anything that doesn't come with Python itself.

For multi-monitor setups, you can retrieve the combined width and height of the virtual monitor:

import ctypes
user32 = ctypes.windll.user32
screensize = user32.GetSystemMetrics(78), user32.GetSystemMetrics(79)

Answer 6

Utility script using pynput library. Posting here for ref.:

 
from pynput.mouse import Controller as MouseController

def get_screen_size():
    """Utility function to get screen resolution"""

    mouse = MouseController()

    width = height = 0

    def _reset_mouse_position():
        # Move the mouse to the top left of 
        # the screen
        mouse.position = (0, 0)

    # Reset mouse position
    _reset_mouse_position()

    count = 0
    while 1:
        count += 1
        mouse.move(count, 0)
        
        # Get the current position of the mouse
        left = mouse.position[0]

        # If the left doesn't change anymore, then
        # that's the screen resolution's width
        if width == left:
            # Add the last pixel
            width += 1

            # Reset count for use for height
            count = 0
            break

        # On each iteration, assign the left to 
        # the width
        width = left
    
    # Reset mouse position
    _reset_mouse_position()

    while 1:
        count += 1
        mouse.move(0, count)

        # Get the current position of the mouse
        right = mouse.position[1]

        # If the right doesn't change anymore, then
        # that's the screen resolution's height
        if height == right:
            # Add the last pixel
            height += 1
            break

        # On each iteration, assign the right to 
        # the height
        height = right

    return width, height

---

>>> get_screen_size()
(1920, 1080)