Auto setup
Every projector you’ll come across will have an automatic input set-up function – sometimes there’s a button on the remote or projector chassis, and other times it’ll be hidden in the menu. Auto setup is the simplest, but most beneficial thing you can do to make the projector you’re using interpret the signal from your laptop correctly.

Auto setup will ensure that none of your image is “overscanning” (or being cut off on the sides, top or bottom), and will ensure that settings like brightness, contrast, pixel phase, and colour are set to match the signal that you’re sending. The auto setup process usually takes about 5-10 seconds, so there’s no reason not to use it.

DVI or HDMI or quality analog cable

Most business-oriented projectors have had digital inputs for some time – check the projector for either an HDMI or DVI input. If you have a digital input on the projector, then check your laptop for a digital output – any Apple laptop built since 2000 will probably be capable of outputting DVI signal, while many modern Windows laptops will include either an HDMI or DVI output.

While analog signals are susceptible to interference from other devices, bad quality power sources, and even just degrade over distance, digital signal remains perfect constantly, and under any condition – so it’s the best idea to use digital wherever possible. It doesn’t matter if you have an HDMI output on your laptop and a DVI input on your projector, or a DVI output on your laptop and an HDMI input on your projector – the two standards were built to be cross-compatible – so you can buy adapters and cables that will connect the two together.

If you don’t have the luxury of using a DVI or HDMI signal between your laptop and projector, make sure you use a high quality VGA (HD-15) cable – the analog cables which connect your computer to monitors and projectors – and where possible, keep the cable length below 15 meters.

Match resolution of projector
Different brands and models of projectors will vary in quality – one very important measure of a projector’s image quality is the native resolution that it displays – while most projectors will be able to display a high definition image, they will almost always scale it down to match the lower resolution chip that the projector uses to generate the image on screen.

Common projector resolutions might include 1024×768, 1400×1050, and 1280×720.

If at all possible, you should aim to output the presentation from your laptop at the native resolution of your projector – this is fairly simple – just choose the output resolution on your computer to match.

Avoid keystone correction
Keystone correction functions on a projector are designed to allow you to mount your projector at extreme angles to the screen, and correct the image shape so it doesn’t appear distorted.

Unfortunately, due to the processing that the projector has to perform to achieve this, the image is always distorted – just in a less obvious way. Keystone correction will squash the pixels in at the top or bottom of the image in order to compensate for angle – but in doing this, you will lose clarity and pixel information on the screen – you will notice this most where you have fine detail on your slides like graphs and charts.

It’s best to avoid using keystone correction functions, and simply try to get your projector roughly level to the screen you’re using instead.