📬 A mail slot 🎬 Widescreen format ⬛ To add black bars

to letterbox

7.1

To show a wide movie picture with black bars above and below

verb
/ˈlɛtərˌbɑks/

Specialized

: ajustar a formato panorámico

Many classic movies are letterboxed on television to preserve their original aspect ratio.

Examples

I love how they letterbox classic movies.
To ensure the film appears correctly on standard screens, you need to letterbox it by adding black bars at the top and bottom.
The streaming service decided to letterbox the film instead of cropping important scenes.
Some viewers prefer not to letterbox content, even if it means losing part of the image.
The film was letterboxed for television.
When converting a widescreen movie for television, it is important to letterbox the image to maintain its intended aspect ratio.
If you want to display the movie properly on smaller screens, remember to letterbox the video so that it fits without distortion.

Surface Forms

letterbox infinitive

letterboxed past

letterboxed past participle

letterboxing present participle

letterboxes third person singular

Morphology

letterbox = letterbox (semi-transparent) = letter + box

The verb is formed by conversion from the noun 'letterbox', and the visual metaphor is fairly clear, but the specialized film-editing meaning is not fully predictable for all learners.

Etymology

To letterbox a movie is to put the wide picture into that same 'letterbox' shape by adding black bars at the top and bottom so the whole width can be seen on a narrower screen. That is why the verb means changing the display to keep the original wide view.