Keystone effect

The keystone effect is caused by attempting to project an image onto a surface at an angle, as with a projector not quite centered onto the screen it is projecting on. It is a distortion of the image dimensions, such as making a square look like a trapezoid, the shape of an architectural keystone, hence the name of the feature. In the typical case of a projector sitting on a table, and looking upwards to the screen, the image is larger at the top than on the bottom. Some areas of the screen may not be focused correctly as the projector lens is focused at the average distance only.