What is Pixel Pitch and why is it important on Big Screens?

As display manufacturing technology has evolved, consumers have become increasingly savvy in their display purchasing decisions, moving from evaluating only simple features like inch size to trying to learn more complex qualities that before they were the exclusive knowledge of professionals such as engineers and graphic designers.

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As a consequence, in recent years concepts such as screen type (plasma, LCD or LED), resolution (HD, Full HD, 4K, Ultra HD, etc.) or number of colors (generally expressed in millions) and number of colors have become popular. Although the knowledge that consumers have of these terms is very scant, it responds to the growing awareness of purchase that began to emerge in global society since the beginning of the last decade.

At iLed Display, we know that it is better to promote the purchase through sufficient, well-defined and explained information, instead of doing it solely through irrational motivating impulses. This is how we achieve that, when purchasing one of our giant advertising screens, you are fully satisfied with the set of elements that make up this product.

On this occasion we will talk about an important notion when choosing a screen but that is still hardly taken into account today: the Pixel Pitch.

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Definition

In English, pixel pitch means pixel pitch, however, for practice purposes, the definition is a bit more complex. The pixel pitch is understood as the distance in millimeters between the centers of the pixels that make up the same panel, that is, of a screen.

In this way, the greater the pixel pitch, the greater the distance between pixels. This measurement is expressed with a letter P followed by the number of millimeters in number, so that a pixel pitch of 6 mm is expressed as P6.

Does the word pixel ring a bell?

If you have bought screens or have lived with products, services and professionals from the graphic industry, it is very likely that at this moment you are thinking, pixel? It sounds familiar... it sounds familiar and we are sure that you have heard this term in many other word combinations to designate different characteristics, for example: size in pixels, video in 1920 pixels, resolution of 300 pixels per inch, a few pixels melted in a the screen, printing at 150 pixels, etc.

We do not want to confuse you, so rather than define the concept of pixel, we are going to explain it to you. Pixels are the standard unit of relative measurement for visual communication that is taken into account in most applications related to science and graphic disciplines, in other words, they are the simplest points or squares of a projection that in sum make up the image displayed.

As you know, the main surface of a screen is made up of pixels and in this way, if at iLed Display we show you a certain model of a giant advertising screen with four thousand pixels, we are meaning that this screen has a total of 4,000 squares on its surface. surface that make up the image or video that could be reproduced on it, where each one is in charge of projecting a specific part.

A little history

Do you remember old televisions? Those devices that occupied a large part of the available space in the rooms in which they were placed, with screens made of very thick, greyish curved glass that, when activated, took a few seconds to start projecting the images captured by their receiver. In Mexico it was common to go to a corner store and find the owner with one of these televisions on his counter to entertain himself while he was not busy at work.

As with most electronic devices, in their early days they incorporated severely larger components than they do today. In the case of the television, the core part of its purpose was found in the cathode ray tube, which consisted of a vacuum crystal that transported electrons until crashing them into a surface composed mainly of phosphor and lead, responsible for illuminating at different intensities ( and colors at the time) to produce the image and not contaminate viewers with radioactivity in the process.

As you can imagine, all this mechanism required relatively much larger structures than current technologies and that caused the pixel pitch to be much higher in a reduced area. Since the emergence of the television and throughout its history, one of the concerns when designing new screen technologies is always to improve the quality of the projected image and, therefore, reduce the pixel pitch in the new models.

Why is it useful to know the pixel pitch on the screens?

As we already said, pixel pitch is the distance that exists between the center of one pixel and another, this influences the quality of the image that the screens project inversely, that is, the lower the pixel pitch, the better definition and quality in the image. image projection.

In this way, if you are in a shopping center in Mexico, comparing two screens with similar specifications and prices because you want to buy the one with the best definition to have at home, you should choose the one with the lowest pixel pitch.

The Pixel Pitch in the choice of giant LED screens.

The logic of the previous paragraph would seem to indicate to advertisers that they should always choose the lowest pixel pitch on giant advertising screens if what they want is the best image quality; that giant LED screens should have a smaller pixel pitch than televisions for domestic use because it is a product with industrial-grade complexity; Or, that a good pixel pitch can make small images look good quality when enlarged. Reasoning of this type is part of the erroneous beliefs about pixel pitch and can cause you to make a bad choice when buying a giant screen for advertising purposes.

According to the experience that we have acquired in iLed Display over the years that we have been present in the industry, we discovered that there is a minimum number of pixels per square meter so that your giant screen can project non-verbal images and video with a sufficient quality and that minimum is 30,000 px/m2, since values lower than that will only allow you to project texts without movement in good quality.

The next thing you should take into account is that a higher pixel pitch produces more opening in the projection of images and therefore it is necessary to move away from the corresponding screen to be able to appreciate them clearly. That said, you may realize that the bigger a giant LED screen is, the less it matters that the pixel pitch is small because the graphic quality of a reduced pitch between pixels goes unnoticed by viewers at a distance (for example, a screen with a pixel pitch of 6 mm seen from 8 meters away, it is appreciated with the same quality as if the same screen had a pixel pitch of 4 mm).

To this we must add that a narrow pixel pitch implies a greater number of pixels on the screen and that raises its cost considerably. Thus, depending on the place where you are going to place your giant advertising screen, at iLed Display we recommend you invest in a screen with a pixel pitch of no less than 3 mm and, above all, let yourself be advised by professionals in this industry at all times.

The correct value based on viewing distance.

This is one of many criteria that you can use to select the optimal pixel pitch for your advertising giant screen, after all, it will always depend on the conditions of the place where you plan to place it and the type of display you want. Our best recommendation will continue to be that you accompany yourself with the personalized advice of our professionals.

As a reference, for screens that are going to be viewed from 3 meters, a pixel pitch P3 (3 mm) should be used, for a distance of 5 meters it should be P4, for views from 6 meters it should be P5, 8 meters corresponds a P6, for visualizations from 10 to 14 meters away a P8 is appropriate and for expectation from 15 meters away a P10 corresponds.

How many pixels does a screen have according to its pixel pitch?

Again, the correct answer to that question is that it depends on the size of the screen, but what we can assure you from iLed Display is that there is a standard number of pixels per square meter according to the different pitches with which the LEDs are manufactured.

We can list the number of pixels per square meter as follows:

P4 = 62,500 pixels/m2

P5 = 40,000 pixels/m2

P6 = 27,778 pixels/m2

P8 = 15,625 pixels/m2

P10 = 10,000 pixels/m2

P16 = 3,906 pixels/m2

Suppose you have a screen that measures 3 meters wide by 2 meters high and a P10 that, according to the previous table, is equivalent to 10,000 pixels/m2. Remembering a little primary education, we obtain the surface of the screen by multiplying base by height, which in this case results in 6m2 and that last number is multiplied by 10,000, finally deducing that this screen is made up of 60,000 pixels.