Display resolution

The display resolution or display modes of a digital television, computer monitor, or other display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by different factors in cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays, flat-panel displays (including liquid-crystal displays) and projection displays using fixed picture-element (pixel) arrays.

It is usually quoted as ', with the units in pixels: for example, ' means the width is 1024 pixels and the height is 768 pixels. This example would normally be spoken as "ten twenty-four by seven sixty-eight" or "ten twenty-four by seven six eight".

One use of the term display resolution applies to fixed-pixel-array displays such as plasma display panels (PDP), liquid-crystal displays (LCD), Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors, OLED displays, and similar technologies, and is simply the physical number of columns and rows of pixels creating the display (e.g. ). A consequence of having a fixed-grid display is that, for multi-format video inputs, all displays need a "scaling engine" (a digital video processor that includes a memory array) to match the incoming picture format to the display.

For device displays such as phones, tablets, monitors and televisions, the use of the term display resolution as defined above is a misnomer, though common. The term display resolution is usually used to mean pixel dimensions, the maximum number of pixels in each dimension (e.g. ), which does not tell anything about the pixel density of the display on which the image is actually formed: resolution properly refers to the pixel density, the number of pixels per unit distance or area, not the total number of pixels. In digital measurement, the display resolution would be given in pixels per inch (PPI). In analog measurement, if the screen is 10 inches high, then the horizontal resolution is measured across a square 10 inches wide. For television standards, this is typically stated as "lines horizontal resolution, per picture height"; for example, analog NTSC TVs can typically display about 340 lines of "per picture height" horizontal resolution from over-the-air sources, which is equivalent to about 440 total lines of actual picture information from left edge to right edge. (or, more relevant for control rooms, pixels).

Common display resolutions

{| class="sortable wikitable"

|+ Common display resolutions (N/A = not applicable)

! Standard !! Aspect ratio !! Width (px) !! Height (px) !! Megapixels

!!data-sort-type="number"| Steam (%)

!!data-sort-type="number"| StatCounter (%)

| WXGA ||data-sort-value="1.778"| 16:9 || 1280 || 720 || 0.922 || 0.36 || 4.82

| WXGA ||data-sort-value="1.600"| 16:10 || 1280 || 800 || 1.024 || 0.61 || 3.08

| SXGA ||data-sort-value="1.250"| 5:4 || 1280 || 1024 || 1.311 || 1.24 || 2.47

| HD ||data-sort-value="1.771"| ≈16:9 || 1360 || 768 || 1.044 || 1.55 || 1.38

| HD ||data-sort-value="1.779"| ≈16:9 || 1366 || 768 || 1.049 || 10.22 || 23.26

| WXGA+ ||data-sort-value="1.600"| 16:10 || 1440 || 900 || 1.296 || 3.12 || 6.98

| HD+ ||data-sort-value="1.778"| 16:9 || 1600 || 900 || 1.440 || 2.59 || 4.14

| UXGA ||data-sort-value="1.333"| 4:3 || 1600 || 1200 || 1.920 || N/A || N/A

| WSXGA+ ||data-sort-value="1.600"| 16:10 || 1680 || 1050 || 1.764 || 1.97 || 2.23

| FHD ||data-sort-value="1.778"| 16:9 || 1920 || 1080 || 2.074 || 64.81 || 20.41

| WUXGA ||data-sort-value="1.600"| 16:10 || 1920 || 1200 || 2.304 || 0.81 || 0.93

| UWFHD || data-sort-value="2.370" | ≈21:9 || 2560 || 1080 || 2.765 || 1.13 || data-sort-value="0" | N/A

| QHD || data-sort-value="1.778" | 16:9 || 2560 || 1440 || 3.686 || 6.23 || 2.15

| WQXGA || data-sort-value="1.6" | 16:10 || 2560 || 1600 || 4.096 || <0.58 || <2.4

| UWQHD || data-sort-value="2.389" | ≈21:9 || 3440 || 1440 || 4.954 || 0.87 || data-sort-value="0" | N/A

| 4K UHD ||data-sort-value="1.778"| 16:9 || 3840 || 2160 || 8.294 || 2.12 || data-sort-value="0" | N/A

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Please note this is a table of COMMON RESOLUTIONS, not a table of "all resolutions in existence" or "common resolutions plus some used on 1 or 2 specific products"

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| Other || || || || || 2.00 || 15.09

In recent years the 16:9 aspect ratio has become more common in notebook displays, and (HD) has become popular for most low-cost notebooks, while (FHD) and higher resolutions are available for more premium notebooks.

When a computer display resolution is set higher than the physical screen resolution (native resolution), some video drivers make the virtual screen scrollable over the physical screen thus realizing a two dimensional virtual desktop with its viewport. Most LCD manufacturers do make note of the panel's native resolution as working in a non-native resolution on LCDs will result in a poorer image, due to dropping of pixels to make the image fit (when using DVI) or insufficient sampling of the analog signal (when using VGA connector). Few CRT manufacturers will quote the true native resolution, because CRTs are analog in nature and can vary their display from as low as 320 × 200 (emulation of older computers or game consoles) to as high as the internal board will allow, or the image becomes too detailed for the vacuum tube to recreate (i.e., analog blur). Thus, CRTs provide a variability in resolution that fixed resolution LCDs cannot provide.

Display resolution

Common display resolutions

See also

References