Relationship between the pixel, pitch and the pixel pitch

General introduction

Resolution, or the total number of LED screen pixels in a display, is a very important factor that affects the performance of the sign. More resolution means more LED diodes and more circuits, which usually means better picture quality.
 
 

What is the pixel?

A LED pixel is a point of light and the smallest element of an LED screen. An LED screen is manufactured by an array of pixels. Pixels are capable to present letters, graphics, animations and videos.
In outdoor LED screens, these tend to be made up of 1 red, 2 green and 1 blue LEDs (or sometimes 2R, 1G, 1B). The LEDs in each pixel light up to different intensities to create a specific color, updating many times a second, and each screen is made up of hundreds of thousands of LED screen pixels, creating a seamless picture.
It’s the same principal as how your television or computer screen works; however, because the viewer is much further away the pixels don’t need to be as tiny.

 

What is the pitch?

Pitch is the distance (usually in millimeters) between pixels. LED screen Pitch is always measured from the center of one pixel to the center of an adjacent pixel. The smaller the pitch number, the higher the resolution quality. Larger the pitch numbers indicate a lower resolution. A pixel can be one single diode, or a pixel can be a cluster of many diodes running off the same circuit.

                   
      
12mm Pitch                                         16mm Pitch                                           20mm Pitch
 

What is pixel pitch?

Pixel pitch is to reflect the pixel density from the two pixel distance, pixel pitch and pixel density is led screen’s physical attribute; Information capacity is the unit of quantity for per unit area pixel pitch’s one-off shows information carrying capacity. The smaller the pixel pitch, the higher the pixel density, the more information capacity for unit area one-off shows, the closer the viewing distance. 

Typically, pixel pitches for indoor LED screens are 6 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm. Pixel pitches for outdoorLED screens are 15 mm, 20 mm, 25 mm and 30 mm- outdoor LED screens tend to be larger than indoor screens, as the viewing distance is often greater. We could, for example, use a 6 mm pitch and a slightly bigger LED screen to achieve a full VGA resolution, or a more cost effective solution would be to use a bigger pitch with a lower resolution LED screen. The finer the pixel pitch, the more expensive the LED screen, so the ideal solution will always be a combination of cost and resolution.

How to choose LED display pixel pitch?

Choose the LED screen pixel pitch, there are two factors:
1. LED screen viewing distance.
    Where is the led screen, and usually how far the people stay to watch it, this is only one important factor for make sure pixel pitch.
    Usually there is a formula for the optimal viewing distance= pixel pitch/(0.3~0.8)，this is a roughly range. For example, the pixel pitch 16mm led display, the best viewing distance is 20~54 meters, the closer distance, then could distinguish the led screen’s every pixel pitch, when stay more far, then could not distinguish instead. (what we said is based on normal vision, not including the myopia and hyperopia)
    For outdoor led screen, the close distance, usually use PH10 or PH12，the more far distance use PH16 orPH20,for indoor led screen, usually use P4~PH6 is ok the more far distance use PH7.62 or PH10.
2. LED screen pixel pitch.
    For video, the basic format is VCD, 352*288 resolution, DVD format 768*576. So for the video screen, we suggest that the lowest resolution no less than 352*288, so the screen effect is good enough. If lower resolution, it also can show, but not up to much better effect.
    For single and double color LED display which mainly show text and images, not require high resolution, according to the actual size, could show the minimum 9 size font, it is up to your text amount.
    Therefore, generally choose LED screen, the smaller the pixel pitch, the higher the resolution will be, and the show effect will be clearer. But this also consider the cost and demand, application scope and other factors.