What is Pixel Pitch, and why does it matter to your LED signage?

If you’ve been researching your next LED digital signage project, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard the term pixel pitch somewhere before. You might also heard it called dot pitch, or line pitch, or stripe pitch – they’re basically different terms for the same thing.

Unfortunately, none of them can be truthfully described as amongst the more obvious technical terms in the industry, so it can be difficult to work out its meaning unless you’ve got the requisite technical knowledge behind you. If you’re ever visiting us in person here at Scanlite, one of our experts will be only too happy to give you an explanation in person, but until then, the information below should be enough to give you a pretty good idea of the basics.

Now, you don’t need to be an expert to know that on every LED digital display, the picture itself is comprised of vast amounts of individual dots, or pixels, illuminating and fading in turn. Pixel pitch is essentially a measure of their density.

What is Pixel Pitch?

In its simplest terms, pixel pitch is a measurement of the space between the centre of one pixel to the centre of the next one, providing a reference point for the density of pixels on an LED display. The pixel pitch can be measured purely in terms of distance, i.e. millimetres, or as a rate, i.e. dots-per-inch.

So, why does this matter? Well, a smaller pixel pitch indicates that you can fit more pixels onto a screen, providing a higher resolution and making the actual image more richly detailed. That makes a screen’s pixel pitch instrumental in working out the optimal viewing distance, and how far away people should be from it for the best viewing experience.

How do I know which pixel pitch is best for me?

It can be difficult to work this out yourself without the requisite technical knowledge, but then again, that’s what our experts are here for! The right viewing distance is obviously a hugely important element in any kind of LED digital display, and it’s largely dictated by the specific application that you’ve got in mind for your LED digital display. Technically, you could in theory combine any screen and pixel pitch you like, but a pixel pitch that ends up being disproportionate to your screen size can end up providing a very poor user experience, or cause your budget to balloon unnecessarily (or even both).

If you’re planning on incorporating LED indoor signage into a retail or commercial environment for example, it’s likely that your key demographics are going to be experiencing that content from a relatively short range of only a few feet. This means that on balance, you’d generally be well-advised to use screens with a shorter pixel pitch, so that the image and text is rendered in sufficient detail for your viewers to properly read or otherwise enjoy.

On the other hand, if you’re thinking of outdoor LED advertising boards to be displayed in cities or large urban environments, or electronic display boards for sports stadiums, then choosing screens with a larger pixel pitch is far more efficient, from both a financial and energy-intensive perspective. A large screen with an overly-short pixel pitch will end up costing unnecessarily large amounts of money on rendering images in equally unnecessary detail, especially since it won’t be noticed or properly appreciated by your viewers.

So to recap:

• Pixel pitch refers to the density of the pixels on an LED screen
• Different pixel pitches will be suitable for different screens, depending on what their viewing distance will be
• Smaller screens with closer viewing distances generally fare better with shorter pixel pitches
• Larger screens with longer viewing distances are best served with larger pixel pitches

So that’s all the basics covered! If you have any further questions or you need a bit more detail, we’re only too happy to help here at Scanlite. We offer an extensive range of digital signage solutions for you to choose from, and serve a wide array of sectors, including hospitality, finance, and health and leisure. We know this technology inside out, and exactly how it can be used to achieve your goals as a business. To find out how we can help you, feel free to give us a call today on 01253 302723, or email us on sales@scanlite.co.uk.