LED Pixel, LED Pitch, & LED Matrix Explained
Pitch and Matrix are the two most important factors when looking for a sign or comparing quotes between Golden Rule Co. and a competitor. These two variables determine the size of your display as well as the quality of the image and text it is able to produce. Keep reading to learn more about Pixel, Pitch and Matrix in terms of LED sign technology
What is a Pixel?
A pixel is a cluster of 1 or more LED’s. Monochrome and Grayscale LED sign pixels have 1 or more LED’s of either red or amber while full color pixels feature red, green and blue LED’s. More LED’s per pixel will produce higher quality pictures, animations and text.
What is LED Sign Pitch
The pitch of an LED sign is the distance between each pixel. If the specifications of a sign you are buying state that the Pitch (or resolution) is 20mm – this means there are twenty millimeters from the center of one pixel to the next. The smaller the pitch the more LEDs per square-foot which means the resolution will be higher. A sign with a 20 mm pitch can show more characters and the picture will be clearer up close than a sign of the same case size with a pitch of 34mm. If you are displaying a lot of graphics and you want your images to look crisper and more realistic, then your pixels should be located closer together. If you are just running text without a lot of graphics, you can go with a pitch where the pixels are located further apart.
What is Matrix
An LED display’s matrix represents how many pixels on the display. A display with a matrix resolution of 32 (h) by 128 (w) means it has 32 pixels from top to bottom and 128 from left to right. A higher matrix on your LED sign will give you #1 more lines of text, #2 more characters per line and #3 better images and video. If you are purchasing (for example) a 4’ tall x 8’ long sign, selecting a smaller pitch will increase the matrix of the display which means better image quality. A 20mm resolution 4’ tall x 8’ long LED sign has a pixel matrix of 56×112 pixels (56 rows x 112 columns = 6,272 pixels). On the other hand a 16mm resolution 4’ tall x 8’ long LED sign has a pixel matrix of 72×144 which gives you a total of 10,368. That’s 65% more pixels in the same square footage = a much higher resolution sign.
