If you have a magnifying glass handy, hold it over
an advertisement or photograph in any magazine. You
will see thousands of colored dots or pixels, which
make up the "screen" of the photograph. At close
range, these dots are quite noticeable, but at
normal viewing distances, you do not see the dots,
just the image they form.
LED signs work exactly the same way. Viewed up close, they're a jumble of
colored dots. As you back away from the display, the dots become less
noticeable. Eventually, your eyes stop paying attention to the display structure
and concentrate instead on the images being formed. Depending on how coarse or
fine the matrix of LEDs, this distance will vary from tens to hundreds of feet.
The matrix area is also known as the pixel matrix, which corresponds to the
number of pixels that make up the display area. Electronic LED signs describe
the matrix area by the number of pixels vertically by the number of pixels
horizontally. For example, 16x80 (16 vertical rows by 80 horizontal rows).
The matrix of an LED sign determines how many
characters will fit on a line, and how many lines will fit on a particular
display.
Resolution
Resolution is the degree of sharpness and clarity of a displayed image. In
electronic LED signs, resolution is based on two primary factors, the
matrix area and pitch.
The matrix area is also known as the pixel matrix, which corresponds to
the number of pixels that make up the display area. Electronic LED
displays describe the matrix area by the number of pixels vertically by
the number of pixels horizontally. For example, 16x80 (16 vertical rows
by 80 horizontal rows).
The Standard Character Matrix
A LED sign will utilize a matrix of 7 pixels x 5
pixels to show standard English characters.
Lines of Characters on a LED Sign
Because a space is needed between lines of
characters, eight pixel rows are required to display a standard row of characters
on a LED sign. A LED sign with 16 pixel rows will show two lines of characters.
24 pixels will display 3 lines, etc.
Number of Characters on a LED Sign
Because a space is needed between characters, it
requires six pixel columns to display each standard character. Consequently a
LED sign with 64 pixel columns will display 10 characters, 80 columns will
display 13 characters, etc.
