What is "Retina"? Pixel Density or PPI as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
606 words · ~3 min read
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resolution is often the only spec quoted when referring to the finess of a
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digital image but there's actually much more to it than that a 5in 1280x 720
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image will look sharp and crisp on your phone but if you projected a 720p image
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in a movie theater it would look horrible so that my friends is where
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pixel density comes in a measure of the resolution that also accounts for the
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size of the screen PPI has become the most common way to denote pixel density
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although pixels per centimeter or PPC
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can also be used to calculate PPI simply
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measure 1 inch diagonally on the screen then draw a line diagonally through them
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and find out how many pixels it intersects with so I heard higher pixel
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density is always better is that right
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well sort of the geek andme wants to say yes bring it on more but in reality it
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requires Advanced display technology and more processing power so it's not always
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practical from a cost and Manufacturing perspective to keep driving up pixel
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density with older devices there was tons of room for improvement diagonal
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lines looked like this and circles even had an ugly staircase effect but this is
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improved in recent years and we've even begun to see displays where the eye
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cannot even pick out the individual pixels on the display once that point is
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reached there's not much benefit to continuing to add cost and complexity to
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manufacturing because most people won't notice anyway Apple's branding for this
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good enough density concept is Retina but to determine if a display is Retina
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there's one last thing to consider how far away are you going to be from the
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display is this rea.com has a handy little tool for this and according to
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their calculator a 55 in 1080 PTV will
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have the same perceived pixel density from 7 ft away as this 4.7 in 1080P
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phone does from 7 in away but there's more to a great display than how many
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pixels it has of course contrast color
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accuracy and pixel response times impact the viewing experience tremendously and
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different display types can even affect other things like the battery life of
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your device improving power efficiency panel Technologies also play a large
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role for example while both the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC1 have 1080p
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displays the S4 uses a pentile matrix
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Amo LED display that has fewer dots on
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it overall while the one uses a more standard LCD display with RGB sub pixels
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click the link in the video description to learn more about this speaking of
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links in the video description our sponsor for this episode is audible.com
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