Datasheet

 2011 Microchip Technology Inc. DS01368A-page 3
AN1368
BASIC DISPLAY TERMINOLOGY
A screen is made up of discrete elements, known as
pixels. Every pixel can show one point of color and
each pixel is composed of three points: Red, Green
and Blue. The colors are arranged next to each other
on a color screen, one point of intensity on a grayscale
screen or one point that can be set to on/off on a
monochrome screen. The number of such pixels in
horizontal and vertical directions is called the screen
resolution. For example, a resolution of 320x240
means there are 320 pixels horizontally (number of
columns) and 240 pixels vertically (number of rows).
Standard resolutions are given names, such as QCIF
(176x144), CIF (352x288),QVGA (320x240), WQVGA
(480x272), VGA (640x480) and WVGA (800x480), etc.
While mentioning the resolution, it is always better to
refer to the numbers instead of the names.
A screen can be in Landscape mode (width > height) or
in Portrait mode (height > width). The ratio of the
display screen’s visible width to its visible height is
called the ‘Aspect Ratio’. The most commonly used
aspect ratio is 4:3. The diagonal length of the display
screen is termed as the length of the display.
For example, a display of 3.5'' means that the diagonal
length of the display is 3.5'', as shown in Figure 5.
FIGURE 5: A 3.5
''
QVGA DISPLAY IN LANDSCAPE MODE
240 Pixels
3.5
''
320 Pixels