AN1368 datasheet(3/34 Pages) MICROCHIP

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 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

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