Key Takeaways
- Start with your closest viewer: The distance to your closest regular viewer, in metres, is roughly the coarsest pitch in millimetres that will still look clean to them.
- Finer pitch gets expensive fast: Halving the pitch quadruples the pixels per square metre. Going finer than your audience can see adds cost, not quality.
- Pitch is fixed for life: Content, brightness and mounting can all change after installation. Pixel pitch can’t.
Pixel pitch is usually the first number on an LED display specification. It also does the most to decide how the screen looks, where it can be seen from and what it costs. Choose too coarse and people up close see a grid of dots rather than an image. Choose too fine and you pay for detail nobody is close enough to notice.
This guide covers what pixel pitch is, how to match it to viewing distance, and what should move your choice finer or coarser.
What is pixel pitch?
Pixel pitch is the distance from the centre of one pixel to the centre of the next, measured in millimetres. It’s usually written with a P, so a P2.5 display has pixel centres 2.5 mm apart. Each pixel combines red, green and blue LEDs. The lower the pitch, the more tightly packed the pixels and the more detail the screen can show.
Because pixels sit in a grid, density climbs with the square of the pitch. A P10 screen has 10,000 pixels per square metre, a P2.5 screen has 160,000 and a P1.25 screen has 640,000. More pixels means more LEDs and more driver electronics, which is why pitch is one of the biggest influences on price.
How viewing distance determines pixel pitch
The eye can only resolve so much detail. Close to a coarse screen, viewers see individual pixels and the dark gaps between them, often called the screen door effect. Further back, the pixels merge into a smooth image. Two rules of thumb mark out the useful range:
- Closest comfortable viewing distance: about 1 m for every millimetre of pitch. A P4 screen looks acceptable from around 4 m.
- Where pixels disappear: about 3.4 m for every millimetre of pitch. Beyond this distance, someone with normal vision can’t pick out individual pixels. A P4 screen looks seamless from around 14 m.
Most screens are viewed somewhere between the two.
| Pixel pitch | Closest comfortable viewing | Pixels no longer visible* | Typical applications |
| Under 1.5 mm | 1 to 1.5 m | 3 to 5 m | Control rooms, broadcast studios, boardrooms |
| 1.5 to 2.5 mm | 1.5 to 2.5 m | 5 to 9 m | Meeting rooms, foyers, retail, customer service areas |
| 2.5 to 4 mm | 2.5 to 4 m | 9 to 14 m | Shopping centres, large indoor spaces, street-level outdoor screens |
| 4 to 6 mm | 4 to 6 m | 14 to 21 m | Outdoor screens on facades, forecourts and public spaces |
| 6 to 10 mm | 6 to 10 m | 21 to 34 m | Larger building-mounted screens, sports grounds |
| 10 to 16 mm | 10 to 16 m | 34 to 55 m | Roadside and large-format screens, stadiums |
*For someone with normal (20/20) vision, which resolves detail down to about one arcminute.
When measuring, use your closest regular viewer rather than the average one, because they are the people who will notice the grid. Measure to the screen face, too. A screen mounted high on a wall or facade is further from people standing beneath it than the floor plan suggests.
Resolution: pitch and screen size work together
Pitch sets how dense the pixels are, and screen size sets how many there are in total. To find a screen’s resolution, divide its width and height in millimetres by the pitch. A 4 m × 2.25 m screen at P2.5 is 1,600 × 900 pixels.
This matters when content is produced at a set resolution. Here’s the screen size needed to show a Full HD (1920 × 1080) image pixel for pixel:
| Pixel pitch | Screen size for native Full HD (W × H) |
| 0.93 mm | 1.8 m × 1.0 m |
| 1.25 mm | 2.4 m × 1.35 m |
| 1.56 mm | 3.0 m × 1.7 m |
| 2.5 mm | 4.8 m × 2.7 m |
| 3.9 mm | 7.5 m × 4.2 m |
| 6 mm | 11.5 m × 6.5 m |
| 10 mm | 19.2 m × 10.8 m |
Fine pitch is how a boardroom or broadcast wall fits Full HD into two or three metres. At the other end, a P10 screen would need to be over 19 m wide to reach Full HD. It doesn’t need to, because its audience is far enough away that content built at the screen’s native resolution looks sharp. Screens are built from whole cabinets, so final sizes and resolutions will vary slightly from these figures.
When to go finer or coarser
Viewing distance gives you a starting point. These factors adjust it.
- Small text and data: Each character needs enough pixels to form cleanly. Wayfinding, timetables, menus and dashboards read better one step finer than video at the same distance.
- Video and distant audiences: Moving images are forgiving. If most viewers are well back from the screen, the coarser end of the range delivers the same experience for less.
- Screens on camera: When a camera films an LED screen, its sensor grid can clash with the screen’s pixel grid and produce moiré, the rippling patterns sometimes seen on TV. A finer pitch helps, and so does a refresh rate of 3,840 Hz or higher, which avoids flicker and scan lines. This matters in studios, at live events, and in any room where proceedings are livestreamed, such as a council chamber.
- Outdoor brightness: Screens in direct Australian sun typically need 5,000 cd/m² (nits) or more. Indoor screens run at roughly 600 to 1,500, or more if they face out through shopfront glass. Finer outdoor pitches generally use smaller LED packages with lower peak brightness, so on sun-facing sites check brightness as well as pitch. Outdoor screens also need automatic dimming at night, because planning conditions often cap night-time brightness to control light spill.
Don’t pay for pixels nobody can see
If your closest viewers are 10 m away, a P2.5 screen shows detail nobody can see. It also costs much more per square metre than a pitch that suits the distance. That budget usually does more as a larger screen, the right brightness or easier service access.
The opposite mistake can’t be fixed later. If people regularly stand close to a coarse screen, the pixel grid is there for the life of the display.
Choosing a pixel pitch in four steps
- Measure the closest regular viewing distance to the screen face, in metres. The same number in millimetres is the coarsest pitch to consider.
- Adjust for content. Step finer for small text, data or on-camera use. The coarser end suits video watched mostly from further back.
- Check the resolution. Divide the screen’s width and height in millimetres by the pitch, and confirm there are enough pixels for your content.
- Check the site. Consider indoor or outdoor, sun exposure, neighbours at night, and how the screen will be serviced.
Example: A council is planning a screen on a library facade facing a town square. The nearest regular viewers pass about 5 m from the screen face, and most people see it from 10 to 30 m away. That puts the coarsest sensible pitch at about 5 mm. The content is mainly video and event graphics, so there’s no need to go much finer, and around 4 mm suits. A 4 m × 2.5 m screen at 4 mm gives 1,000 × 625 pixels, plenty for video and bold text. The facade faces west, so afternoon brightness matters. With apartments across the square, automatic night dimming belongs in the specification from the start.
Talk to Innov8 about your LED display
We start every LED display recommendation from viewing distance, then work through content, brightness and how the screen will be serviced. If you’re a contractor pricing a display or a council scoping one, send us the site location, the closest viewing distance and what the screen will show. We’ll recommend a pitch to suit.
Innov8 supplies the display. Installation, electrical work and structural certification sit with your contractor.
Explore our LED displays or call 1300 071 007.
Pixel Pitch FAQs
What does P2.5 mean on an LED display?
It means a pixel pitch of 2.5 mm: the centres of neighbouring pixels are 2.5 mm apart. The lower the number, the higher the resolution for a given screen size.
What pixel pitch do I need for a 3 m viewing distance?
About 3 mm or finer. If the screen will show small text or data, or appear on camera, go to 2.5 mm or below.
Is a smaller pixel pitch always better?
Only if people are close enough to see the difference. Beyond about 3.4 m per millimetre of pitch, viewers with normal vision can’t pick out individual pixels, so a finer screen costs more without looking sharper.
What pixel pitch is used for outdoor LED screens?
Anything from about 2.5 mm for street-level screens seen up close to 16 mm or more for roadside and large-format screens viewed from a distance. Outdoor screens also need far more brightness than indoor ones, so check both.