What Pixel Pitch Means, in Plain Terms
The P number, the one rule that follows from it, and the reason most buyers overspend.
The P number is the distance in millimetres between the centres of two neighbouring pixels. P4 means four millimetres apart. Smaller number, more pixels, sharper picture, higher price.
The rule that follows
The minimum comfortable viewing distance in metres is roughly the same number as the pitch in millimetres. A P4 looks clean from about four metres. A P10 from about ten. Stand closer than that and you begin to see individual dots.
Why this saves money
The rule cuts both ways, and the second direction is the one nobody mentions: past the comfortable distance, a finer pitch is invisible. A P1.5 and a P4 look identical from ten metres. If your screen goes above a shutter and is read from across a footpath, the P1.5 quote is money spent on pixels no customer will ever resolve.
Why the price climbs so fast
Pixel count scales with the square of the pitch. Halving the pitch quadruples the LEDs, the driver ICs and the assembly labour in the same area — which is why a P1.5 typically costs three to five times a P4, and why "one step finer" is never a small upgrade.
How to choose in one minute
- Stand where your customer will stand.
- Measure the distance to the screen position, in metres.
- That number is roughly the coarsest pitch in millimetres you can use.
- Showing full video rather than text? Go one step finer. Otherwise, do not.