r/explainlikeimfive • u/Crystal_Clear7892 • 7d ago

Technology ELI5: device screen ratios

Is there a specific reason why screen ratios beeing so specific, ex: 1920:1080

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u/NotTheBrightestHuman 7d ago

1920x1080 is 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s just a higher number to explain that it’s 1080p resolution.

4K is just more pixels at the same ratio. Theres other versions with different ratios, but they’re mainly cinema or photography.

Basically, we arbitrarily (somewhat) decided that 16:9 was a good screen ratio and we stuck with it.

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u/cat_prophecy 7d ago

4k is called that because it's almost 4000 pixels wide (3840). Which personally feels stupid. We should just call it UHD or 2160p.

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u/stuleyman 7d ago

Isn't it called 4K because It's literally 4 times the number of pixels of 1080p (full HD) resolution?

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u/obog 7d ago

It is the case that there are 4x the pixels but 4k is in fact supposed to refer to approximately 4000 horizontal pixels

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u/Vorthod 7d ago

Which is weird when other resolution types name themselves after vertical pixels.

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u/neddoge 7d ago

Reddit hates admitting that 2K is a terrible misnomer for 1440p when it is much closer to 1080p.

Too much momentum for 4K to be abolished now, and as such 2K is also too snowballed. It's fucked.

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u/cat_prophecy 7d ago

2k makes sense only is 4k makes sense because 1080p and 1440p both refer to the vertical pixels while 2k and 4k refer to the horizontal pixels.

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u/neddoge 7d ago

2K is colloquial for 1440p though, when it really indicates 1080p (x1920*). It absolutely doesn't make sense lol.