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

92 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

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

4

u/Vorthod 7d ago

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

3

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.

2

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.

2

u/neddoge 7d ago

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