Explain in detail on what the quality of a display depends.

What will be an ideal response?

Student responses will vary, but should be drawn from the following information from the text.

The quality of a display depends primarily on its resolution, response time, brightness, dot pitch, and contrast ratio.

• Resolution is the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in a display. For example, a monitor or screen that has a 1600 X 900 resolution displays up to 1600 pixels per horizontal row and 900 pixels per vertical row, for a total of 1,440,000 pixels to create a screen image. A higher resolution uses a greater number of pixels and, thus, provides a smoother, sharper, and clearer image. As the resolution increases, however, some items on the screen appear smaller. Displays are optimized for a specific resolution, called the native resolution. Although you can change the resolution to any setting, for best results, use the monitor or screen's native resolution setting.

• Response time of a display refers to the time in milliseconds (ms) that it takes to turn a pixel on or off. Response times of displays range from 2 to 16 ms. The lower the number, the faster the response time.

• Brightness of a display is measured in nits. A nit is a unit of visible light intensity equal to one candela (formerly called candlepower) per square meter. The candela is the standard unit of luminous intensity. Displays today range from 250 to 550 nits. The higher the nits, the brighter the images.

• Dot pitch, sometimes called pixel pitch, is the distance in millimeters between pixels on a display. Text created with a smaller dot pitch is easier to read. Advertisements normally specify a display's dot pitch or pixel pitch. Average dot pitch on a display should be .30 mm or lower. The lower the number, the sharper the image.

• Contrast ratio describes the difference in light intensity between the brightest white and darkest black that can be produced on a display. Contrast ratios today range from 500:1 to 2000:1. Higher contrast ratios represent colors better.