How do screens smoothly scale resolutions that aren’t multiples of each other? E.g. playing 1080p or 720p video on a 900p screen, or reducing my phone’s resolution from 1440p to 1080p?

Question

How do screens smoothly scale resolutions that aren’t multiples of each other? E.g. playing 1080p or 720p video on a 900p screen, or reducing my phone’s resolution from 1440p to 1080p?

In: Technology

Answer 1

There are complex algorithms that will combine pixels with their neighbors in certain ways. If you have a higher resolution screen being scaled down such that a pixel should be 70% one color and 30% a different color, the calculation would yield a combined color of the appropriate proportions.