--- title: A rant about resolutions | daily.dev description: A pedantic breakdown of how monitor and video resolutions are named and why common shorthand labels like '2k' for 2560x1440 monitors are technically wrong.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-rant-about-resolutions-nj9ql03d1 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A rant about resolutions | daily.dev og:description: A pedantic breakdown of how monitor and video resolutions are named and why common shorthand labels like '2k' for 2560x1440 monitors are technically wrong.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-rant-about-resolutions-nj9ql03d1 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NJ9QL03D1.png og:image:alt: A rant about resolutions og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A rant about resolutions **[Lobsters](https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A pedantic breakdown of how monitor and video resolutions are named and why common shorthand labels like '2k' for 2560x1440 monitors are technically wrong. Covers the origins of the 'p' suffix (progressive scan, not pixel lines), the 'k' prefix as a metric unit, and why true 4k is DCI 4096-wide while consumer '4k' monitors are actually UltraHD at 3840x2160. Includes a reference table of common resolutions with their formal names, vertical labels, and horizontal labels. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Game Developer’s Guide to Understanding Screen Resolution](https://daily.dev/posts/a-game-developer-s-guide-to-understanding-screen-resolution-bfoavry8m) · freeCodeCamp · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Moving to 4K taught me which monitor specs actually matter](https://daily.dev/posts/moving-to-4k-taught-me-which-monitor-specs-actually-matter-lwbdzwhjt) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [4K gaming stopped feeling like a luxury once I ditched my 1440p monitor](https://daily.dev/posts/4k-gaming-stopped-feeling-like-a-luxury-once-i-ditched-my-1440p-monitor-itfdeojek) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Many Pixels Do You Really Need?](https://daily.dev/posts/how-many-pixels-do-you-really-need--9dw3ttbsd) · Lobsters · 2 upvotes · 2 comments - [Pushing As Many Pixels As Possible To A CRT: Interlaced 4K](https://daily.dev/posts/pushing-as-many-pixels-as-possible-to-a-crt-interlaced-4k-pecjx2ewr) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-rant-about-resolutions-nj9ql03d1) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A rant about resolutions","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-rant-about-resolutions-nj9ql03d1","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-rant-about-resolutions-nj9ql03d1"},"datePublished":"2026-03-22T03:00:11.073Z","dateModified":"2026-03-22T03:00:40.157Z","description":"A pedantic breakdown of how monitor and video resolutions are named and why common shorthand labels like '2k' for 2560x1440 monitors are technically wrong....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/448138d6f2b36bcfd3a3a2f869015e47?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/448138d6f2b36bcfd3a3a2f869015e47?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Lobsters","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Lobsters","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--tl8v_Fku--/f_auto,t_logo/v1698841318/logos/lobste.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-rant-about-resolutions-nj9ql03d1","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lobsters","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/lobsters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A rant about resolutions"}]} ```