What information can be displayed with a dot matrix display?

        Elevators, carriages, or advertising moving sign in everyday life use monochrome or multi-color dot matrix displays to display floor information, station current locations, and advertising information are very common applications, but dot matrix displays do not have the means to display all the details of each word and graphic, so must be rendered through simplified pixelated graphics, Arabic numerals, case English and Chinese Traditional. There are three most common types of display information for dot matrix displays:

• Pixelated graphics
• Arabic numerals/ Uppercase /Lowercase English letter
• Traditional Chinese

This article will introduce the above three types, and take the production of using OPD-M35760(1)LA square dot 3Φ 5×7 dot matrix to display Arabic numerals, Uppercase  & Lowercase English letter and  Chinese Traditional for example.

Use dot matrix display to display pixelated graphics.

　　There are usually two ways to use a dot matrix display to display pixelated graphics

Pixelated the high resolution graphics, and then use dot matrix display to display.

We use the Pixel Art network tool to express high-resolution graphics, pixilation will lose the characteristics of detail, the following image of OPTO PLUS LOGO for example, you can see that if you use more dots of dot matrix display, you can restore more details, if the product application needs to display very detailed patterns, you must choose a more dots , small pitch dot matrix display for a more complete performance.

Picture: Use the Pixel Art，and use two zoom values (pixel size) of 0.15 and 0.05 to pixelate the OPTO PLUS LOGO.

This is to determine how many dots to use, above the dot matrix, sketch out the pattern you want to represent, and then use a dot matrix display with enough dot to display, you can use an APP like piskel or an APP like dotpict to create the desired graph, and then use an LED dot matrix display with enough dots to display.  The following icon uses 32 x 32 dot matrix display to draw OPTO PLUS LOGO with dotpict, and the following image (A) is the final graphic. The dot matrix in practice, because the structure must be separated between each emitting dot, actually represents the dot spacing between the upper dot and the dot (Pixel pitch, also known as Dot pitch) must affect the graph, if use the square dot LED dot matrix display to show the above-mentioned OPTO PLUS LOGO, the appearance will look like Figure (B).

Use the dot matrix display to display information

In addition to pixelated graphics, the dot matrix display is used to display information such as case English and Arabic numerals, and applications can be found in life.  For example, take “ARIGATO” written at the closing ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, for example, the square dot matrix display displays capital English characters in a format of 5×7 dot matrix. The following will be based on OPTO PLUS’s standard dot matrix display 3Φ 5×7 Square dot matrix display(OPD-M35760(1)LA) to display common information: capital English letters, lower case English letters, Arabic numerals.

Use dot matrix display to display Upper case English Letters and Lower case English Letters

The format most commonly used to display English letters is the use of a 5×7 dot matrix font type, refer to the example of the font size available with 5×7 dot matrix font , provide on the network, the following illustration produces a 5×7 dot matrix diagram of OPTO PLUS. The following image produced a dot matrix to display OPTO PLUS by 5×7 dot matrix. Other commonly used formats are 5×9, 7×5, 3×5, 4×6.

Use 5×7 dot matrix display to display upper case English Letters

The following image using OPTO PLUS 3Φ 5×7 Square dot matrix display to show a diagram of all upper case English Letters..

Use 5×7 dot matrix display to display lower case English Letters.

The following image using OPTO PLUS3Φ 5×7 Square dot matrix (OPD-M35760(1)LA)  to show a diagram of all lower case English Letters. Please also can download to PDF version/PNG version 。

Use 5×7 dot matrix display to display Arabic numerals.

The following image using OPTO PLUS3Φ 5×7 Square dot matrix (OPD-M35760(1)LA)  to show a diagram of Arabic numerals. Please also can download to PDF version/PNG Version。

Use dot matrix display to display Traditional Chinese

Referring to the《Speaking time：Chinese dot matrix》written by justfont , in this article, we can see that the minimum dot matrix that can display most of Chinese words is 16×16 dots, in addition to 24×24, 32×32,64×64, 128×128 isometric, more dots, you can display more complete Chinese word details, the figure above with 16×16 dot matrix display to show「展躍」, two words.  The figure below with 16×16 square dot matrix hand-drawn Chinese .You can use the comparison of the figure above and the figure below to understand the detail difference shown in the dot matrix.

In addition, justfont ‘s《Speaking time：Chinese dot matrix》also has a graphic for comparison, with 16×16/24×24/36×36 to show the same type of text details differences, if you need to display Chinese on the dot matrix display, you can refer to Bitmap font，or free dot matrix font making tool Bitmap Font Generator。

Conclusion

Dot matrix display is much cheaper than LCD screen, in many budget is not high, but need to display simple information is often used in the application, this article describes how to use dot matrix display to display pixelated information, capital letters, lower case English letters and Arabic numerals, product designers can choose the appropriate way to use according to demand, if you need to use standard dot matrix display, or to integrate dot matrix display into other kinds of LED display, you can use contact form, or send a letter to sales@opledtw.com, please let 10 years of experience OPTO PLUS to help you to design the most suitable LED display for your application.