Overview: Picture geometry

Picture geometry relates stored dimensions and orientation to the shape of the image shown on screen.

Why can a high-resolution film still look stretched or surrounded by black bars? Stored dimensions describe the pixel grid, while aspect ratios, cropping and rotation determine how that grid is presented. The geometry topics make those relationships explicit before a scaling or display-setting problem is investigated.

• Video resolution
  Video resolution describes the width and height of a video picture in samples.

• Aspect ratios
  Aspect ratios describe the shapes of the stored pixels and the intended displayed picture.

• Letterboxing and pillarboxing
  Letterboxing and pillarboxing preserve picture proportions by leaving space above and below or beside the image.

• Cropping video
  Cropping removes a rectangular border or region from a video picture.

• Video rotation metadata
  Video rotation metadata describes a display transformation without requiring the stored picture samples to be rotated.