4K resolution
video or display resolutions with a width of around 4,000 pixels
4K resolution is a generic term to refer to any horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Several different 4K resolutions have been standardized by various organizations, including 4096 × 2160 for digital cinematography, and 3840 × 2160 for digital television.
The terms 4K and Ultra HD are used more widely in marketing than 2160p (cf. 1080p), and typically refer to motion pictures and video. Some digital camera vendors have used the term 4K photo for still photographs, making it appear like an especially high resolution even though 3840 × 2160 pixels equal approximately 8.3 megapixels, which is not considered to be especially high for still photographs. 4K resolution is approximately 8 million pixels, which is 4 times as many as 1080p. 4K television market share increased as prices fell dramatically throughout 2013 and 2014.
Standards
DCI Digital Cinema System Specification
In 2005, Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a prominent standards organization in the cinema industry, published the Digital Cinema System Specification. This specification establishes standardized 2K and 4K container formats for digital cinema production, with resolutions of 2048 × 1080 and 4096 × 2160 respectively. The resolution of the video content inside follows the SMPTE ST 429 standard, which establishes the following resolutions for a 4K distribution:
4096 × 2160 (full frame, 256∶135 or ≈1.90∶1 aspect ratio)
3996 × 2160 (flat crop, 1.85∶1 aspect ratio)
4096 × 1716 (CinemaScope crop, ≈2.39∶1 aspect ratio)
2K distributions can have a frame rate of either 24 or 48 FPS, while 4K distributions must have a frame rate of 24 FPS.
Some articles claim that the terms 2K and 4K were coined by DCI and refer exclusively to the 2K and 4K formats defined in the DCI standard.
“4K resolution” enters the record as video or display resolutions with a width of around 4,000 pixels. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what resolution, video and display can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“4K resolution” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, resolution, video and display provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q238162. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2014, 2005 and 2048.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “4K resolution” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.