Which radiographic matrix will produce the image with the smallest pixel size?

• A. 2048 x 2048
• B. 256 x 256
• C. 1024 x 1024
• D. 512 x 512

Answer: (A)

Pixel size is determined by how many pixels you have across the image for a given field of view. If the amount of area stays the same and you increase the number of pixels along each dimension, each pixel becomes smaller. So the matrix with the most pixels in each direction will produce the smallest pixel size. In this set, the largest matrix gives the finest sampling and hence the smallest pixel size. The other matrices have fewer pixels per side, resulting in larger pixels and lower sampling density across the same area.