Projector Test Pattern

This projector test pattern generator gives you twelve patterns for setting up any projector: a keystone grid, focus stars, a convergence grid, an ANSI contrast checkerboard, brightness and contrast bars, color bars, circles, an overscan frame, text, and plain white and black fields. Run them full screen from a laptop connected by HDMI, or save them as images at 1920 × 1080 for a 1080p projector or 3840 × 2160 for a 4K one and play them from a USB stick or a media player. Every pattern is drawn at the projector's real resolution, one pixel of the image to one pixel of the projector.

How to set up a projector with test patterns

1. Place the projector so its lens is centered on the screen and level with it. Fix placement first and correct digitally last.
2. Connect the laptop by HDMI and set it to show only on the second screen, or to extend the desktop, at the projector's native resolution.
3. Let the projector run for 15 to 30 minutes. Brightness settles and the lens warms up, which can move the focus slightly.
4. Press Start full screen test and work through the patterns in order: keystone, focus, convergence, contrast, color, then the checks.

Keystone: a rectangle with equal squares

Show the Keystone grid. The white frame should be a true rectangle with its yellow corner marks in the corners of the screen, and every grid square should be the same size. A trapezoid means the projector is tilted or off to one side. Fix it in this order:

1. Move or level the projector. Its feet, a shelf or the mount do more for picture quality than any menu.
2. Use lens shift, if the projector has it. It moves the image optically without losing any sharpness.
3. Use digital keystone only for what is left. It squeezes the picture into fewer pixels, so fine detail and text get softer.

Bowed or wavy lines on an ultra short throw projector usually mean the screen is not perfectly flat. Those models are very sensitive to a screen that ripples or leans.

Focus: sharp in the middle and in the corners

Show the Focus pattern and stand near the screen, with a helper or the remote. Turn the focus ring until the black and white spokes of the center star stay separate as close to the middle as possible. Then check the four corner stars and the small text under them. A sharp center with soft corners points to a projector that is not square to the screen, heavy keystone correction, or a lens that is softer at the edges, which is common on budget models. Focus again after the projector has warmed up. Then set the projector's sharpness control on the Text pattern: lower it until the letters lose any bright outline, which usually means the default or one step below. Sharpness cannot fix a blurry lens, it only adds edges.

Convergence: no colored edges on white lines

Show the Convergence grid. Look closely at the white lines: they should be white all the way across. Red on one side of a line and blue on the other means the red, green and blue panels of a three panel projector, 3LCD or LCoS, do not line up. Many of those models have a panel alignment setting that moves each color by a fraction of a pixel. Single chip DLP projectors cannot have convergence errors, but some people see brief rainbows on them when they move their eyes, which is a trait of the color wheel, not a fault.

Brightness, contrast and the ANSI checkerboard

Show Brightness and lower the black level until the 1% bar disappears, then raise it until the 2% bar just shows. Show Contrast and keep the 98% bar visible. Then show ANSI contrast. With a light meter, the average of the white squares divided by the average of the black squares is the projector's ANSI contrast. By eye, watch how much the white squares lighten the black ones. Light walls, a white ceiling and room lights bounce light back onto the screen and turn black into grey, so darken the room and the surfaces near the screen for films.

Color and white balance

Show Color bars and the White field. Bright, Dynamic and presentation modes on many projectors tint white green to squeeze out more brightness. Use Cinema, Natural or a similar mode for films and photos. The white field also shows uniformity: a brighter center, called a hot spot, comes from a high gain screen or the lens. Dim corners are common.

Spots and dots on the picture

Soft, blurry spots that stay in place are dust on the lens or inside the optics. Clean the lens with a blower and a lens cloth, and leave internal dust to a service center. Sharp white or black dots that sit in the same place on every image are stuck mirrors on a DLP chip or stuck pixels on an LCD panel. Map them with the dead pixel test run full screen on the projector before you contact the maker.

Aspect ratio, screen size and overscan

Show Circles: every circle must be round. Ovals mean the source, the projector or the player is stretching the picture. A aspect ratio calculator helps when you size a 16:9 or 2.35:1 screen for your room. Show Overscan and check that the white edge line reaches all four sides. Projectors rarely cut the edges, but TV boxes and media players sometimes do.

Projector test patterns for 1080p and 4K

Save the patterns at 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 to match the projector, or run them from a laptop set to that resolution. Many 4K home projectors use pixel shifting: the chip has fewer pixels and shifts the image quickly to place about 8.3 million pixel positions on screen. On those, one pixel line and checkerboard patterns look softer or grey, which is expected. The 4k test patterns show how much of a 4K signal reaches the screen.

What these patterns cannot do

A web page cannot measure light, so it cannot give you lumens or a contrast figure without a meter. The patterns make focus, geometry, convergence and clipping visible to the eye, which is all most setups need. If the projector shows no picture from the laptop, the hdmi no signal guide covers inputs, cables and resolution. To set up a TV with the same approach, use the tv test pattern generator.

Projector test pattern questions