22/09/2019 Difference between Raster Scan and Random Scan (with Comparison Chart) - Tech Differences

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Di erence between Raster Scan and Random

Scan
January 17, 2019 — Leave a Comment

Raster scan and random scan are the mechanisms used in displays for rendering the
picture of an object on the screen of the monitor. The main difference between raster scan
and random scan lies in the drawing of a picture where the raster scan points the electron
beam at the entire screen but incorporating just one line at a time in the downward
direction. On the other hand, in the random scan, the electron beam is guided on just
those regions of the screen where the picture actually lies.

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22/09/2019 Difference between Raster Scan and Random Scan (with Comparison Chart) - Tech Differences

Content: Raster Scan Vs Random Scan

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR
RASTER SCAN RANDOM SCAN
COMPARISON

Electron beam Swept across the screen and Directed to the portions of the

handles one row at a time and in screen where a picture is to be

downward direction. rendered.

Resolution Poor, since it generates meander Good, as this produces even

lines which are organized as distinct lines drawing.
point sets.

Picture Stored as the combination of Stored as a group of line

definition intensity values for all screen points. drawing instructions in a
display file.

Realistic Effectively displays realistic scenes. Unable to display realistic

display shaded scenes.

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22/09/2019 Difference between Raster Scan and Random Scan (with Comparison Chart) - Tech Differences

BASIS FOR
RASTER SCAN RANDOM SCAN
COMPARISON

Picture Using pixels With the help of mathematical

rendering functions

De nition of Raster Scan

The Raster Scan is a scanning technique in graphics monitor where the electron beam is
moved along the screen covering one line at a time from top to bottom. The beam
intensity is set at high and low levels as the beam sweeps around the screen to generate
a pattern of illuminated spots.

Refresh buffer or frame buffer is then used to save the picture definition, more
specifically the memory area contains the combination of intensity values for various
screen points. These stored intensities are fetched from refresh buffer and represented on
the screen one scan line at a time. The fundamental unit for defining a single screen point
is known as Pixel or Pel (Picture element).

The raster scan systems are appropriate for the realistic display of scenes as these
systems are capable of saving the intensity data for each screen point where subtle
shading and colour patterns can also be involved. However, the television sets and
printers are examples of other systems.

The capability of the raster scan specifies the intensity range of the pixel position. It
requires only one bit per pixel to handle the intensity of the screen positions in a black-
and-white system. On the other hand, to display the intensities of different colour variants,
supplementary bits are required. The high-quality systems include up to 24 bits per pixel in

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which case a high amount of memory is needed to store frame buffer depending on the
resolution such as in megabytes.

A typical system having a screen resolution of 1024 by 1024 and contain 24 bits per pixel
can consume 3 megabytes for the frame buffer. In black-and-white systems, the frame
buffer is known as a bitmap where only one bit per pixel is consumed while the frame
buffer of systems with multiple bits per pixel is called as a pixmap.

The rate of refreshing on raster-scan displays is operated at the rate of 60-80 frames per
second.

De nition of Random Scan

The Random scan works in a completely different manner to the raster scan where the
electron beam is pointed to merely those areas of the screen where the picture is to be
drawn. However, it only involves one line at a time when drawing a picture that is why it is
also known as the vector or calligraphic display. The component lines of an object by a
random scan is drawn in the way as shown in the diagram below.

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22/09/2019 Difference between Raster Scan and Random Scan (with Comparison Chart) - Tech Differences

The refresh rate of a random scan relies on the number of lines that are to be showed on
the screen. Similar to the raster scan the random scan also stores the picture definition as
a set of line drawing commands using some sort of medium known as refresh display file.
The other names for refresh file display are display list, display program or refresh buffer.
A system displays a certain picture by revoluting the group of commands in the display file
and drawing each component line after each turn. After processing all line drawing
commands, the system cycle is sent to the first line command.

A random scan is capable of drawing all the component of a picture about 30 to 60 times
per second. In the provided refresh rate the high-quality vector systems are competent
enough to handle 100000 short lines. At the time displaying short lines, the refresh cycles
are delayed to eliminate refresh rates higher than 60 frames per second. Otherwise, swift
refreshing of the group of lines can damage or burn the phosphor.

Key Di erences Between Raster Scan and Random

Scan
1. The raster scan monitors make use of the whole screen for displaying the
object while in random screen monitors the certain part of the screen is used
where the electron beam is projected.

2. Resolution of random scan displays is better than raster scan.

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3. Raster scan saves the picture definition as the group of intensity measures
for various screen points and consumes more size. As against, in the
random scan, the picture definition is stored in the form of a collection of line
drawing instructions within a display file.

4. Random scan systems are mainly devised for line-drawing applications and
are unable to display the naturalistic shaded scenes. On the contrary, a
raster scan system is suitable for rendering realistic shaded scenes.
However, random scan creates a sleek line drawing.

5. Raster scan uses screen points/pixels to draw an image whereas a random

scan employs mathematical functions for painting the image.

Conclusion
When it comes to refreshing rate, the raster scan has higher refresh rate about 60 to 80
times per second while random scan consumes less time for refreshing the screen, i.e., 30
to 60 times per second. Raster scan can also use interlaced refresh method which is not
used in the random scan.

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