red, green, blue, white (RGBW)
RGBW stands for Red, Green, Blue, White and is called PenTile pixel arrangement for LCD displays. In the RGBW arrangement of color pixels, there are additional color pixels for white in addition to the color pixels for red, green and blue, which provide higher brightness.
Classic color displays consist of the color pixels R, G, B. White is produced by activating all three color pixels, whereby the various colors are filtered out by filters that only allow certain wavelengths to pass. The light is thus attenuated. In an RGB panel, white light is created from the light of the three primary colors.
In the RGBW or PenTile panel, transparent subpixels are inserted that do not cause light attenuation. The light emission for white light is therefore brighter. This effect is achieved by inserting transparent pixels for white light into the pixel matrix, namely one or two transparent subpixels per color pixel.
RGBW technology is used in LCD displays. A similar technique is used in RGBY displays, but with the aim of expanding the color space.
In addition to the RGBW PenTile arrangement, there is another PenTile pixel arrangement with twice the number of green pixels. This arrangement benefits human eye sensitivity, as it is particularly pronounced in the green area.