Apple Final Cut Pro 6 User Manual
Page 1156
Chapter 18
Working with Freeze Frames and Still Images
371
II
 If your graphic is taller than it is wide: There are gray borders to the right and left of
the image in the Viewer and Canvas. The borders are not part of the image.
 If your graphic is wider than it is tall: There are gray borders at the top and bottom of
the image in the Viewer and Canvas. The borders are not part of the image.
Understanding Digital SD Video Non-Square Pixels
When creating graphics for SD video, you need to consider the fact that the digital
video pixels are considered to be non-square (taller than wide for NTSC video, or wider
than tall for PAL video) compared to your computer graphics program that uses square
pixels. Non-square pixels are also referred to as rectangular pixels.
Note: Some computer graphics programs support non-square pixels, making it simpler
to create graphics for SD video formats like NTSC and PAL. For high definition (HD)
video formats, you can simply create square pixel graphics, which means designing
graphics with exactly the same image dimensions as your HD format.
Reconciling the difference between non-square pixels and square pixels can cause a lot
of confusion for beginning video graphic designers, but the best rules of thumb are to:
 Use a graphics application that supports non-square pixels, such as Adobe
Photoshop. In this case, you create your graphics with the proper dimensions and
pixel aspect ratio throughout the entire post-production process.
 Keep your destination video frame size in mind and follow the table on page 373
when designing graphics in your graphics application.
Note: There is no accepted standard for the exact aspect ratio of non-square SD video
pixels. Different manufacturers may assume different pixel aspect ratios when designing
their software. Fortunately, these differences tend to be very small, so in many cases you
may not notice a difference between pixel aspect ratios of, say, 0.9 and 0.89.
Since every non-square video frame size has an equivalent square frame size that will
look correct in SD video, it’s easy to create your graphics with a usable frame size. The
steps below tell you how.
Gray borders appear on the
sides because this image is
taller than it is wide.