Can you direct me to a source that explains this?
Image resolution:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution
"Image resolution can be measured in various ways. Resolution quantifies how close lines can be to each other and still be
visibly resolved. Resolution units can be tied to physical sizes (e.g. lines per mm, lines per inch),"
And related to pixel resolution
"
Resolution is the capability of the sensor to observe or measure the smallest object clearly with distinct boundaries. There is a difference between the resolution and a pixel. A pixel is actually a unit of the digital image. Resolution depends upon the size of the pixel. Usually, with any given lens setting, the smaller the size of the pixel, the higher the resolution will be and the clearer the object in the image will be. Images having smaller pixel sizes might consist of more pixels. The number of pixels correlates to the amount of information within the image.
The term
resolution is often used for a
pixel count in digital imaging, even though British, American, Japanese, and international standards specify that it should not be so used, at least in the
digital camera field.
[1][2]
An image of N pixels height by M pixels wide can have any resolution less than N lines per picture height, or N TV lines. But when the pixel counts are referred to as resolution, the convention is to describe the
pixel resolution with the set of two positive
integer numbers, where the first number is the number of pixel columns (width) and the second is the number of pixel rows (height), for example as
7680 by 6876. Another popular convention is to cite resolution as the total number of pixels in the image, typically given as number of
megapixels, which can be calculated by multiplying pixel columns by pixel rows and dividing by one million. Other conventions include describing pixels per length unit or pixels per area unit, such as
pixels per inch or per square inch. None of these
pixel resolutions are true resolutions, but they are widely referred to as such; they serve as
upper bounds on image resolution."
If you take the above it is generally accepted that while some people interchange resolution with pixel count, it is not a true resolution and people are using the term incorrectly.
Think of a magnifying glass at 2x, you would say I can see twice as much detail, not I can see four times as much detail, even though there is 4 times the information shown (if said magnifying glass were square)
To me its like confusing energy with power, yes they are related but not the same.
On the Wikipedia for display resolution,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution
It doesn't state resolutions as pixel counts, always as two numbers or a single number in 1 direction.