Pixel

Pixel

A pixel (short for picture element) is the smallest unit of a digital image or graphic display that can be controlled. Pixels are combined to form a complete image, video, text, or any visible thing on a computer display or other display device.

Definition

The term pixel is a portmanteau of pix (from pictures) and el (for element). Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically provide a more accurate representation of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable; in color systems, each pixel has typically three or four components such as red, green, and blue, or sometimes red, green, blue, and alpha (transparency).

Resolution

The measure of how many pixels are present in a given digital image is known as its resolution. The higher the resolution, the more pixels there are in an image, and thus more visual information it contains. Resolution can be defined in various ways, including pixel count, pixel density, pixels per inch (PPI), and others.

Pixel in Computer Graphics

In computer graphics, pixels encoding the color information are used to create a raster image. A raster image is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium.

Pixel in Digital Photography

In digital photography, a pixel is a physical point in a raster image, or the smallest, addressable element in a display device. The number of pixels in an image or display that make up the X and Y axes are often referred to as the resolution.

See also

• Computer display
• Digital image
• Raster graphics
• Resolution (graphics)