Pixel

In digital imaging, a pixel, pel, or picture element is a physical point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable element in an all points addressable display device; so it is the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on the screen. In digital imaging, a pixel, pel, or picture element is a physical point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable element in an all points addressable display device; so it is the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on the screen. Each pixel is a sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable. In color imaging systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. In some contexts (such as descriptions of camera sensors), pixel refers to a single scalar element of a multi-component representation (called a photosite in the camera sensor context, although sensel is sometimes used), while in yet other contexts it may refer to the set of component intensities for a spatial position. The word pixel is a portmanteau of pix (from 'pictures', shortened to 'pics') and el (for 'element'); similar formations with 'el' include the words voxel and texel. The word 'pixel' was first published in 1965 by Frederic C. Billingsley of JPL, to describe the picture elements of video images from space probes to the Moon and Mars. Billingsley had learned the word from Keith E. McFarland, at the Link Division of General Precision in Palo Alto, who in turn said he did not know where it originated. McFarland said simply it was 'in use at the time' (circa 1963). The word is a combination of pix, for picture, and element. The word pix appeared in Variety magazine headlines in 1932, as an abbreviation for the word pictures, in reference to movies. By 1938, 'pix' was being used in reference to still pictures by photojournalists. The concept of a 'picture element' dates to the earliest days of television, for example as 'Bildpunkt' (the German word for pixel, literally 'picture point') in the 1888 German patent of Paul Nipkow. According to various etymologies, the earliest publication of the term picture element itself was in Wireless World magazine in 1927, though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911. Some authors explain pixel as picture cell, as early as 1972. In graphics and in image and video processing, pel is often used instead of pixel. For example, IBM used it in their Technical Reference for the original PC. Pixels, abbreviated as 'px', are also a unit of measurement commonly used in graphic and web design, equivalent to roughly 1⁄96 inch (0.26 mm). This measurement is used to make sure a given element will display as the same size no matter what screen resolution views it.