This example shows an image with a portion greatly enlarged so that individual pixels, rendered as small squares, can easily be seen.
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel,[1] or picture element[2] is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrixdisplay device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the smallest element that can be manipulated through software.
Each pixel is a sample of an original or synthetic 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'sensor element' is sometimes used),[3] while in yet other contexts (like MRI) it may refer to a set of component intensities for a spatial position.
Software on early consumer computers was necessarily rendered at a low resolution, with large pixels visible to the naked eye; graphics made under these limitations may be called pixel art, especially in reference to video games. Modern computers and displays, however, can easily render orders of magnitude more pixels than was previously possible, necessitating the use of large measurements like the megapixel (one million pixels).
Etymology
A photograph of subpixel display elements on a laptop's LCD screen
The word pixel is a combination of pix (from "pictures", shortened to "pics") and el (for "element"); similar formations with 'el' include the words voxel[4]'volume pixel', and texel'texture pixel'.[4] The word pix appeared in Variety magazine headlines in 1932, as an abbreviation for the word pictures, in reference to movies.[5] By 1938, "pix" was being used in reference to still pictures by photojournalists.[6]
The word "pixel" was first published in 1965 by Frederic C. Billingsley of JPL, to describe the picture elements of scanned images from space probes to the Moon and Mars.[7] 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" (c.1963).[6]
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,[8] though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911.[9]
Some authors explain pixel as picture cell, as early as 1972.[10] In graphics and in image and video processing, pel is often used instead of pixel.[11] For example, IBM used it in their Technical Reference for the original PC.
Pixilation, spelled with a second i, is an unrelated filmmaking technique that dates to the beginnings of cinema, in which live actors are posed frame by frame and photographed to create stop-motion animation. An archaic British word meaning "possession by spirits (pixies)", the term has been used to describe the animation process since the early 1950s; various animators, including Norman McLaren and Grant Munro, are credited with popularizing it.[12]
Technical
A pixel does not need to be rendered as a small square. This image shows alternative ways of reconstructing an image from a set of pixel values, using dots, lines, or smooth filtering.
A pixel is generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image. However, the definition is highly context-sensitive. For example, there can be "printed pixels" in a page, or pixels carried by electronic signals, or represented by digital values, or pixels on a display device, or pixels in a digital camera (photosensor elements). This list is not exhaustive and, depending on context, synonyms include pel, sample, byte, bit, dot, and spot. Pixels can be used as a unit of measure such as: 2400 pixels per inch, 640 pixels per line, or spaced 10 pixels apart.
Pixel art
The measures "dots per inch" (dpi) and "pixels per inch" (ppi) are sometimes used interchangeably, but have distinct meanings, especially for printer devices, where dpi is a measure of the printer's density of dot (e.g. ink droplet) placement.[13] For example, a high-quality photographic image may be printed with 600 ppi on a 1200 dpi inkjet printer.[14] Even higher dpi numbers, such as the 4800 dpi quoted by printer manufacturers since 2002, do not mean much in terms of achievable resolution.[15]
The more pixels used to represent an image, the closer the result can resemble the original. The number of pixels in an image is sometimes called the resolution, though resolution has a more specific definition. Pixel counts can be expressed as a single number, as in a "three-megapixel" digital camera, which has a nominal three million pixels, or as a pair of numbers, as in a "640 by 480 display", which has 640 pixels from side to side and 480 from top to bottom (as in a VGA display) and therefore has a total number of 640 × 480 = 307,200 pixels, or 0.3 megapixels.
The pixels, or color samples, that form a digitized image (such as a JPEG file used on a web page) may or may not be in one-to-one correspondence with screen pixels, depending on how a computer displays an image. In computing, an image composed of pixels is known as a bitmapped image or a raster image. The word raster originates from television scanning patterns, and has been widely used to describe similar halftone printing and storage techniques.
Sampling patterns
For convenience, pixels are normally arranged in a regular two-dimensional grid. By using this arrangement, many common operations can be implemented by uniformly applying the same operation to each pixel independently. Other arrangements of pixels are possible, with some sampling patterns even changing the shape (or kernel) of each pixel across the image. For this reason, care must be taken when acquiring an image on one device and displaying it on another, or when converting image data from one pixel format to another.
LCD screens typically use a staggered grid, where the red, green, and blue components are sampled at slightly different locations. Subpixel rendering is a technology which takes advantage of these differences to improve the rendering of text on LCD screens.
The vast majority of color digital cameras use a Bayer filter, resulting in a regular grid of pixels where the color of each pixel depends on its position on the grid.
A clipmap uses a hierarchical sampling pattern, where the size of the support of each pixel depends on its location within the hierarchy.
Warped grids are used when the underlying geometry is non-planar, such as images of the earth from space.[16]
The use of non-uniform grids is an active research area, attempting to bypass the traditional Nyquist limit.[17]
Pixels on computer monitors are normally "square" (that is, have equal horizontal and vertical sampling pitch); pixels in other systems are often "rectangular" (that is, have unequal horizontal and vertical sampling pitch – oblong in shape), as are digital video formats with diverse aspect ratios, such as the anamorphic widescreen formats of the Rec. 601 digital video standard.
Resolution of computer monitors
Computers can use pixels to display an image, often an abstract image that represents a GUI. The resolution of this image is called the display resolution and is determined by the video card of the computer. LCD monitors also use pixels to display an image, and have a native resolution. Each pixel is made up of triads, with the number of these triads determining the native resolution. On some CRT monitors, the beam sweep rate may be fixed, resulting in a fixed native resolution. Most CRT monitors do not have a fixed beam sweep rate, meaning they do not have a native resolution at all - instead they have a set of resolutions that are equally well supported. To produce the sharpest images possible on an LCD, the user must ensure the display resolution of the computer matches the native resolution of the monitor.
Resolution of telescopes
The pixel scale used in astronomy is the angular distance between two objects on the sky that fall one pixel apart on the detector (CCD or infrared chip). The scale s measured in radians is the ratio of the pixel spacing p and focal lengthf of the preceding optics, s = p / f. (The focal length is the product of the focal ratio by the diameter of the associated lens or mirror.)
Because s is usually expressed in units of arcseconds per pixel, because 1 radian equals (180/π) × 3600 ≈ 206,265 arcseconds, and because focal lengths are often given in millimeters and pixel sizes in micrometers which yields another factor of 1,000, the formula is often quoted as s = 206 p / f.
The number of distinct colors that can be represented by a pixel depends on the number of bits per pixel (bpp). A 1 bpp image uses 1 bit for each pixel, so each pixel can be either on or off. Each additional bit doubles the number of colors available, so a 2 bpp image can have 4 colors, and a 3 bpp image can have 8 colors:
For color depths of 15 or more bits per pixel, the depth is normally the sum of the bits allocated to each of the red, green, and blue components. Highcolor, usually meaning 16 bpp, normally has five bits for red and blue each, and six bits for green, as the human eye is more sensitive to errors in green than in the other two primary colors. For applications involving transparency, the 16 bits may be divided into five bits each of red, green, and blue, with one bit left for transparency. A 24-bit depth allows 8 bits per component. On some systems, 32-bit depth is available: this means that each 24-bit pixel has an extra 8 bits to describe its opacity (for purposes of combining with another image).
Subpixels
Geometry of color elements of various CRT and LCD displays; phosphor dots in the color display of CRTs (top row) bear no relation to pixels or subpixels.
Many display and image-acquisition systems are not capable of displaying or sensing the different color channels at the same site. Therefore, the pixel grid is divided into single-color regions that contribute to the displayed or sensed color when viewed at a distance. In some displays, such as LCD, LED, and plasma displays, these single-color regions are separately addressable elements, which have come to be known as subpixels, mostly RGB colors.[18] For example, LCDs typically divide each pixel vertically into three subpixels. When the square pixel is divided into three subpixels, each subpixel is necessarily rectangular. In display industry terminology, subpixels are often referred to as pixels, as they are the basic addressable elements in a viewpoint of hardware, and hence pixel circuits rather than subpixel circuits is used.
Samsung UA40M5860AKCHD TV subpixels
Most digital camera image sensors use single-color sensor regions, for example using the Bayer filter pattern, and in the camera industry these are known as pixels just like in the display industry, not subpixels.
For systems with subpixels, two different approaches can be taken:
The subpixels can be ignored, with full-color pixels being treated as the smallest addressable imaging element; or
The subpixels can be included in rendering calculations, which requires more analysis and processing time, but can produce apparently superior images in some cases.
This latter approach, referred to as subpixel rendering, uses knowledge of pixel geometry to manipulate the three colored subpixels separately, producing an increase in the apparent resolution of color displays. While CRT displays use red-green-blue-masked phosphor areas, dictated by a mesh grid called the shadow mask, it would require a difficult calibration step to be aligned with the displayed pixel raster, and so CRTs do not use subpixel rendering.
In graphic, web design, and user interfaces, a "pixel" may refer to a fixed length rather than a true pixel on the screen to accommodate different pixel densities. A typical definition, such as in CSS, is that a "physical" pixel is 1⁄96 inch (0.26mm). Doing so makes sure a given element will display as the same size no matter what screen resolution views it.[19]
There may, however, be some further adjustments between a "physical" pixel and an on-screen logical pixel. As screens are viewed at difference distances (consider a phone, a computer display, and a TV), the desired length (a "reference pixel") is scaled relative to a reference viewing distance (28 inches (71cm) in CSS). In addition, as true screen pixel densities are rarely multiples of 96 dpi, some rounding is often applied so that a logical pixel is an integer amount of actual pixels. Doing so avoids render artifacts. The final "pixel" obtained after these two steps becomes the "anchor" to which all other absolute measurements (e.g. the "centimeter") are based on.[20]
Worked example, with a 30 inches (76cm) 2160p TV placed 56 inches (140cm) away from the viewer:
Calculate the scaled pixel size as 1⁄96 in × (56/28) = 1⁄48 inch (0.53mm).
Calculate the DPI of the TV as 2160 / (30 in / √9^2 + 16^2 × 16) ≈ 82.61 dpi.
Calculate the real-pixel count per logical-pixel as 1⁄48 in × 82.61 dpi ≈ 1.721 pixels.
A browser will then choose to use the 1.721× pixel size, or round to a 2× ratio.
Megapixel
Diagram of common sensor resolutions of digital cameras including megapixel valuesComparison of the level of detail between 0.3 and 24 Megapixels
A megapixel (MP) is a million pixels; the term is used not only for the number of pixels in an image but also to express the number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays. For example, a camera that makes a 2048 × 1536 pixel image (3,145,728 finished image pixels) typically uses a few extra rows and columns of sensor elements and is commonly said to have "3.2 megapixels" or "3.4 megapixels", depending on whether the number reported is the "effective" or the "total" pixel count.[21]
Pixel is used to define the resolution of a photo. Photo resolution is calculated by multiplying the width and height of a sensor in pixel.
Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, either charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, consisting of a large number of single sensor elements, each of which records a measured intensity level. In most digital cameras, the sensor array is covered with a patterned color filter mosaic having red, green, and blue regions in the Bayer filter arrangement so that each sensor element can record the intensity of a single primary color of light. The camera interpolates the color information of neighboring sensor elements, through a process called demosaicing, to create the final image. These sensor elements are often called "pixels", even though they only record one channel (only red or green or blue) of the final color image. Thus, two of the three color channels for each sensor must be interpolated and a so-called N-megapixel camera that produces an N-megapixel image provides only one-third of the information that an image of the same size could get from a scanner. Thus, certain color contrasts may look fuzzier than others, depending on the allocation of the primary colors (green has twice as many elements as red or blue in the Bayer arrangement).
DxO Labs invented the Perceptual MegaPixel (P-MPix) to measure the sharpness that a camera produces when paired to a particular lens – as opposed to the MP a manufacturer states for a camera product, which is based only on the camera's sensor. The new P-MPix claims to be a more accurate and relevant value for photographers to consider when weighing up camera sharpness.[22] As of mid-2013, the Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM lens mounted on a Nikon D800 has the highest measured P-MPix. However, with a value of 23 MP, it still wipes off[clarification needed] more than one-third of the D800's 36.3 MP sensor.[23] In August 2019, Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 8 Pro as the world's first smartphone with 64 MP camera.[24] On December 12, 2019 Samsung released Samsung A71 that also has a 64 MP camera.[25] In late 2019, Xiaomi announced the first camera phone with 108 MP 1/1.33-inch across sensor. The sensor is larger than most of bridge camera with 1/2.3-inch across sensor.[26]
One new method to add megapixels has been introduced in a Micro Four Thirds System camera, which only uses a 16 MP sensor but can produce a 64 MP RAW (40 MP JPEG) image by making two exposures, shifting the sensor by a half pixel between them. Using a tripod to take level multi-shots within an instance, the multiple 16 MP images are then generated into a unified 64 MP image.[27]
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.
ClearType is Microsoft's implementation of subpixel rendering technology in rendering text in a font system. ClearType attempts to improve the appearance of text on certain types of computer display screens by sacrificing color fidelity for additional intensity variation. This trade-off is asserted to work well on LCD flat panel monitors.
In computer graphics and digital photography, a raster graphic represents a two-dimensional picture as a rectangular matrix or grid of pixels, viewable via a computer display, paper, or other display medium. A raster is technically characterized by the width and height of the image in pixels and by the number of bits per pixel. Raster images are stored in image files with varying dissemination, production, generation, and acquisition formats.
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.
Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing, video or image scanner dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch (2.54 cm). Similarly, dots per centimetre refers to the number of individual dots that can be placed within a line of 1 centimetre (0.394 in).
Color depth or colour depth, also known as bit depth, is either the number of bits used to indicate the color of a single pixel, or the number of bits used for each color component of a single pixel. When referring to a pixel, the concept can be defined as bits per pixel (bpp). When referring to a color component, the concept can be defined as bits per component, bits per channel, bits per color, and also bits per pixel component, bits per color channel or bits per sample (bps). Modern standards tend to use bits per component, but historical lower-depth systems used bits per pixel more often.
Subpixel rendering is a method used to increase the effective resolution of a color display device. It takes advantage of each pixel's composition of individually addressable red, green, and blue components adjacent on the display matrix, called subpixels, and uses them as rendering units instead of pixels.
Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scanner. Horizontal and vertical density are usually the same, as most devices have square pixels, but differ on devices that have non-square pixels. Pixel density is not the same as resolution — where the former describes the amount of detail on a physical surface or device, the latter describes the amount of pixel information regardless of its scale. Considered in another way, a pixel has no inherent size or unit, but when it is printed, displayed, or scanned, then the pixel has both a physical size (dimension) and a pixel density (ppi).
A digital camera back is a device that attaches to the back of a camera in place of the traditional negative film holder and contains an electronic image sensor. This allows cameras that were designed to use film take digital photographs. These camera backs are generally expensive by consumer standards and are primarily built to be attached on medium- and large-format cameras used by professional photographers.
Image resolution is the level of detail of an image. The term applies to digital images, film images, and other types of images. "Higher resolution" means more image detail. 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, to the overall size of a picture, or to angular subtense. Instead of single lines, line pairs are often used, composed of a dark line and an adjacent light line; for example, a resolution of 10 lines per millimeter means 5 dark lines alternating with 5 light lines, or 5 line pairs per millimeter. Photographic lens are most often quoted in line pairs per millimeter.
A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display is a type of liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven LCDs with a few segments.
Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, electronic publishing, or digital printing. It is a form of digital imaging based on gathering visible light.
The FujifilmFinePix F series is a line of compact digital cameras that was known for its low-light performance in 2005, with relatively low image noise and natural colors even at high ISO settings. With its relatively large, but moderate resolution Super CCD sensors, it concentrated on image quality, and low-light shooting without flash, which was mostly restricted to prosumer models at the time.
Sony Corporation produces professional, consumer, and prosumer camcorders such as studio and broadcast, digital cinema cameras, camcorders, pan-tilt-zoom and remote cameras.
The Canon EOS 40D is a 10.1-megapixel semi-professional digital single-lens reflex camera. It was initially announced on 20 August 2007 and was released at the end of that month. It is the successor of the Canon EOS 30D, and is succeeded by the EOS 50D. It can accept EF and EF-S lenses. Like its predecessor, it uses an APS-C sized image sensor, resulting in a 1.6x field of view crop factor.
The EOS-1Ds Mark III is a digital SLR camera body by Canon designed for professional photographers. The Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III is successor to the EOS-1Ds Mark II and was announced in August 2007. The camera features a full-frame 21.1 megapixel CMOS sensor with 14-bit analog/digital converters for a total colour depth of 16,384 tones per subpixel. It features a three-inch (76 mm) LCD screen, capable of "Live View," and dual DIGIC III processors allowing it to shoot at up to five frames per second.
General Imaging was a manufacturer of digital cameras headquartered in Torrance, California, established in 2006 by Hiroshi "Hugh" Komiya, a former executive of Olympus Corporation. General Imaging sold their cameras internationally under the General Electric name, used under license. General Imaging was licensed to manufacture and sell their cameras under the AgfaPhoto name in Japan. On October 5, 2015, General Imaging filed for bankruptcy.
The Canon EOS 50D is a 15.1-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera. It is part of the Canon EOS line of cameras, succeeding the EOS 40D and preceding the EOS 60D.
PenTile matrix is a family of patented subpixel matrix schemes used in electronic device displays. PenTile is a trademark of Samsung. PenTile matrices are used in AMOLED and LCD displays.
1 2 James D. Foley; Andries van Dam; John F. Hughes; Steven K. Fainer (1990). "Spatial-partitioning representations; Surface detail". Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice. The Systems Programming Series. Addison-Wesley. ISBN0-201-12110-7. These cells are often called voxels (volume elements), in analogy to pixels.
↑ Fred C. Billingsley, "Processing Ranger and Mariner Photography," in Computerized Imaging Techniques, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 0010, pp. XV-1–19, Jan. 1967 (Aug. 1965, San Francisco).
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