picture element

unit of information which describes a point within a computerized graphic image

This article is about the picture element. For other uses, see Pixel (disambiguation). A pixel (short for picture element, using the common abbreviation "pix" for "pictures") is a single point in a graphic image. Each such information element is not really a dot, nor a square, but an abstract sample. With care, pixels in an image can be reproduced at any size without the appearance of visible dots or squares; but in many contexts, they are reproduced as dots or squares and can be visibly distinct when not fine enough. The intensity of each pixel is variable; in color systems, each pixel has typically three or four dimensions of variability such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
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Noun
1. (computer science) the smallest discrete component of an image or picture on a CRT screen (usually a colored dot); "the greater the number of pixels per inch the greater the resolution"
(synonym) pixel, pel
(hypernym) component, constituent, element
(part-holonym) raster
(classification) computer science, computing

See pel, pixel.

<graphics> (pixel) The smallest resolvable rectangular area of an image, either on a screen or stored in memory. Each pixel in a monochrome image has its own brightness, from 0 for black to the maximum value (e.g. 255 for an eight-bit pixel) for white. In a colour image, each pixel has its own brightness and colour, usually represented as a triple of red, green and blue intensities (see RGB).
Compare voxel.
(1998-05-08)