Pixel

Rare card · No. 67736

In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element of a raster image. In a display device, dot matrix printer, or ASCII art a pixel is the smallest element whose output can generally be controlled independently. The concept of a picture element dates to the earliest days of electronic imaging. The German word Bildpunkt ("picture point") appeared in an 1888 patent, while the English term picture element appeared in U.S. patents filed as early as 1911. The word pixel was first published in 1965. Pixels are usually arranged in a regular two-dimensional grid, with each pixel storing one or more numerical values that represent a sample of an image. A greater sampling density can represent finer spatial detail, although the result also depends on the optics, sensor, processing, and display. In color imaging, a pixel is commonly represented by components such as red, green, and blue (RGB), or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). In some...

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