Pixels

A pixel, which is short for Picture Element, is a single point within a graphic image. A graphic image is made up of thousands or millions of little pixels that are arranged together in rows and columns to produce the entire image. When looking at an image on a digital device, each pixel has its own location in which is represented by dots or squares.  Pixels are packed so tightly together that they appear to be connected; but if you were to zoom in to the image far enough, you would be able to see each individual pixel (Please see image below):

The information stored within a pixel is called ‘bits’. Bits are used to determine how many colours or shades of grey are used within a single pixel. This means, the more bits per pixel (bpp) that are stored within a pixel, the more colours the pixel can display. This all depends on the resolution of the display system to how good the quality of the image will be. On digital devices that can display colour, each pixel in an image is made up of three or four dots which are known as RGB (Red, Green and Blue) or CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black).

There are two different types of displays in which a pixel can be featured on. There is a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display which is a vacuum tube containing several electron guns and a fluorescent screen which is used to view images. The second type of display is LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) which is more common in the modern era. This is a flat panel display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals.

When using a camera to take a picture it is measured in Megapixels; for example, when using a 6 megapixel camera this amounts to there being 6 million pixels in the image taken. Many cameras vary in the amount of megapixels they offer, however, there won’t be much difference between a 5 megapixel camera and a 6 megapixel camera unless it is printed on a large scale.