Pixel
A pixel (short for picture element) is a single point in a picture. On the monitor of a computer, a pixel is usually a square. Every pixel has a color and all the pixels together are the picture. The color of a pixel can be stored by using a combination of red, green and blue (RGB) but other combinations are also possible, such as cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK).
The word "pixel"
The word "pixel" was first used in a paper by Frederic C. Billingsley in 1965. He did not create the word himself. He got it from Keith E. McFarland but Keith does not know where he got it from. Keith said that the word was in use in those days.
The word "pixel" uses "pix" as a shorter word (an abbreviation) for "picture". The word pix was first used in 1932 in Variety, a magazine. It was an abbreviation for "pictures" or movies. By 1938 the word "pix" was also used for pictures that did not move (still pictures).
The word "picture element" is even older. For example, the German word Bildpunkt (which means "picture point") was used in a 1888 patent of Paul Gottlieb Nipkow.
Pixel Media
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.
Image from the collection of the FILE - Electronic Language International Festival. Publicity art of one of the events.
Text rendered using ClearType using 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.
Diagram of common sensor resolutions of digital cameras including megapixel values
Comparison of the level of detail between 0.3 and 24 Megapixels
