What Means Pixel?

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Every digital image is made up from Pixels which is the smallest picture element containing information that makes up all digital images. Understanding a general idea of what pixel is will help you better understand exactly what size you need to make your photo for a particular purpose.

Pixel Concept
A pixel is the building block of a digital image and typically a photo contains pixels that are made up from 24-bit pixels. Basically, this means that each pixel can be made up from 8 bits of red, blue and green color information. The 8 bits from each primary color is actually 256 individual tones or hues, which can be combined into a pixel that can be any 1 of around 16.7 Million different colors.

Computer Screen Pixel
When it comes to viewing a photo on your computer screen you are also viewing pixels. Your computer screen is made up of its own pixels and a typical screen size is 1024 x 768 PIXELS (786432) or just under 0.8 Megapixels. A computer screen can usually display either 16 bit or 24 bit color and as we just mentioned 24 bit is ~16.7M colors. Computer screens generally display at 96dpi (dots per inch). So when it comes to showing photos on a computer screen we don't need a huge image.

 

Tips: Get to know about DPI & PPI here.
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