The pixel is the smallest and tiniest unit of a digital image and is present in immeasurable numbers to form a complete image. Each pixel is a homogeneous unit of color that, in sum and with an important color variation, results in a more or less complex image. They can have three or four color elements to choose from: red, green and blue or magenta, yellow and cyan.
The pixels of an image are easily observable when zooming in on it as this allows a closer look at the pixels that have been used to compose the image. All pixels are square or rectangular and can be colored, white, black or gray in different shades. The possible color combinations are endless and have become highly developed compared to early digital images that lacked smoothness and reality.
There are two different systems of using colors. The bitmap is the more primitive of the two since it only supports a maximum variation of 256 colors, with each pixel having one byte. On the other hand, images that have true color use three bytes per pixel and this triples the result of possible variations, exceeding the 16 million color options and consequently giving the image more reality.
The history of the pixel dates back to the early 1930s when the concept began to be used for film. The term pixel referred to a picture element or "picture element". It is also understood by many as the smallest cell that makes up the complex system that can become a digital image. This idea was coined in the 70s and also applied to television before computers.
