Yes, we are talking tech, but this is not about the supremely expensive model of Google Chromebook. This is about the things that we see. Normally, today’s word is something that, if you are shopping for an electronic item, is simply defined by numbers, such as 720, 1080, 4K, etc. and whether or not you can tell enough of a difference between them to justify an increased price. Often, it is one of those “techy” words that we commonly use without ever really understanding what it means, so, rather than being mystified by numbers, let’s examine pixels.
Unsurprisingly, the term “pixel” does not come from Latin or Greek, it is a contraction of the words “picture element,” using the first syllable of the shortened plural form of the word picture, pics (pix), and the first syllable of element. As the name suggests, a pixel is the smallest single element of a picture. For example, if you enlarge an image on your computer screen until it begins to distort, every small individual square that you see is a pixel, or if you were to magnify a TV screen, the pixels would appear as red, blue, and green (and, depending on your TV, yellow) lines within an overall grid pattern.
And of course, more pixels equates to a better, clearer, more realistic picture. With consumers becoming increasingly tech-savvy and the rate of technological change only speeding up, pixels, especially the number of them, are increasingly more important. Again, for example, looking at the past decade alone, we have seen enhanced definition televisions (at 480 pixels) give way to screens of increasing pixel size, from 720 to 1080 to 4096 (4K), with the top tier- 4K- expected to grow in units produced by 500% from 2014 to 2015. Regardless of pixel number though, it is still worth doing some research to find the best size for your personal needs.
Due to today’s word being “tech jargon,” the origin is hard to trace, with most of the initial users, such as the first published user, Frederic Billingsley, who in 1965 used the word to describe picture elements of space probe videos, stating that the word, circa 1963, was simply “in use at the time.” Using the word in a more technical understanding in 1977, the New Yorker writes that, “The [advertising] panel is divided into two thousand and forty-eight ‘pixels’, or picture elements of red, green, blue, and white bulbs, and ordinarily only one or two of the bulbs on a pixel are flashed at a given time.” Jumping ahead another decade, to 1989, the Computer Buyer’s Guide and Handbook (unbeknownst to them at the time) does a good job of explaining why the speed of picture movement is an important driver in consumer TV/monitor preferences, stating, “They have slow switching speeds… This makes it hard to turn the individual pixels on and off rapidly.”
