Editing Pixel (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Closeup of pixels.JPG|thumb|right|A photograph of [[Subpixel rendering|subpixel]] display elements on a laptop's [[Liquid crystal display|LCD]] screen]]
The word ''pixel'' is a combination of ''pix'' (from "pictures", shortened to "pics") and ''el'' (for "''[[Data element|element]]''"); similar formations with '<nowiki/>''el''' include the words ''[[voxel]]''<ref name="JF">{{cite book|author1=James D. Foley|author2=Andries van Dam|author3=John F. Hughes|author4=Steven K. Fainer|title=Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice|publisher=[[Addison-Wesley]]|year=1990|isbn=0-201-12110-7|series=The Systems Programming Series|chapter=Spatial-partitioning representations; Surface detail|quote=These cells are often called ''voxels'' (volume elements), in analogy to pixels.|title-link=Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice}}</ref> {{gloss|volume pixel}}, and [[Texel (graphics)|''texel'']] {{gloss|texture pixel}}.<ref name=JF/>  The word ''pix'' appeared in ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' magazine headlines in 1932, as an abbreviation for the word ''pictures'', in reference to movies.<ref name=onetdict>{{cite web | title = Online Etymology Dictionary | url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pixel | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101230213602/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pixel | archive-date = 2010-12-30 }}</ref> By 1938, "pix" was being used in reference to still pictures by photojournalists.<ref name=lyon/>

The word "pixel" was first published in 1965 by [[Frederic C. Billingsley]] of [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory|JPL]], to describe the picture elements of scanned images from [[space probe]]s to the Moon and Mars.<ref>Fred C. Billingsley, "Processing Ranger and Mariner Photography," in ''Computerized Imaging Techniques, Proceedings of SPIE'', Vol. 0010, pp. XV-1–19, Jan. 1967 (Aug. 1965, San Francisco).</ref> Billingsley had learned the word from Keith E. McFarland, at the Link Division of General Precision in [[Palo Alto, California|Palo Alto]], who in turn said he did not know where it originated. McFarland said simply it was "in use at the time" ({{circa|1963}}).<ref name=lyon>{{cite conference|last=Lyon|first=Richard F.|year=2006|url=http://www.dicklyon.com/tech/Photography/Pixel-SPIE06-Lyon.pdf |title=A brief history of 'pixel'|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219064912/http://www.foveon.com/files/ABriefHistoryofPixel2.pdf|archive-date=2009-02-19|conference=IS&T/SPIE Symposium on Electronic Imaging}}</ref>

The concept of a "picture element" dates to the earliest days of television, for example as "''Bildpunkt''" (the German word for ''pixel'', literally 'picture point') in the 1888 German patent of [[Paul Nipkow]]. According to various etymologies, the earliest publication of the term ''picture element'' itself was in ''[[Wireless World]]'' magazine in 1927,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/02/magazine/on-language-modem-i-m-odem.html|title=Modem, I'm Odem|work=[[The New York Times]]|department=On Language|date=2 April 1995|first=William|last=Safire|access-date=21 December 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709120149/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/02/magazine/on-language-modem-i-m-odem.html|archive-date=9 July 2017}}</ref> though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911.<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=1175313|title=Transmission of pictures of moving objects|inventor=Alf Sinding-Larsen|pubdate=1916-03-14|fdate=1911-06-10|url=https://www.google.com/patents/US1175313}}</ref>

Some authors explain ''pixel'' as ''picture cell,'' as early as 1972.<ref>{{cite journal | journal = IEEE Trans. Comput. | title = Techniques for Change Detection | author = Robert L. Lillestrand | volume = C-21 | issue = 7 | year = 1972}}</ref> In [[graphics]] and in image and video processing, ''pel'' is often used instead of ''pixel''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lewis|first=Peter H.|date=12 February 1989|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/12/business/the-executive-computer-compaq-sharpens-its-video-option.html|department=The Executive Computer|title=Compaq Sharpens Its Video Option|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=21 December 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220004159/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/12/business/the-executive-computer-compaq-sharpens-its-video-option.html|archive-date=20 December 2017}}</ref> For example, IBM used it in their Technical Reference for the [[IBM Personal Computer|original PC]].

[[Pixilation]], spelled with a second ''i'', is an unrelated filmmaking technique that dates to the beginnings of cinema, in which live actors are posed frame by frame and photographed to create stop-motion animation. An archaic British word meaning "possession by spirits ([[pixie]]s)", the term has been used to describe the animation process since the early 1950s; various animators, including [[Norman McLaren]] and [[Grant Munro (filmmaker)|Grant Munro]], are credited with popularizing it.<ref>{{cite book|author=Tom Gasek|title=Frame by Frame Stop Motion: NonTraditional Approaches to Stop Motion Animation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8T7VLeWAnq8C&pg=SA2-PA17|date=17 January 2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-12933-9|page=2|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180122150628/https://books.google.com/books?id=8T7VLeWAnq8C&pg=SA2-PA17|archive-date=22 January 2018}}</ref>