From the course: Photoshop 2020 One-on-One: Fundamentals

How digital images work - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop 2020 One-on-One: Fundamentals

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How digital images work

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- To understand digital imagery, you have to understand its most basic building block, the pixel, which for all intents and purposes is a single dot of color. In still photographs and on mobile devices, computer displays, 8K televisions, the pixel is a perfect square. Each pixel aligns to the pixel next to it in regular rows and columns with no gaps in between. As the pixels grow smaller and more numerous, they dissolve into what's known as a continuous tone image in which groups of similarly colored pixels merge to represent details that look anything but square, which is why it's generally understood that the more pixels you have, the better the final image will be. But quantity isn't everything. A badly rendered image may contain a hundred million pixels, and a well-rendered one may contain just a few hundred thousand. It all depends on the quality of the original photograph or scan, as well as the purpose of the final image. In this chapter, we'll explore two imaging attributes that depend on pixels: image size and resolution. You'll learn how many pixels you need, you'll learn how to best resize an image when you need fewer or more, and in the end, you'll understand the mechanics of what makes a successful image, both in print and on your screen. Did you know that pixel is short for picture element? Pixel. I mean, imagine a time about a hundred years ago, this is true, when our ancestors were wondering what on earth should we call these picture elements; and they wouldn't figure it out for another 50 years. I'm just saying, those people units, or peanuts, should have watched this chapter.

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