Pixel art

Pixel art is digital imagery made by deliberately placing and editing individual pixels. Its visible pixel structure and often limited palette are central to its appearance.

Raster graphics: Digital images represented as grids of picture elements, or pixels. Pixel art is a deliberately constructed style of raster graphics.
Pixel-art scaling: The enlargement of pixel art while preserving its discrete pixel structure. Nearest-neighbor scaling keeps enlarged pixels sharp rather than blending them.
8-bit color: A color representation using eight bits, allowing up to 256 distinct values per pixel or palette. Eight-bit systems encouraged compact palettes that became familiar in game imagery.
Sprite: A two-dimensional image or animation element composited into a larger scene. Characters and objects in pixel-art games are commonly built as sprites.
Vector graphics: Graphics defined by geometric paths and shapes rather than a fixed grid of pixels. Vector shapes scale smoothly, unlike pixel art’s explicitly gridded marks.
Pixel: The smallest addressable element in a raster image, holding a color value. Each visible mark in pixel art is placed on this image grid.
Dithering: The use of patterned neighboring colors to simulate tones or colors unavailable directly. Pixel artists use patterns to suggest gradients with few available colors.
Atari 2600: A home video game console released by Atari in 1977, with severe graphical constraints. Its hardware limits produced blocky game visuals that invite comparison with pixel art.
Tile-based video game: A video game that constructs environments from reusable rectangular image tiles. Pixel-art environments often use repeated tiles to build levels efficiently.
Photorealism: An artistic approach that seeks to reproduce the appearance of photographs or observed reality. Pixel art often favors stylization and visible construction over photographic detail.

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