Daily Archives

28 June 2010

Pixels in the round

Pixels didn’t have to be square.  Like Frankenstein’s monster, it’s just how their creator made them.  In digital imaging’s fetal years, Russell Kirsch decided to choose an arbitrary shape for a unit of visual media.  And thus the pixel we know and love was born.

“Squares was the logical thing to do,” Kirsch says. “Of course, the logical thing was not the only possibility … but we used squares. It was something very foolish that everyone in the world has been suffering from ever since.”

As was Kirsch’s regret.  Regret that he is now rectifying with software that can minimize the shape of square pixels by resampling them into more complex shapes.

Don’t fret too hard, Russell.  We’d never have Diesel Sweeties without your mistake.