Run-length encoding ( RLE ) is a form of lossless data compression in which runs of data (consecutive occurrences of the same data value) are stored as a single occurrence of that data value and a count of its consecutive occurrences, rather than as the original run. As an imaginary example of the concept, when encoding an image built up from colored dots, the sequence "green green green green green green green green green" is shortened to "green x 9". This is most efficient on data that contains many such runs, for example, simple graphic images such as icons, line drawings, games, and animations. For files that do not have many runs, encoding them with RLE could increase the file size.
46-452: RLE may refer to: Run-length encoding , a form of lossless data compression Radical life extension , a study to extend human lifespan Right-to-left embedding, in bi-directional text Refractive lens exchange , an eye operation Real-life experience (transgender) , a period of time in which transgender individuals live full-time in their preferred gender role Rail Logistics Europe ,
92-412: A native resolution , and it should (ideally) be matched to the video card resolution. Each pixel is made up of triads , with the number of these triads determining the native resolution. On older, historically available, CRT monitors the resolution was possibly adjustable (still lower than what modern monitor achieve), while on some such monitors (or TV sets) the beam sweep rate was fixed, resulting in
138-545: A regular two-dimensional grid . By using this arrangement, many common operations can be implemented by uniformly applying the same operation to each pixel independently. Other arrangements of pixels are possible, with some sampling patterns even changing the shape (or kernel ) of each pixel across the image. For this reason, care must be taken when acquiring an image on one device and displaying it on another, or when converting image data from one pixel format to another. For example: Computer monitors (and TV sets) generally have
184-551: A "pixel" may refer to a fixed length rather than a true pixel on the screen to accommodate different pixel densities . A typical definition, such as in CSS , is that a "physical" pixel is 1 ⁄ 96 inch (0.26 mm). Doing so makes sure a given element will display as the same size no matter what screen resolution views it. There may, however, be some further adjustments between a "physical" pixel and an on-screen logical pixel. As screens are viewed at difference distances (consider
230-420: A 1200 dpi inkjet printer. Even higher dpi numbers, such as the 4800 dpi quoted by printer manufacturers since 2002, do not mean much in terms of achievable resolution . The more pixels used to represent an image, the closer the result can resemble the original. The number of pixels in an image is sometimes called the resolution, though resolution has a more specific definition. Pixel counts can be expressed as
276-466: A distance. In some displays, such as LCD, LED, and plasma displays, these single-color regions are separately addressable elements, which have come to be known as subpixels , mostly RGB colors. For example, LCDs typically divide each pixel vertically into three subpixels. When the square pixel is divided into three subpixels, each subpixel is necessarily rectangular. In display industry terminology, subpixels are often referred to as pixels , as they are
322-450: A fixed native resolution . What it is depends on the monitor, and size. See below for historical exceptions. Computers can use pixels to display an image, often an abstract image that represents a GUI . The resolution of this image is called the display resolution and is determined by the video card of the computer. Flat-panel monitors (and TV sets), e.g. OLED or LCD monitors, or E-ink , also use pixels to display an image, and have
368-426: A fixed native resolution. Most CRT monitors do not have a fixed beam sweep rate, meaning they do not have a native resolution at all – instead they have a set of resolutions that are equally well supported. To produce the sharpest images possible on an flat-panel, e.g. OLED or LCD, the user must ensure the display resolution of the computer matches the native resolution of the monitor. The pixel scale used in astronomy
414-404: A generalization of run-length encoding that can take advantage of runs of strings of characters (such as BWWBWWBWWBWW ). Run-length encoding can be expressed in multiple ways to accommodate data properties as well as additional compression algorithms. For instance, one popular method encodes run lengths for runs of two or more characters only, using an "escape" symbol to identify runs, or using
460-457: A measured intensity level. In most digital cameras, the sensor array is covered with a patterned color filter mosaic having red, green, and blue regions in the Bayer filter arrangement so that each sensor element can record the intensity of a single primary color of light. The camera interpolates the color information of neighboring sensor elements, through a process called demosaicing , to create
506-474: A phone, a computer display, and a TV), the desired length (a "reference pixel") is scaled relative to a reference viewing distance (28 inches (71 cm) in CSS). In addition, as true screen pixel densities are rarely multiples of 96 dpi, some rounding is often applied so that a logical pixel is an integer amount of actual pixels. Doing so avoids render artifacts. The final "pixel" obtained after these two steps becomes
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#1732771906391552-467: A screen containing plain black text on a solid white background. There will be many long runs of white pixels in the blank space, and many short runs of black pixels within the text. A hypothetical scan line , with B representing a black pixel and W representing white, might read as follows: With a run-length encoding (RLE) data compression algorithm applied to the above hypothetical scan line, it can be rendered as follows: This can be interpreted as
598-494: A sequence of twelve Ws, one B, twelve Ws, three Bs, etc., and represents the original 67 characters in only 18. While the actual format used for the storage of images is generally binary rather than ASCII characters like this, the principle remains the same. Even binary data files can be compressed with this method; file format specifications often dictate repeated bytes in files as padding space. However, newer compression methods such as DEFLATE often use LZ77 -based algorithms,
644-419: A single number, as in a "three-megapixel" digital camera, which has a nominal three million pixels, or as a pair of numbers, as in a "640 by 480 display", which has 640 pixels from side to side and 480 from top to bottom (as in a VGA display) and therefore has a total number of 640 × 480 = 307,200 pixels, or 0.3 megapixels. The pixels, or color samples, that form a digitized image (such as a JPEG file used on
690-403: A single scalar element of a multi-component representation (called a photosite in the camera sensor context, although sensel ' sensor element ' is sometimes used), while in yet other contexts (like MRI) it may refer to a set of component intensities for a spatial position. Software on early consumer computers was necessarily rendered at a low resolution, with large pixels visible to
736-433: A standard to encode run-length colour for fax machines, known as T.45. That fax colour coding standard, which along with other techniques is incorporated into Modified Huffman coding , is relatively efficient because most faxed documents are primarily white space, with occasional interruptions of black. RLE has a space complexity of O ( n ) {\displaystyle O(n)} , where n
782-426: A unit of measure such as: 2400 pixels per inch, 640 pixels per line, or spaced 10 pixels apart. The measures " dots per inch " (dpi) and " pixels per inch " (ppi) are sometimes used interchangeably, but have distinct meanings, especially for printer devices, where dpi is a measure of the printer's density of dot (e.g. ink droplet) placement. For example, a high-quality photographic image may be printed with 600 ppi on
828-432: A web page) may or may not be in one-to-one correspondence with screen pixels, depending on how a computer displays an image. In computing, an image composed of pixels is known as a bitmapped image or a raster image . The word raster originates from television scanning patterns, and has been widely used to describe similar halftone printing and storage techniques. For convenience, pixels are normally arranged in
874-403: Is available: this means that each 24-bit pixel has an extra 8 bits to describe its opacity (for purposes of combining with another image). Many display and image-acquisition systems are not capable of displaying or sensing the different color channels at the same site. Therefore, the pixel grid is divided into single-color regions that contribute to the displayed or sensed color when viewed at
920-465: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Run-length encoding RLE may also refer in particular to an early graphics file format supported by CompuServe for compressing black and white images, that was widely supplanted by their later Graphics Interchange Format (GIF). RLE also refers to a little-used image format in Windows 3.x that
966-485: Is generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image . However, the definition is highly context-sensitive. For example, there can be " printed pixels " in a page, or pixels carried by electronic signals, or represented by digital values, or pixels on a display device, or pixels in a digital camera (photosensor elements). This list is not exhaustive and, depending on context, synonyms include pel, sample, byte, bit, dot, and spot. Pixels can be used as
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#17327719063911012-503: Is saved with the file extension rle ; it is a run-length encoded bitmap, and the format was used for the Windows 3.x startup screen. Run-length encoding (RLE) schemes were employed in the transmission of analog television signals as far back as 1967. In 1983, run-length encoding was patented by Hitachi . RLE is particularly well suited to palette -based bitmap images (which use relatively few colours) such as computer icons , and
1058-630: Is the angular distance between two objects on the sky that fall one pixel apart on the detector (CCD or infrared chip). The scale s measured in radians is the ratio of the pixel spacing p and focal length f of the preceding optics, s = p / f . (The focal length is the product of the focal ratio by the diameter of the associated lens or mirror.) Because s is usually expressed in units of arcseconds per pixel, because 1 radian equals (180/π) × 3600 ≈ 206,265 arcseconds, and because focal lengths are often given in millimeters and pixel sizes in micrometers which yields another factor of 1,000,
1104-490: Is the size of the input data. Run-length encoding compresses data by reducing the physical size of a repeating string of characters. This process involves converting the input data into a compressed format by identifying and counting consecutive occurrences of each character. The steps are as follows: The decoding process involves reconstructing the original data from the encoded format by repeating characters according to their counts. The steps are as follows: Consider
1150-579: The Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM lens mounted on a Nikon D800 has the highest measured P-MPix. However, with a value of 23 MP, it still wipes off more than one-third of the D800's 36.3 MP sensor. In August 2019, Xiaomi released the Redmi Note 8 Pro as the world's first smartphone with 64 MP camera. On December 12, 2019 Samsung released Samsung A71 that also has a 64 MP camera. In late 2019, Xiaomi announced
1196-494: The 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 ( pixies )", the term has been used to describe the animation process since the early 1950s; various animators, including Norman McLaren and Grant Munro , are credited with popularizing it. A pixel
1242-410: The "anchor" to which all other absolute measurements (e.g. the "centimeter") are based on. Worked example, with a 30-inch (76 cm) 2160p TV placed 56 inches (140 cm) away from the viewer: A browser will then choose to use the 1.721× pixel size, or round to a 2× ratio. A megapixel ( MP ) is a million pixels; the term is used not only for the number of pixels in an image but also to express
1288-436: The "total" pixel count. The number of pixels is sometimes quoted as the "resolution" of a photo. This measure of resolution can be calculated by multiplying the width and height of a sensor in pixels. Digital cameras use photosensitive electronics, either charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, consisting of a large number of single sensor elements, each of which records
1334-541: 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, though it had been used earlier in various U.S. patents filed as early as 1911. Some authors explain pixel as picture cell, as early as 1972. In graphics and in image and video processing, pel is often used instead of pixel . For example, IBM used it in their Technical Reference for
1380-654: The Moon and Mars. Billingsley had learned the word from Keith E. McFarland, at the Link Division of General Precision in Palo Alto , who in turn said he did not know where it originated. McFarland said simply it was "in use at the time" ( c. 1963 ). 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
1426-678: The allocation of the primary colors (green has twice as many elements as red or blue in the Bayer arrangement). DxO Labs invented the Perceptual MegaPixel (P-MPix) to measure the sharpness that a camera produces when paired to a particular lens – as opposed to the MP a manufacturer states for a camera product, which is based only on the camera's sensor. The new P-MPix claims to be a more accurate and relevant value for photographers to consider when weighing up camera sharpness. As of mid-2013,
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1472-529: The basic addressable elements in a viewpoint of hardware, and hence pixel circuits rather than subpixel circuits is used. Most digital camera image sensors use single-color sensor regions, for example using the Bayer filter pattern, and in the camera industry these are known as pixels just like in the display industry, not subpixels . For systems with subpixels, two different approaches can be taken: This latter approach, referred to as subpixel rendering , uses knowledge of pixel geometry to manipulate
1518-432: The character itself as the escape, so that any time a character appears twice it denotes a run. On the previous example, this would give the following: This would be interpreted as a run of twelve Ws, a B, a run of twelve Ws, a run of three Bs, etc. In data where runs are less frequent, this can significantly improve the compression rate. One other matter is the application of additional compression algorithms. Even with
1564-521: The depth is normally the sum of the bits allocated to each of the red, green, and blue components. Highcolor , usually meaning 16 bpp, normally has five bits for red and blue each, and six bits for green, as the human eye is more sensitive to errors in green than in the other two primary colors. For applications involving transparency, the 16 bits may be divided into five bits each of red, green, and blue, with one bit left for transparency. A 24-bit depth allows 8 bits per component. On some systems, 32-bit depth
1610-480: The final image. These sensor elements are often called "pixels", even though they only record one channel (only red or green or blue) of the final color image. Thus, two of the three color channels for each sensor must be interpolated and a so-called N-megapixel camera that produces an N-megapixel image provides only one-third of the information that an image of the same size could get from a scanner. Thus, certain color contrasts may look fuzzier than others, depending on
1656-452: The first camera phone with 108 MP 1/1.33-inch across sensor. The sensor is larger than most of bridge camera with 1/2.3-inch across sensor. One new method to add megapixels has been introduced in a Micro Four Thirds System camera, which only uses a 16 MP sensor but can produce a 64 MP RAW (40 MP JPEG) image by making two exposures, shifting the sensor by a half pixel between them. Using a tripod to take level multi-shots within an instance,
1702-427: The formula is often quoted as s = 206 p / f . The number of distinct colors that can be represented by a pixel depends on the number of bits per pixel (bpp). A 1 bpp image uses 1 bit for each pixel, so each pixel can be either on or off. Each additional bit doubles the number of colors available, so a 2 bpp image can have 4 colors, and a 3 bpp image can have 8 colors: For color depths of 15 or more bits per pixel,
1748-479: The naked eye; graphics made under these limitations may be called pixel art , especially in reference to video games. Modern computers and displays, however, can easily render orders of magnitude more pixels than was previously possible, necessitating the use of large measurements like the megapixel (one million pixels). The word pixel is a combination of pix (from "pictures", shortened to "pics") and el (for " element "); similar formations with ' el' include
1794-401: The number of image sensor elements of digital cameras or the number of display elements of digital displays . For example, a camera that makes a 2048 × 1536 pixel image (3,145,728 finished image pixels) typically uses a few extra rows and columns of sensor elements and is commonly said to have "3.2 megapixels" or "3.4 megapixels", depending on whether the number reported is the "effective" or
1840-488: The rail freight and logistics operations division of SNCF Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title RLE . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RLE&oldid=1213832208 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
1886-402: The runs extracted, the frequencies of different characters may be large, allowing for further compression; however, if the run lengths are written in the file in the locations where the runs occurred, the presence of these numbers interrupts the normal flow and makes it harder to compress. To overcome this, some run-length encoders separate the data and escape symbols from the run lengths, so that
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1932-482: The smallest element that can be manipulated through software. Each pixel is a sample of an original image; more samples typically provide more accurate representations of the original. The intensity of each pixel is variable. In color imaging systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue , or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black . In some contexts (such as descriptions of camera sensors ), pixel refers to
1978-453: The three colored subpixels separately, producing an increase in the apparent resolution of color displays. While CRT displays use red-green-blue-masked phosphor areas, dictated by a mesh grid called the shadow mask, it would require a difficult calibration step to be aligned with the displayed pixel raster, and so CRTs do not use subpixel rendering. The concept of subpixels is related to samples . In graphic, web design, and user interfaces,
2024-436: The two can be handled independently. For the example data, this would result in two outputs, the string " WWBWWBBWWBWW " and the numbers ( 12,12,3,24,14 ). Pixel In digital imaging , a pixel (abbreviated px ), pel , or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image , or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device . In most digital display devices , pixels are
2070-513: The words voxel ' volume pixel ' , and texel ' texture pixel ' . The word pix appeared in Variety magazine headlines in 1932, as an abbreviation for the word pictures , in reference to movies. By 1938, "pix" was being used in reference to still pictures by photojournalists. The word "pixel" was first published in 1965 by Frederic C. Billingsley of JPL , to describe the picture elements of scanned images from space probes to
2116-603: Was a popular image compression method on early online services such as CompuServe before the advent of more sophisticated formats such as GIF . It does not work well on continuous-tone images (which use very many colours) such as photographs, although JPEG uses it on the coefficients that remain after transforming and quantizing image blocks. Common formats for run-length encoded data include Truevision TGA , PackBits (by Apple, used in MacPaint ), PCX and ILBM . The International Telecommunication Union also describes
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