Pictures

Pictures are visual representations created to communicate information, evoke emotion, or document moments. The term covers a broad range of media, including photographs, drawings, paintings, prints, diagrams, and digital images. A picture may be produced by recording light with a camera, by hand through drawing or painting, or by computer rendering and manipulation.

Common categories include photographs captured with cameras, including digital sensors; paintings using pigments on surfaces; drawings made with pencils, ink, or charcoal; prints such as etchings or lithographs; and diagrams or charts used to convey data. Digital images encompass screen-based pictures created or edited with software, as well as vector illustrations and raster graphics.

Creation methods vary: photographs result from exposure of a photosensitive medium or sensor to light; drawings and paintings involve direct handwork by an artist; digital images are produced through software tools or scanned from physical media. Technical considerations include file formats, color models, resolution, and compression, with JPEG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF being common for still images, and RAW formats used by cameras to capture data before processing.

Storage and display have evolved from physical albums and slides to digital archives and cloud-based libraries. Metadata—captions, dates, authorship, and copyright information—supports organization and reuse.

Copyright and licensing govern the use of pictures, protecting creators’ rights while enabling sharing under terms such as licenses or fair use. Pictures play a central role in journalism, art, education, advertising, and everyday communication, shaping how people perceive and interpret the world.