texels

Texels, short for texture elements, are the fundamental units of a texture map in computer graphics. A texture is a 2D image applied to the surface of a 3D object to provide color and detail. Each texel stores the color information for a discrete location in texture space, typically arranged in a grid with dimensions such as width by height (for example, 1024 × 1024 texels).

When a texture is sampled during rendering, the graphics processor translates a surface point’s texture coordinates (u, v) into texel locations and fetches one or more texels, applying filtering to determine the final color for screen pixels. Common sampling modes include nearest-neighbor and bilinear or trilinear filtering; mipmapping provides multiple prefiltered textures at smaller resolutions to reduce aliasing when textures are viewed from a distance or at oblique angles. Anisotropic filtering further improves quality for oblique viewing angles.

Texels are distinct from screen pixels; a texel belongs to texture space, while a screen pixel is a sample on the display. During texture mapping, texels are projected and interpolated to determine the color of render-target pixels. Textures can be stored in various formats, such as uncompressed RGBA8 or compressed formats like BCn/DXT; GPUs also support mipmap levels and specialized memory layouts for efficiency.

Texel density, or texels per unit area, is a measure of texture detail relevant to achieving consistent visual fidelity across a scene. Artists manage texel density to avoid under- or over-detail in different objects. The concept of texels originates from texture elements and remains central in graphics pipelines, game development, and 3D modeling.