hey all, i just wondered are pixols real things or is it pixologic playing on the word pixel?
Fudge
Pixols are a real thing. They are little creatures living in the Renderland!
Lemo
…here in the ZB Wiki: the Pixols are not only a video game boy word 
and like Saint Thomas,(1225-1275) you will say : “I beleive only what I see” 
A marvelous concept in the digital world 
(pixols and St Thomas’ maxim 
Pixols, unlike 2d pixels, can also hold 3 dimensional space. The term, while deriving from the company name, does actually stand for something and is not just a fancy way of market advertising.
“Physically”, I visualize the pixol system renders as being like the conventional pinscreen devices used in the rarely seen, non-computer-asisted pinscreen animation. Check out Jaques Drouin’s “Mindscape”.
BTW, shadows in ZBrush tend to be similar to those cast in the pinscreen device (each pixol extends like a solid column forward in the Z dimension).
So I guess the answer is yes, pixols are “real”, but the multi-layer functionality of ZBrush complicates it because you also have the “cosmic potential” of multiple Z dimension columns occupying the same pin-grid with the tallest column for any given layer’s x,y position taking precedence.
Sven
Did I mention that Pixol’s are the clever upper class version of the ordinary Pixel? They whent to Pixel-U and can recall not only x,y and color information about themselves but in addition to that they can recall the material and Z information. And some more secret information which they do not like to reveal, as well.
Lemo 
Draw a sphere and make it editable. Now place your fingertips on the screen and move them from the sphere (pixols) to the toolbars (pixels). You’ll notice a definite temperature difference. Pixols are way cooler than pixels.
Hahahahahahahahahaha. Sorry, but that made my day. Cool pixels hahaha.
Lol snicker…
But in any case, the secret behind ZBrush is founded in it’s 2D footprint. One of the results is that a perspective view impossible due to THE architecture. All we can do is distort the geometry as if it would follow a perspective before we drop it and fix it that way. We stare at a needle box made out of Pixols. And all we do is coloring the needle heads and pushing or pulling the pins aka pixols.
Lemo (Pixolpusher)