Pixelated text is text rendered in a coarse grid of visible squares, so letters look blocky instead of smooth. It is common in low-resolution displays, retro broadcast formats, and image resizing artifacts, where each character is preserved using a limited number of pixels. The effect can make text readable at a glance while clearly showing that the image or display has low fidelity.
In cyber security, pixelated text matters because it can be used to hide detail from automated tools and human reviewers. Attackers may place text inside images, blur or pixelate it, or use low-resolution screenshots to reduce the effectiveness of OCR, content filters, and visual inspection. Defenders look for these manipulations when analyzing phishing images, suspicious attachments, and redacted screenshots, often using image enhancement or OCR to recover the underlying text.