Panorama is a word that originates in the Greek language. Translated into English, it would probably mean something like "see everything", which basically also gives a rough idea of what a Panorama picture is, namely a picture that shows much more than just a normal picture. Usually, the viewing angle on panorama pictures is significantly larger than that of normal pictures. This is why they are usually also not in the standard picture format, but much wider. This is why panorama pictures are so popular when it comes to photographing landscapes and cities. One can distinguish here between the rather unspectacular panorama pictures that basically differ from normal pictures because they have a much wider viewing-angle, and the very spectacular 360 degrees pictures. Especially in the early days, the production of these kinds of pictures was extremely laborious.

At the beginning of the 19th centuries, 360 degree panorama pictures where a special form of the so-called trompe d'oiel painting technique. The most extravagant pictures had up to 20 meters in height and amplitudes of up to 100 meters. They where that costly and valuable, that there where special kinds of museums that where dealing only with this kind of art. Nowadays, digital photography and digital printing has made the creation of such pictures reasonably easy. There are special programs that can create big panorama pictures out of a collection of many small pictures. Those programs and many more information about them are, among others, available on the internet.