What is anti-aliasing?

What Is Anti-Aliasing, and How Does It Affect My Photos and

Images?

Anti-aliasing is a word thats often thrown around by photographers
and gamers when dealing with graphics and images. Take a look at
what anti-aliasing is, why we use it, and, most importantly, when
its best to not use it.
Its an important part of imagemaking and photographyanti-
aliasing is certainly something that should be understood as
thoroughly as possible to create high quality images. We hope
youre prepared for a very geeky article, as you have lots of
discussion of math and science mixed in with todays explainer
article. Keep reading!
Vectors and Pixels, and Why Cameras Take Pictures With
Pixels

You may remember an article from a year ago where we talked
about the difference in Vectors and Pixels. There are a number of
fundamental differences between the two: pixels are ordered arrays
of light, pigment, or color; vectors are mathematical
representations of lines, shapes, gradients, etc. Vectors are precise;
they exist at absolute coordinates on an algebraic grid. Because
they are so absolute, theres no blurring the line between where
they are and where they are not. Even if a monitor cannot render a
line segments infinite thinness (it always has to show it in pixels),
it still is as thin as a line existing only in a theoretical mathematical
world.

Thats the problem with photographylight isnt as precise as it
would need to be to be captured in a perfectly mathematical way.
Its likely that even if we developed cameras capable of reading the
locations of individual photons with quantum precision as they hit
the sensor, because of the weird nature of physics at the quantum
level, the individual particles may actually appear in multiple places
on the sensor at the same time. This means it may be absolutely
impossible to get the absolute location of that single particle of light
at the time it hit the sensorphotography is only an approximation
of how that light is captured. The stopping action (ability of the
camera to create sharp images from moving objects) can never be
perfectat least it seems very, very unlikely.
Pixels are handy because high-resolution images can approximate
colors and shapes, accurately recreating an image in a way that is
similar to film-based photography. While this property of pixels and
its use in photography is not anti-aliasing exactly, understanding
this property of digital photography is one of the best places to
start a solid understanding of what anti-aliasing is.
Interpolation: Creating Something From (Almost) Nothing?

Digital photography is an approximation of the colors and values
present when light hits a sensorin this same way, anti-aliasing is
an approximation of image data using a technique called
Interpolation. Interpolation is a fancy-pants math term meaning
data created based on the trends of existing data, i.e. an educated
guess on what might actually be in that spot if more data points
were available. While it is more complicated that simple guessing
there are formulas and proper methods for Interpolationit cant
be expected to be a perfectly accurate representation of the image
data that is actually there. Even the smartest math cant create
something from nothing.


When we look at these computer rendered checkerboards, we can
begin to understand what anti-aliasing is doing to improve and
approximate images. On the leftmost image, theres no
interpolation of datathe checkerboard is rendered in black and
white pixels as it recedes back in perspective, and quickly becomes
a mess. The visual errors and artifacts created are what we call
aliasing. The second and third images above use different forms
of anti-aliasing to better approximate how human eyes (and
cameras) perceive light.


Those images, however, were a translation of absolute
mathematical images into pixel based images. How does anti-
aliasing apply to your photography? When images are resized,
either enlarged or reduced, the image is interpolated based on the
data that exist in the image document. The left image is shrunk
using the nearest neighbor resampling in Photoshopin other
words, it isnt anti-aliased (you can literally call this aliased). The
image on the right is reduced and anti-aliased, creating a much
truer image at that small size.

Enlarged images also benefit from anti-aliasinggraphics programs
make their best guess based on the data in your image. Keep in
mind when you are upsampling (enlarging) images in a graphics
program, that you will never actually get more resolution out of a
digital enlargementthe kind of interpolation being done can make
a good guess as to what should be there, but itll never know for
sure. Your edges will be soft, and get softer as the photo gets
enlarged more and more.
A good rule of thumb is that you can always downsample (shrink)
your images without loss of quality from anti-aliasing. Upsampling
(enlarging) makes the anti-aliasing very obvious, adds no new
resolution, and should only be done if it cant be avoided.

Anti-Aliasing and Vectors: Why Anti-Aliasing Makes
Videogames Look Better

If youve played a PC game in the past 15 or so years, you might
have seen video options that included settings for anti-aliasing. If
you remember when we discussed vector shapes existing in an
absolute position, you should begin to understand why anti-aliasing
is important to video games.
3 Dimensional forms are created in vector polygons, and these
polygons exist in a math only realm. Anti-aliasing in video games
has at least two goals: firstly it wants to be able to render the
absolute, hard-edged lines of the polygons in a form that looks
decent on a pixel-based monitor; secondly, anti-aliasing better
replicates the imprecise way that photography and human eyes
perceive light.

Anti-Aliasing and Typography

On a final note, there are plenty of occasions where anti-aliasing is
not ideal. If youve ever worked around graphic designers, youre
likely to have heard them complain about typography in Photoshop,
and how inferior it is to Illustratorand theyre right.
Both of the letters above are pixel based typography, with the left
one being aliased, the right one anti-aliased. Neither are good
representations of typography, or at least that typeface. It is
acceptable to render a font on screen with anti-aliasing, but for
print, it can have some disastrous consequences.

When you think about what letters are, they dont really follow the
same rules that digital photography requires. Letters are abstract
ideas and absolute shapesthey fall better into the pure math
category of vector artwork. And depending on the type of printing
process used to create them, those pure math vector shapes
become absolutely important.

This image above was created with anti-aliased type, and then
most likely offset printed. When we look closely we can see why
thats bad.

It becomes clear very quickly that these anti-aliased forms did not
hold up well when printed this way. This is an example of how anti-
aliasing (as well as pixel-based imaging) can be inferior when
rendering typography.
Of course, had this been an image (like a photograph) and not the
abstract forms of type, it would have held up quite well.

Type, being an abstract medium, requires the precision of vectors
to hold up under the kinds of printing processes that dont use
inkjet dots to create an image. Even at very close distances, we
dont see any dots or evidence that anti-aliasing that went into the
files used to print this Coke can.
Of course, most people wont be offset printing most of their
photos, so pixel-based typography printed from dot-based printers
will work out just fine. Simply be aware of your anti-aliasing when
youre working with typography and when youre working with
photographyyoull find youre better prepared to make the right
choices that will give you the best possible images.