What Does Anti-Alias Mean in Photoshop?

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program that was originally released in 1988, and as of November 2010 is in its twelfth-generation. This program has become ubiquitous, such that its name is now used by many as a verb to describe any digital editing of photographs.

How Anti-Aliasing Works

Photoshop, like many graphics editing programs and rendering devices, uses anti-aliasing to soften the edges on images. This program functions by blending shades of color between a foreground image and a background in order to smooth out the jagged edges.

Applications

Photoshop can take a jagged black text on a white page and smooth it out by blending in shades of gray around its edges to create an anti-aliased, polished image. This same technique can be applied to images with distinct lines layered on a heavily contrasting background such as a basketball net at night. This program can also be used to smooth out images previously cast in low resolution.

Downsides

Many people have noted that the overuse of anti-aliasing or using it when the background does not have enough contrast with the foreground can lead to a blurry effect.

References

• Ink Line Press: What Does Anti-alias Mean in Photoshop?
• People Against Aliasing: Anti-Alias
• Panther Products: What Is Anti-Aliasing? How Does It Affect Our Graphics?