How to Keep Smooth Lines in Web Design

Maintain the clarity and smooth appearance of lines in your images and designs.

Visibly pixelated images are a thing of the past in the world of contemporary Web design. Unlike the low-resolution JPGs that once dominated the Web, many websites and browsers support a large variety of file types and codes. Additionally, the increase in processor and connection speed has granted the ability to load high-resolution images on websites without much strain or time. As a result you need to ensure that your Web design work is crisp and smooth when the time comes to publish your sites and pages.

Instructions

1. Adhere to a high-resolution standard for your images and layouts. The most popular screen resolutions are set to 1280 x 800 pixels and 1024 x 768 pixels. If you design your webpages to adapt to these aspect ratios, you will avoid displaying messy, pixelated graphics to users with high-resolution browsers.

2. Render your text images with antialiasing in your image editing software. The antialiasing process smooths the jagged edges in pre-rasterized images from text and other sources. By adding intermediate colors to the border of each individual line and curve, the image appears more naturally embedded within the background. Antialiasing is an option during the file export process, typically indicated by a simple checkbox.

3. Apply the blur filter to especially jagged lines or lines within images that have already been rasterized. Since you cannot apply antialiasing to an existing image, sometimes your only option to smooth out your lines is to utilize an object blur tool to simulate smoothness in your lines. For the best results select a small brush size and zoom in on the line's edges for fine detailing.