In
computer graphics,
antialiasing is a
software technique for diminishing
jaggies - stairstep-like lines that should be smooth. Jaggies occur because the
output device, the
monitor or
printer, doesn't have a high enough
resolution to represent a smooth line. Antialiasing reduces the prominence of jaggies by surrounding the stairsteps with intermediate shades of gray (for
gray-scaling devices) or color (for color devices). Although this reduces the jagged appearance of the lines, it also makes them fuzzier.
Another method for reducing jaggies is called smoothing, in which the printer changes the size and horizontal alignment of dots to make curves smoother.
Antialiasing is sometimes called oversampling.
