Efficient Expert Tips to Make Anti-Aliasing Your Bitch in Photoshop

Efficient Expert Tips to Make Anti-Aliasing Your Bitch in Photoshop

Photoshop’s anti-aliasing works in the most cases very well. There are however, some occasions when you want to get more crisp edges. This article addresses this issue and introduces efficient ways of controlling the anti-aliasing in Adobe Photoshop.

To get some background for this article, just read these few lines that explain what anti-aliasing is all about:

In digital signal processing, spatial anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as aliasing when representing a high-resolution image at a lower resolution. Anti-aliasing is used in digital photography, computer graphics, digital audio, and many other applications.

So what does this mean for us Photoshop users then?

When adding graphics using any of the vector tools, Photoshop will give you an option to anti-alias the raster that will be rendered. This only occurs when you have the option “Fill Pixels” selected and it is crucial that you know that it exist.

Anti-aliasing can either be turned on or turned off while filling pixels using any of the vector tools.

No Anti-Aliasing vs. Anti-Aliasing in Photoshop

Anti-aliasing gives us the benefit of having nice and smooth curves by adding pixels of lower opacity outside the actual drawing. This works well for large and medium-sized vectors. But when it comes down to the really small details you may want to control the anti-aliasing a bit more to make the graphics look crisp.

Take this example.

Anti-aliasing vs. Fine-tuned Anti-aliasing

Here we are working with smaller graphics, hence the default anti-aliasing will make the anti-aliased pixels go into each other – resulting in a bold and blurry symbol.

Understanding the issue

What happens is this: pixels that are the results of the anti-aliasing will mix and create blobs of pixels. The resulting pixels of the anti-aliasing will always be of lower opacity than the original drawing – this gives us a golden ticket to control these pixels.

The Solution

Control the pixels that are the result of the anti-aliasing process.

Anti-aliasing with various levels of mid-tones

Here the mid-tones are controlled by a simple Levels Adjustment Layer. The effect is applied with gradually increasing values so that you can see the effect.

Illustrator and Smart Objects

When working with Illustrator and Photoshop in parallel, you often end up with a Smart Object (or a raster of a Smart Object) in Photoshop. When you import the vector graphics into Photoshop you will get the option whether to use anti-aliasing or not. For logos as other vectors that are suppose to have crisp edges, this is option is often not flexible enough.

Here we use the same technique with Levels to control the mid-tones of the right hand logo. On the left side you see the default anti-aliased vector object.

Smart Objects anti-aliased vs. Fine-tuned Anti-aliasing

Conclusions

Anti-alias is great. Without it, everything on the computer-screen would appear edgy. Sometimes you are better off without anti-aliasing and sometimes it does wounder if you use it. The knowledge of controlling the anti-aliasing in Photoshop is very valuable, as it will make your graphics look even better if done right.

Not many people thinks about this or even care about it. But now at least you know about it — and hopefully, you will also try to improve the anti-aliasing where applicable

Continue reading here: The Beauty of Math - An Illustrated Showcase

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Readers' Questions

  • pinja
    What is aliasing image editing in photoshop?
    1 year ago
  • Aliasing in Photoshop is a technique used to reduce the appearance of jagged edges or sharp angles in an image. It is often used to make an image appear smoother and more professional. Aliasing works by blending adjacent pixels to create a softer appearance. This can help to reduce the appearance of pixelation and create a more pleasing look.
    • kenneth
      How does anti aliasing work?
      1 year ago
    • Anti-aliasing is a technique used in digital imaging to reduce or eliminate jagged or pixelated edges in digital images. It works by adding pixels of intermediate colors along the edges of objects to smooth them out. This makes the objects appear less jagged and more realistic. It is usually implemented in digital image processing software, such as image editing programs.
      • Jaiden
        Can you use anti allias with drawing tools on photoshop?
        1 year ago
      • Yes, you can use anti-aliasing with a drawing tool in Photoshop. You can do this by checking the box for the anti-aliasing option in the Options bar when you have a drawing tool selected.
        • belladonna
          How to make better anti aliasing to outer glow photoshop?
          1 year ago
          1. Increase the radius of the outer glow.
          2. Increase the Contour of the outer glow.
          3. Reduce the intensity of the glow.
          4. Set the Anti-aliasing of the outer glow to Smooth.
          5. Reduce the noise of the outer glow.
          6. Reduce the opacity of the outer glow.
          7. Change the blend mode of the outer glow to Screen or Lighten.
          8. Change the color of the outer glow to an average of the colors in the image.
          • Amelie
            How to turn off smart object in photoshop?
            1 year ago
          • To turn off Smart Objects in Photoshop, open the Layers palette and click on the smart object layer. Select "Rasterize Layer" from the Layer drop-down menu. This will turn the smart object into a regular layer, which will no longer be editable as a Smart Object.
            • petros nasih
              What is anti aliasing in illustrator?
              1 year ago
            • Anti-aliasing in Illustrator is a feature that helps to smooth out the edges of type and vector objects; it makes the edges appear softer and less jagged. It does this by slightly blending the colors of the object with the colors of the background pixels, creating a smoother look.