lantialiasing

Lantialiasing, commonly known as anti-aliasing, refers to techniques used in digital rendering to reduce the jagged edges that occur when representing high-frequency detail at finite resolution. It applies to real-time graphics, image rendering, and font rendering to produce smoother edges and more accurate shapes.

Common approaches include spatial anti-aliasing methods such as supersampling (SSAA) and multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA), which sample multiple points within a pixel to estimate edge coverage; post-process methods like FXAA, SMAA, and TXAA apply filtering to the final image to smooth jaggies with lower performance costs; temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) uses information from previous frames to stabilize edges over time; for fonts, subpixel rendering (as used in ClearType) improves perceived smoothness by exploiting the display's subpixels.

How anti-aliasing works involves increasing the sampling rate or applying filters along edge boundaries to blend colors across adjacent pixels. In post-processing, it detects edge patterns and smooths them to reduce high-frequency artifacts, often trading some sharpness for reduced jaggies.

Trade-offs are a key consideration. Higher-quality methods typically require more processing time and memory, while faster techniques may introduce blur, ghosting, or slight color shifts. The choice of method depends on the application, hardware capabilities, and the desired balance between edge smoothness and rendering performance.