Skip to main content
Log in

Antialiasing: A technique for smoothing jagged lines on a computer graphics image—an implementation on the Amiga

  • Instrumentation & Techniques
  • Published:
Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Images displayed on computer graphics displays often suffer from the presence of aliasing artifacts that give a jagged appearance to lines or polygon edges displayed on the screen. This paper details the problems associated with these artifacts and presents a method for drawingantialiased lines—ones in which the artifacts have been considerably reduced. The line-drawing routine is further developed to incorporategamma correction, to take into account the nonlinear relationship between the intensity of the light emission from the phosphor of the monitor and the grayscale values used to control the intensity on the screen.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Booth, K. S., Bryden, M. P., Cowan, W. B., Morgan, M. F., &Plante, B. L. (1987). On the parameters of human visual performance: An investigation of the benefits of antialiasing.IEEE Compute Graphics & Applications,7, 34–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bresenham, J. E. (1965). Algorithm for computer control of a digital plotter.IBM Systems Journal,4(1), 25–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catmull, E. (1979). A tutorial on compensation tables.Computer Graphics,13(2), 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, W. B. (1983). An inexpensive scheme for calibration of a colour monitor in terms of CIE standard coordinates.Computer Graphics,17(3), 315–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crow, F. C. (1977). The aliasing problem in computer-synthesized computer generated images.Communications ACM, 20(11).

  • Crow, F. C. (1978). The use of grayscale for improved raster display of vectors and characters.Computer Graphics,12(3), 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feibush, E. A., Levoy, M., &Cook, R. L. (1980). Synthetic texturing using digital filters.Computer Graphics,14(3), 294–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Field, D. (1984). Two algorithms for drawing anti-aliased lines. InProceedings, Graphics Interface 84 (pp. 87–95). Toronto: The Canadian Information Processing Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, J. D., &Van Dam, A. (1981).Fundamentals of interactive computer graphics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kernighan, B. W., &Ritchie, D. M. (1978).The C programming language. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindholm, J. M. (1988, November).Temporal factors affecting perception of raster graphics images. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, IL.

  • Mitchell, D. P. (1987). Generating antialiased images at low sampling densities.Computer Graphics,21(4), 65–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, D. F. (1985).Procedural elements for computer graphics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turkowski, K. (1986). Anti-aliasing in topological color spaces.Compute Graphics,20(4), 307–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

We thank Keith McGowan for his timely assistance.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tanner, P.P., Jolicoeur, P., Cowan, W.B. et al. Antialiasing: A technique for smoothing jagged lines on a computer graphics image—an implementation on the Amiga. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 21, 59–66 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203871

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203871

Keywords

Navigation