Twelve Characteristics of Correct Antialiased Lines

Scott R. Nelson
Sun Microsystems Computer Company

This paper appears in issue Volume 1, Number 4.
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Abstract

Many papers have been written on line antialiasing algorithms. Most ignore important features that can leave visible artifacts. This paper presents twelve desirable characteristics of antialiased lines and discusses algorithmic tradeoffs that affect each of the characteristics from a behavioral perspective. Accompanying color images show the differences between acceptable and unacceptable behavior for each characteristic. This paper provides the information needed to visibly analyze how well a particular antialiased line algorithm works.

This is the first of two articles. See also High quality hardware line antialiasing in jgt 2(1).

Author Information

Scott R. Nelson, Sun Microsystems Computer Co., 2550 Garcia Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94043-1100 srnelson@eng.sun.com

See Also

This is the first of two articles. See also High quality hardware line antialiasing in jgt 2(1).

Additional Information

A test image file was developed for the National Computer Graphics Association’s (NCGA) Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) committee’s Picture Level Benchmark (PLB) test set called line_quality. Sample image files, a description of what to look for, and the original test sources are available on the line quality test web page.

Updated Contact Information

The author’s current email address is Scott.R.Nelson@intel.com.  (updated Feb 11, 1999)

BibTeX Entry

@article{Nelson96,
  author = "Scott R. Nelson",
  title = "Twelve Characteristics of Correct Antialiased Lines",
  journal = "journal of graphics, gpu, and game tools",
  volume = "1",
  number = "4",
  pages = "1-20",
  year = "1996",
}