<graphics> A technique used on a gray-scale or colour bitmap display to make diagonal edges appear smoother by setting pixels to intermediate colours near the edge according to where the edge crosses them.
The most common example is where black characters are to be displayed on a white background. Without anti-aliasing, the diagonal edges of, say an upper case "A" character appear as a jagged edges or "staircases" which may be noticable on a low resolution display. If the display is capable of showing intermediate greys then anti-aliasing can be applied. This colours a pixel black if it is completely within the black area, or white if it is complete white, or an intermediate shade of gray determined by the proportions of the pixel which overlap the black and white areas.
(18 Apr 1995)