Anti-aliasing
Anti-Aliasing, Aliaphobia, or pixel-hatred is a type of hostility or prejudice toward aliasing. Anti-aliasing takes place in the cases of image editing software, cameras, and other software and hardware automatically getting rid of aliasing. Anti-aliasing in individuals is seen with people deciding to keep anti-aliasing on while editing with Photoshop or Paint.NET. There are many theories on why anti-aliasing is so prevalent. According to Critical Rendering Theory, anti-aliasing is common in the populous due to institutional bias teaching children in school to keep anti-aliasing on when editing images. Proponents of anti-aliasing generally believe that it reduces artifacting in images, thus is good.
History[edit | edit source]
Anti-aliasing has been pervasive in society since the age of cathode ray tubes being in televisions. Piks Elle, the inventor of the pixel, created pixels with with the intention of being as jagged as possible, which is why he didn't choose circles or hexagons. However, anti-aliasing destroyed Elle's vision of how computers should render graphics. He advocated against anti-aliasing for the rest of his life, until he was publicly lynched due to his pro-aliasing rhetoric. Before the 2000's, due to bias and pseudoscientific studies against aliasing, it was seen as a necessity to discriminate against aliasing. However, due to advances in technology and education about prejudice against aliasing, anti-aliasing has seen a decline in usage. The Aliasing Movement, a movement that advances aliasing rights, gained notoriety in 2008 when to-be United States president Barack Obama mentioned anti-aliasing during a speech of his.
“I believe that images deserve the right to have jagged pixels. Nobody should be forced to be blurry”
– Barack Obama, September 21, 2008
Cheers from the crowd erupted, and attention was brought to the prevalence of anti-aliasing in society. 1 year later, the Piks Elle National Images Society (PENIS) was formed to advocate for Elle's ideals. PENIS has successfully advocated for various editing software to get rid of an option to have anti-aliasing, and Obama endorsed PENIS during his presidency. The flag of the United States had anti-aliasing turned off in 2009, but anti-aliasing was turned back on once Donald Trump became president. In November of 2019, British author J. K. Rowling promoted anti-aliasing by insisting to keep using it on the covers of Harry Potter books and saying that anti-aliasing was a "fake oppression" and that she will blur pixels whenever she wants.
