Lineart and "Jaggies"
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20478
Printed Date: 14 September 2025 at 1:47am
Topic: Lineart and "Jaggies"
Posted By: xavier2
Subject: Lineart and "Jaggies"
Date Posted: 24 December 2014 at 10:42am
Hey, I'm a beginner trying to get into pixel art and there was some questions I had concerning making a piece's outline. It's stated numerous times that one should avoid creating jagged edges on their outline, but I have issues judging what is considered jagged or not. While some atrocities are very apparent, sometimes I feel its hard to "pickup" on what's considered a proper line.
I've read this tutorial here: http://rjanes.com/tutorials/introduction_to_pixel_art.php
And it mentions that in general, only 5 "types of straight lines" exist (with a few exceptions I'm sure), and while its easy to grasp what makes a straight line straight, (using a consistent amount of pixels per "segment") I feel like this concept is harder to grasp with curves and more irregular lines. For example do ALL curves have to follow that format to look smooth? (without the use of AA)
Can anyone maybe give me more insight into this topic or point me toward a more proper article? Is there a good rule of thumb to keep in mind to easily keep lines non-jagged? Thank you.
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Replies:
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 24 December 2014 at 10:55am
The general rule in avoiding jaggies in curves is to not mix short and long segments at random, but rather to have them increasing OR decreasing in length consistently, e.g:
Smooth: longer - longer - longer - shorter - shorter - shorter
Jagged: longer - longer - shorter - longer - shorter - shorter
It's also important to keep in mind how much longer/shorter the segments get with each step, the change amount should also be constant or constantly increasing/decreasing, not random. You also want to avoid drastic changes in the length (e.g. going from 1px segments to 4px segments with no in-between). Fortunately, jaggies are something that stands out if you have them, so it's easy to tell when you've done a good enough job of smoothing them.
Like all things in art, jaggies are just something to be aware of, not something to always avoid. Using "jagged" lines carefully can give you shapes that are subtly textured and feel more organic than smooth curves. Jaggies are only a problem when a smooth curve is expected.
Edit: If you want people to take a look at your art and give you feedback, you should post in the WIP section, not here.
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Posted By: xavier2
Date Posted: 25 December 2014 at 9:38am
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Thanks. I've removed my log atrocity per your request. A quick question though: a lot of people refer to creating a line as an aspect ratio - like 2:1, or 1:2 etc. For some reason I'm having issues understanding it. It seems like some sites refer to it differently, or maybe I'm just not getting it. A 2:1 line for instance is suppose to 2 pixels right/left, then you move up/down 1 pixel and repeat? Yet in the example link I gave in my first post, the guy has 3/4 listed, but it works differently to the 2:1 line, where it looks like he's only going over 1 pixel? Any quick insight on that? Thank you.
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Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 25 December 2014 at 10:56am
3/4 refers to it being 3/4 of 90 degrees (he calls the fractions in the diagram fractions "of a right angle", but that's easy to miss in the text), but I think referring to them like that is bound to lead to confusion since fractions usually represent slopes, not fractions of a specific angle. The actual angles and slopes in the diagram are:
"0": 0 (no slope)
"1/4": ~26.56 degrees (slope 1/2, one pixel up/down for every two pixels over)
"1/2": 45 degrees (slope 1, one pixel up/down for every pixel over)
"3/4": ~63.44 degrees (slope 2, two pixels up/down for every pixel over)
"1": 90 degrees (infinite slope, vertical line).
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