The Jaggie Blues

I think we all know about the Jaggie Blues. That's when our image is just not quite as clear as we'd like. There are several ways to combat the jaggie blues. The first and easiest is to create your image about twice the size you want the final image to appear. When the image is complete, resize it down by half and all the jaggies will disappear, for the most part. That is what I did in the image below.

The second way, and usually used for images already created and saved is to use the Smooth tool. Below is the image I'm going to work with. The jaggies are not really discernable but they are there and I see them. It's very annoying and just enough to detract from the image. So, I want to clean those up.

Below is a zoom shot of a portion of my image. I want to get rid of those jaggies for a cleaner image. Since I'll be cleaning edges I want my Smudge brush set to a small size. I've set it to 3 for this image with an opacity of about 17. The higher the opacity, the stronger the smooth effect. If you set it too strong you lose lines. Things blend into one another. I don't want that here. I just want to smooth the jaggies.

Below you can see the difference in the ear. It has been smoothed. You can compare it with the eyes to see the difference.

Below is the ear and the left eye smoothed. Compare the left eye with the right eye to see the difference. Now, that's looking much better.

Simply drag the Smudge brush over all the lines with jaggies to soften them and get rid of that nasty effect.

Below the jaggies have been removed.

Below is the final image with all the jaggies gone.

If you need stronger smoothing up the opacity. I work with my areas zoomed so I can see the fine detail of what I am doing. In this way I can get the opacity of the smooth tool set just the way I need it for the job I am trying to accomplish.

I generally do it the easy way by creating my image twice the size I want it to end up. Sometimes that doesn't happen and so I need a way to clean up those jaggies. Paint Shop Pro's smooth tool is the only tool needed.

Copyright Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved