: Can I make a straight line in Photoshop and rotate it without it getting pixelated? I want to draw a straight line in photoshop without it getting pixelated when I rotate it at any particular

@Vandalay110

Short answer: That is impossible. Only media that do not use pixels to be displayed can be unpixelated.

Photoshop is, in the end, a raster image program. That means that any file* you make in or export from Photoshop is defined as having pixels. No matter how small those pixels are, you will always see pixels and, thus, pixelation.

If you want truly unpixelated lines, use a vector image editor like Illustrator or Inkscape. Then still, if you export from those into a file format that is defined as having pixels (*.jpg, *.png, *.tiff to name a few), lines will still be pixelated.

Even vector files, themselves fully pixel-less, will be pixelated when they are displayed on a screen—which can only output pixels.

The only kind of files that can truly be unpixelated are *.pdfs of vector images, which are then printed.

There are ways to reduce the impact of pixelation on-screen. A good example is anti-aliasing, where some neighbouring pixels are given a transitional colour to make the edges somewhat fuzzy. This reduces the pixelation effect, especially when the actual pixels are too small to be seen separately.

*In theory, it is possible to only draw vector shapes in Photoshop, and export the result as a .pdf. That is anything but practical, and better done in Illustrator.

Vote Up Vote Down