How can I prevent Photoshop from applying anti-aliasing to a layer when it's resized?

Question

I want to size down an already small rasterized layer in Photoshop. I notice that Photoshop distorts the layer by applying anti-aliasing after the resizing is applied. During the resizing, when we can mess around with the resize handles, the anti-aliasing is not rendered and the layer looks exactly the way I want it.

Is there a way to stop PS from applying the anti-aliasing after the "apply" button is pressed?

I've attached a snapshot to explain what I mean. Notice that star labeled after has anti aliasing applied, which the same star, this time labeled during looks more jagged.

Answer 1

There is not an option to turn off the anti-aliasing when you resize a layer.

However, a workaround is to copy that layer to a new PSD, and do an image resize on the new PSD.

Make sure for "Resample Image" option, you choose the "Nearest Neighbor" choice.

Once the shape is resized, then copy it back to your original PSD.

Of course this workaround is a bit cumbersome. You don't have the luxury of dragging the object freehand to get the ideal size you want.

Answer 2

Photoshop is just taking its best guess at how to preserve the quality of your image over the course of the resize operation. The only reason it shows the more-aliased (notice that anti-aliasing is not turned off while the transform tool is active, just reduced) version is to improve performance.

You can easily restore hard, jagged edges to your transformed shapes (or any other anti-aliased shapes) by using the Levels adjustment tool. (Image ⇒ Adjustments ⇒ & Levels, shortcut Ctrl + l).

Example:

• Original Image:

  

• Resized to 50%:

  

• Adjust levels (when the min & max values are closer together, this will produce harder edges. Left-to-right positioning will alter which colors get wiped out.)

  

  • Voila, hard edges:

  

Edit: Level adjustments do change the color and would have to be eyeballed to get the right approximation. If you have a solid shape with edges that need finely-tuned aliasing, you can create a desaturated & leveled version of your shape to use as a layer mask. This will give you a lot of control over exactly how jagged you want your edges to be.

Answer 3

Use Edit -> Preferences -> General and change "Image Interpolation" to "Nearest Neighbor (preserve hard edges)"

I discovered this trick while working on 8-bit assets for a game I was making