In computer graphics,
image scaling is the process of resizing a
digital image. Scaling is a non-trivial process that involves a trade-off between efficiency, smoothness and sharpness. With
bitmap graphics, as the size of an image is reduced or enlarged, the
pixels that form the image become increasingly visible, making the image appear "soft" if pixels are averaged, or jagged if not. With
vector graphics the trade-off may be in processing power for re-rendering the image, which may be noticeable as slow re-rendering with still graphics, or slower
frame rate and frame skipping in
computer animation.