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Feather Edges

Blur

Soften jagged outlines without blurring the artwork.

Feather blurs only the alpha channel, and only near the edge. Colours inside the shape stay exactly as sharp as they were — what softens is the boundary between the layer and whatever is behind it.

It is on by default for new text and curve layers, because it is what stops glyph and stroke outlines reading as stair-stepped at small sizes.

What it looks like
Aa
Before
Aa
Feather Edges
Same artwork either side, so the difference you see is the effect. Built with the same SVG-filter primitives the product uses, but tuned for legibility at this size — treat it as a faithful illustration of the behaviour rather than a pixel-exact capture of the editor.

When to reach for it#

  • Any outline that looks jagged against a contrasting background.
  • Blending a cut-out element into a scene.
  • Taking the mechanical hardness off a vector edge.

Parameters#

Amountamount#

Feather width in pixels. Under 1 px is an anti-aliasing correction. Over about 4 px starts to read as a deliberate soft edge.

Things that catch people out#

It is not a blur

If the inside of the layer still looks too sharp, Feather will not help — that is Gaussian Blur.

See also#

effectsGaussian Blur→

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