What is the purpose of anti-aliasing in graphics?

Anti-aliasing serves a crucial purpose in graphics by smoothing out the appearance of edges that appear jagged or pixelated. When graphics are rendered, particularly at lower resolutions, diagonal lines and curves can look choppy. Anti-aliasing addresses this issue by applying a technique that blends the colors of the edge pixels with the colors of the background to create a gradient effect. This softens the transition between the edge of an object and its background, effectively reducing the harshness of the edges and enhancing the visual quality of the image.

While options like sharpening images and enhancing color depth may improve the overall look of a graphic, they do not specifically target the problem of jagged edges. Similarly, increasing file size is typically associated with higher resolution images or more complex data rather than a method to improve the appearance of edges. Therefore, the main goal of anti-aliasing is distinctly aligned with reducing the quality loss at the edges of graphics, making option B the best representation of its purpose.