Integer Scaling is a graphics processing unit (GPU) based technique where the resolution of an input image are resized by an integer multiple (for example, 2, 3 or 4) to give a non-blurry output image such that each pixel of the original image is duplicated as a square group (for example, 2 × 2 or 3 × 3), without diffusing or mixing with the neighboring pixels and hence preserving the pixel-art.
Such an image scaling is generally required when the physical dimensions of any monitor are not the same as the image being displayed on it. For example, if an image with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 is running on a monitor with a resolution of 3840 × 2160, an integer scaling of three could be applied to the original image to fit the screen in such situation. Such a scaling based on an integer multiple of the original image does not lead to any information loss as oppose to interpolation or linear scaling based methods.
However, there are cases when obtaining a full-screen pure integer scaling is not possible and a black border can be seen around the scaled image. It can happen, (1) when the resolution of the display panel has a different aspect ratio from that of the original image, for example, when an image with resolution 640 x 480 (aspect ratio 4:3) are displayed on a panel with resolution 3840 × 2160 (aspect ratio 16:9); or (2) when the aspect ratios of the original image and the display panel are the same, but the resolution of the display do not represent integer multiples of the original image, for example, when scaling an image with resolution 800 x 600 on display with resolution 1920 x 1080.
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