### 4.7. Symmetric Nearest Neighbor

#### 4.7.1. Overview

Figure 17.46. Example for the “Symmetric Nearest Neighbor” filter

Left: original image. Right: filter applied.

This filter blurs the image preserving edges. It is very effective in noise reduction maintaining sharp edges.

It works comparing each pixel to its neighboring pixels and to 1 or 2 pairs of symmetric pixels around the center.

4 symmetric pairs

#### 4.7.2. Activating the Filter

This filter is found in the main menu under Filters → Enhance → Symmetric Nearest Neighbor….

#### 4.7.3. Options

Figure 17.47. “Symmetric Nearest neighbor” filter options

Presets, “Input Type”, Clipping, Blending Options, Preview, Merge filter, Split view

  | Note
  These options are described in Section 2, “Common Features”.

Radius

  Radius, in pixels, of square pixel region. Width and height of this region are radius*2+1:

Pairs

  You can select 1 or 2 pairs: higher number preserves more acute features.

4.6. Red Eye Removal |  | 4.8. Sharpen (Unsharp Mask)

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