On the smooth convergence of subdivision and degree elevation for Bézier curves Original Research Article

Bézier subdivision and degree elevation algorithms generate piecewise linear approximations of Bézier curves that converge to the original Bézier curve. Discrete derivatives of arbitrary order can be associated with these piecewise linear functions via divided differences. Here we establish the convergence of these discrete derivatives to the corresponding continuous derivatives of the initial Bézier curve. Thus, we show that the control polygons generated by subdivision and degree elevation provide not only an approximation to a Bézier curve, but also approximations of its derivatives of arbitrary order.