Making images bigger

Hi guys,

Someone mentioned to me the other day that there's a photoshop pluggin (I'm using CS2) that allows you to enlarge images (jpgs) without losing sharpness. Anyone know what it is, or have a few pointers?

Thanks,

Ryan.

Hi guys,

 

Someone mentioned to me the other day that there's a photoshop pluggin (I'm using CS2) that allows you to enlarge images (jpgs) without losing sharpness. Anyone know what it is, or have a few pointers?

 

Thanks,

 

Ryan.

There are several. OnOne genuine fractals is a good bet.

Hi Ryan,

The question really is how big you want to go, and what quality / size of JPEG you are starting with. If possible you would like to start with a high resolution TIFF or PSD (Photoshop format) if possible. The higher the resolution image you start with the less the software has to make up, or interpolate, new pixels, as you go bigger. With modest enlargements, using Photoshop's own interpolation choices when you print like 'bicubic smoother' should give decent results. With larger prints such as you would get on wide formate printers you will want to consider software like Genuine Fractals as Matthew suggests or others like Alien Skin's Blow Up interpolation software. If you are sending the work out, you may want to speak with the folks doing the printing as they will quite likely take your file and do the interpolation themselves to get the best quality for their setup.

Very often, very large blow ups are best done using specialized RIPS (Raster Image Processing) that large format printers will utilize. The most important thing though is still starting with the highest quality initial file.

Hi guys,

 

Someone mentioned to me the other day that there's a photoshop pluggin (I'm using CS2) that allows you to enlarge images (jpgs) without losing sharpness. Anyone know what it is, or have a few pointers?

 

Thanks,

 

Ryan.

If only it were true. You lose something, or we wouldn't need all these pixels. The more you enlarge, the dicier it gets. I use bicubic smoother for minor up-rezzing. I've used Genuine Fractals before. It's slightly better, but it doesn't do miracles.

As Loftus mentioned, the printer's RIP program can do a decent job, but I prefer not to depend on the printer's RIP program.

If only it were true. You lose something, or we wouldn't need all these pixels. The more you enlarge, the dicier it gets. I use bicubic smoother for minor up-rezzing. I've used Genuine Fractals before. It's slightly better, but it doesn't do miracles.

 

As Loftus mentioned, the printer's RIP program can do a decent job, but I prefer not to depend on the printer's RIP program.

Hey George,

I did not mean just the regular RIP that comes with the printer, I meant specialized RIP's designed for interpolating for murals etc. Examples are Imageprint or Colorburst on the consumer end, and then there are other custom RIP's that printing houses may use; it's truly rocket science, and I do not try to understand it.