I have an image I'd like to enlarge for printing but I'm not sure what's best for the job. I've found SmillaEnlarger does a good job but I'm not sure if it's the best and I wondered if anyone here had recommendations that might save me some trial and error.
Whatever software you use you are loose image quality. Personally I wouldn't enlarge it and print it at the size you have already. If you absolutely must, let the printers do it or at least speak with them as they will know the best algorithm for their specific printers.
All i can hear is : As Atomic said, if you got a 1024x768 picture, to make it bigger you only got 2 options : 1) you can make pixels bigger 2) count averages between the original pixels. But that does not "enhance" picture in any way.
I don't want it printed small, I specifically want a large print, but the image I have is 1115x1587 and 96dpi so I need to enlarge it. I understand that quality is lost when images are enlarged but I'm also aware that different software can yield very different results depending on the algorithms used which is why I posted here for advice, hoping someone would be able to recommend something good for the job. Like I say I did get a good result with Smilla that would be suitable for printing I just thought I'd ask here in case someone knew of something better. I'd prefer to do it myself so that I can see the result before handing over any cash rather than put my trust in some online company to do it. If they did a bad job they could too easily blame it on the source image. Oh and I never said I wanted to "enhance" anything faugusztin, but thanks anyway for the clip
And as we said, there is no way to make a high DPI version of low DPI image. To double the image size, you can either duplicate every pixel (which just makes pixels bigger) or calculate averages between neigboring pixels. That makes the switch from one pixel to the next one gradual, but can bring artifacts into the image when there are sharp color differences; it will make the edges of objects "fuzzy". That is pretty much your only two choices, both bad. Your best option is to find a high DPI version of the picture you want to print.
Download GIMP if you don't have Photoshop. Change the DPI from 96 to 240 then rescale size based on inches. Sharpen to taste. It'll need to fall into the common sizes for photographs if you're having it framed; So 5x7, 8x10, 16x20 etc. If you're having problems, send me a PM with a link to the image and a size in inches.
Basically what you're looking for is the best interpolation algorithm. Lancsoz is typical and found in resize options in most image editors, often as default (I use XnView for simple operations like this). It typically give better results than simpler algorithms and should be far better than simply enlarging the pixels. There are other algorithms that supposedly can yeld better results in some images, fractal interpolation and s-spline interpolation for example, but I've never tried them myself. The key is that your mileage may vary depending on the image and the type of result you're after. It's best to try various methods on the same image and find which gives you the most pleasing result.
Yeah you'll want to try different interpolation methods as they tend to give slightly different 'looks'. Lancsoz is widely used and regarded as one of the better ones.
I've tried and tried but every single time I read the title of this thread my brain says "breast enlargement"
Thanks for the responses guys, I'm going to experiment with some different software and see how I get on You're imagining things...
My dad has Onone Perfect Resize which he uses for the odd large print. If you wanted to upload or email me your image I'd be happy to give it a go so you can see what the output is like
