Enlarge Photos Better than Photoshop - Free Software

Re-posted from PetaPixel

Upscaling a photograph always means trading resolution for size. And while Photoshop’s “preserve details” scaling does a pretty good job, there’s a freeware program called “A Sharper Scaling” that can do it even better.

The program—which is available for Windows users only, sorry Apple folks—was developed by Steffen Gerlach, and on his website he compares it to Bicubic Interpolation (BI), BI and sharpening, and Photoshop Preserve Details with noise reduction set to zero.

Even in the small comparison images there, the difference is obvious. Here’s just one of the samples he uses. From left to right, it shows 150% scaling using bicubic interpolation, BI + sharpen, Photoshop Preserve Details, and finally, A Sharper Scaling:









Click image to enlarge

The difference is a bit more obvious when upscaling a graphic, shown here at 200% in the same order as above:



Click image to enlarge

If you’re a Windows user, there’s really no reason not to give this simple program a shot. When you open it up, you’ll be greeted by a very simple interface that will let you use your own image or try out one of three sample images provided for you so you can see just how much better the program is than traditional algorithms.

After that it’s as easy as uploading a photo, selecting the scale size or upscale percentage, and letting the program do its thing.

To learn more or download the freeware for yourself (it’s compatible with Windows 7 and up) head over to the Sharper Scaling website  or by clicking here for download

I have tried it and it seems to work very well.

Creative Suite CS2 FREE Download

I needed a copy of Illustrator for a small job involving vector images. I normally use Photoshop but there are some things Photoshop cannot do. I tried to use my usual alternative vector editor, Inkscape but it would not do what I wanted.

The only answer was to get my hands on a copy of Adobe Illustrator. Whilst searching for an answer to my problem I discovered an old link to a free copy of Creative Suite CS2. I remembered the link as there was a lot of noise on the internet when it first appeared. Adobe were apparently giving away a FREE copy of Creative Suite CS2 which in its CS6 version cost in the order of £900. Creative Suite contains Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and a few other bits and pieces.

My investigations resulted in a download of Creative Suite 2 onto Windows 7 (64bit), so ignore all the rubbish on the net about compatibility and availability. There are a number of locations for downloading, but I used this link on the PC Advisor Mag website.

I downloaded the files from the Adobe website, you do, however, need an Adobe identity. They even supply a Product Key that works.

The only snag is the installation is a bit of a nightmare and the instructions on the Adobe site are less than helpful but the info to help is out there, this is the main link for the advice I followed.

Only problem I found with using Illustrator CS2 is it will not open .eps files from the more recent versions of the software. However, I did  discover a workaround for this. Open a new document and "Place" (import) the old .eps file in it.

This whole Creative Suite package offers a great solution for those who are short of cash. Despite being over 10 years old, these versions of  Adobes flagship software have plenty of mileage in them.