Artefact-free Image Upscaling
I've completed an A5 portrait book which includes lots of images. Now I want to make a Coffee Table version of it. Effectively, twice the physical size.
I've read there are some DTP programs, and some 3rd party plugins and standalones, that, using 'AI' and other 'methods', are able to upscale images, especially Jpegs, keeping them sharp and, most importantly, artefact-free - no jagged edges, etc.
Can Xara do that? If not, it would certainly be a feature to suggest?
Seamus
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
XByrne
I've completed an A5 portrait book which includes lots of images. Now I want to make a Coffee Table version of it. Effectively, twice the physical size.
I've read there are some DTP programs, and some 3rd party plugins and standalones, that, using 'AI' and other 'methods', are able to upscale images, especially Jpegs, keeping them sharp and, most importantly, artefact-free - no jagged edges, etc.
Can Xara do that? If not, it would certainly be a feature to suggest?
Seamus
Seamus, just scale up everything and Xara re-exports to the required resolution.
Xara has your original and when you up-size, provided the dpi is over 96, you will have no issues.
Acorn
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Acorn
Seamus, just scale up everything and Xara re-exports to the required resolution.
Xara has your original and when you up-size, provided the dpi is over 96, you will have no issues.
Acorn
Thanks Acorn!
I forgot that Xara is always working off the original. Great!
Related question:
I have a PDF book (all images 360dpi) made in another program. I'm wondering, if I open it in Xara and just upscale it to the size I want, Xara might do a good job of it?
Seamus
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
XByrne
Thanks Acorn!
I forgot that Xara is always working off the original. Great!
Related question:
I have a PDF book (all images 360dpi) made in another program. I'm wondering, if I open it in Xara and just upscale it to the size I want, Xara might do a good job of it?
Seamus
Seamus, probably but it depends on what you deem "a good job". Xara will not have any idea of Styles in the PDF Import so if you were re-editing, it might be a big job to be set up to the right level for rework.
If is is just a rescaling job, you might get away with it.
Try and see.
Acorn
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Whoa, wait a minute. Seamus. You want to take an existing bitmap image and double the size?
Effectively this cuts the image resolution in half. If your image is 4" x 5" and the resolution is 300dpi, at 8" x 10" the resolution will be 150dpi, and your images will be soft and detail lost.
There are third party solutions that can upscale a bitmap but within reasonable means. And the best of these are expensive.
The success of doubling the size of an image depends on the actual resolution of the image. 300dpi is recommended for most commercial printing and in some cases, for high quality printing 600dpi.
Simply making the image larger is not going to work unless the original image has enough resolution to begin with.
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
@Gary, Seamus was advising he had 360dpi images already.
So going A5 to A4 is doubling the area so the dpi drops to 254dpi (not 180). Your example is quadrupling the area; A4/A5 is only double.
Seamus could also upscale the images by 181% to reach 300dpi.
Either is worth trying before getting too anxious.
Acorn
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
@Gary and @Acorn
Yes, my images are 360dpi. They're high quality scans of photos. I'll try the 181% for 300dpi. If I see degradation, I can re-import the original scans, which are higher than 360dpi, and just copy across the effects.
Thanks for the suggestions and warnings!
Seamus
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Re: Artefact-free Image Upscaling
Okay, some images, to meet the required physical size, when scaled up, are 100dpi.
Now, I'm trialing a program called ON1 Resize which does a very nice job of resizing, using a 'fractal' method. I resize an image to 3 times bigger, retaining 360dpi. And it looks very good.
I import the image into Xara. Looks great at this new enlarged size. BUT, I scale up the original image beside it. So now the 100dpi is beside the 360dpi. And it looks just a tiny bit more pixelly. Not much at all.
So, I'm wondering, scaled up doesn't look bad at all because the original images are so good anyway. Won't the 100dpi images print fine commercially at 300dpi, if they look fine on screen. Or am I missing something in my understanding? Maybe what is printed is not the same resolution as what I see on screen?
Seamus