How to remove pixelization enlarging small image?

[gwpriester]

I'm a great believer in Shutterstock.com They have an excellent selection of images, and if take one of their packages the images are very reasonable. Something like $10-15 per download. Life is short.

[handrawn]

whilst I agree with life being short I can't help but feel that the consensus of this thread is that the OP should be doing something other than what they actually asked for help about

[pauland]

whilst I agree with life being short I can't help but feel that the consensus of this thread is that the OP should be doing something other than what they actually asked for help about

I'd say my advice was very much to the point. If you have a better solution, I'd be happy to hear and it I'm sure the OP would too.

All of the 'solutions' to enlarging images from smaller to larger sizes involve losing definition resulting in blurry images or heavily processed imagery that are unnatural - usually sharpening techniques of the blurred images. Some years ago there was a flurry of activity based around fractal encoding of images so they could be zoomed in infinitely without pixelating, but I'm not sure these days where that software went and I don't think that technique could create detail where there was none.

This is again a thread where a OP asks a question and leaves us to wonder the exact circumstances behind the question so that we can offer the best way forward even if it's not exactly the answer that the OP wanted to hear.

Often the best answer to a question is the one that provides the best overall solution rather than simply answers a question that may be unanswerable or indeed the wrong question for the circumstance.

[edit: My guess is that Mirkosoft may want to enlarge old 8-bit and 16-bit game imagery from the past ]

[handrawn]

thats a fair answer Paul and a whole load better than a brusque 'don't waste time doing anything else' - you may 'know better' but like you now say, you are guessing, we are all guessing...

that said

Often the best answer to a question is the one that provides the best overall solution rather than simply answers a question that may be unanswerable or indeed the wrong question for the circumstance

it is impossible to evaluate the best solution with insufficient information

[handrawn]

PS if you want to know where fractal encoding went, follow my link in post #3