Image Enlargement/Blow Up in PSP X4

[THXjay]

I have been trying to find a plugin for PSP that will enhance image blow ups. I've just moved over to X4 and would like to know if anyone has any advice on compatible plugins.

The best one seems to be Alien Skin Blow Up 3 but I can't find out if it is compatible. I did install a copy on X2 recently but it never worked properly, crashing at the end of the render stage. Is that because the plugin is not compatible?
The fact that it installed and worked up to the render output suggests that it is compatible but, maybe not!

Any suggestions for good image enlargement plugins for PSP X4 would be much appreciated

[df]

The plug-in may work with PSP X4 better. If X2 ran out of memory before being able to render properly it would have errored. X4 handles memory a little differently, using a scratch disk and possibly other things as well. I'd try pointing X4 to the plugin under File> Preferences> file loctions and see if it runs.

Have you tried PSP's resizer? I'd use the Smart Size as the mode under Advanced. Smart Size uses one of the other modes based on whether you're upsizing or downsizing.

I recorded a script for uprezzing. You could try it if you want.
Open your image, you'll want a single layer.
-Click Record on the Script Toolbar (View> Toolbars> Script if you don't see it already).
-Click Resize, Advanced Settings, Resample using: Smart Size. Lock aspect ratio. OK.
-New Raster Layer. Blend Mode: Overlay. Opacity: 75%. OK.
-Click Flood Fill tool, pick the middle gray color (R:128, B:128, G:128), no pattern or anything else, match mode RGB (but that's probably not important), opacity 100%. Fill the new layer.
-Add Noise, Gaussian, Monochrome, 5%. OK.
-Merge All/Flatten.
-Select Hand tool (pick tool), click Fit Image to Window
-Click Save Script Recording and name it. Save Materials (you want the flood fill to be that middle gray), Save Dialog Positions (you want the Gaussian noise to be 5%).

[flagpole]

that's an interesting method.

looks like it would work quite well for photo.

[df]

that's an interesting method.

looks like it would work quite well for photo.

Basically it breaks up the blocking look of lines that have been interpolated. I use it on a 4.15 mp camera to make larger files. It of course isn't a replacement for an originally larger file, but it works for what I do.

[THXjay]

Thanks for the advice df.

I have never used the script function, so it has always seemed complex to me, and not really needed for what I use PSP for. I will have a go now that you have kindly left clear instructions. Am I right in thinking that the script function is a kind or recording/playing back function?

I don't do too many repetitive actions so it wouldn't be used that much anyway.

As for the Alien Skin Blow Up plugin, a search on the net shows that it is a "PhotoShop only" plugin. It's strange that it worked for me in X2 up until hitting the OK to apply the effect, then it crashed just as it got to 100%. I think I'll leave it for now unless someone knows for certain how to get it working on X4.
I was hoping that the Blow Up software would be useful for enlarging smaller images found online for my design work. I guess it is really only worthwhile when blowing up megapixel images to side-of-a-house sizes

Thanks again for the resizing tip, I'll have a play with it!

[df]

You're correct, it's a recording/playback function. It's better with global edits and wouldn't be of much use for something like cloning and custom cropping, etc...

Now that I think about it, after you've saved the script there's one more step. Select the script you've just recorded in the Script Toolbar. Click the Edit button (looks like a pen and quill). The edit dialog will come up, a window with all of the steps you've done. Click the Resize step and change it from Default to Interactive. That way the script will ask you every time what size you want and you can also make sure it's not applying the wrong parameters. You can also change the Add Gaussian Noise step to Interactive. With enlargements of over 300% you may want to increase the noise to keep the jaggies from cropping up. It can still only do so much though.

Enlarging small images can only do so much. There's only so many pixels, only so much information, for the plug-in/script to work with. If you look on the wevsite for Alien Skin the example of the childs eye that gets blown up "up to 300%" you'll notice that the eyelashes, while being better than the jagged example of straight upsizing, is still softer than if you had actually taken a picture at the proper size. The script I described gives a result about the middle of the two examples. Better than the one, not quite as good as the other.