Resize your photo files
Enlarge photos
Some photos are too small to print or to be displayed on a large screen. This is often because you’ve plucked them from a website or you’ve received such a small file via e-mail. When you try to print a low-resolution picture in a large size, this will generally result in the picture showing ugly large pixels “in blocks”. Fortunately, there are tools which can enlarge files in a smart way.
SmillaEnlarger. First try the free program SmillaEnlarger ( http://smillaenlarger.software.informer.com ). This tool adds extra pixels when enlarging photos, it also filters noise, smooths the edges, etc. If necessary, you can change the default settings via Parameter .
Photoshop. If you use Adobe Photoshop ( http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html ), you can choose various “resample” methods to enlarge your photos. Go to Image ; Image Size and change the pixel dimensions or size. Next, click on Resample Image at the bottom and choose one of the techniques suggested. Each method calculates new pixels in a different way. The “Bicubic Smoother” technique is recommended to enlarge photos, but you should definitely give the other techniques a try. More information on this topic can be found at https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/resizing-image.html .
PhotoZoom ( http://www.benvista.com/products ) comes as a standalone program or as a plug-in for photo editors such as Photoshop. The “S-Spline” interpolation technique enlarges photo files in a smart way. It is included in PhotoZoom Classic (£55), but PhotoZoom Pro (£135) has an even more powerful “S-Spline Max” function on board. You can try out both versions free of charge, but your photos will have a watermark.
Printing large size
How do you print a large photo across multiple sheets of paper in order to turn it into a poster? Use free software such as PosteRazor ( http://posterazor.sourceforge.net ) or a webtool such as The Rasterbator ( http://www.rasterbator.net ). You can specify the number of A4 sheets on which you want the picture to be printed, and whether you want to have a small overlap (5 mm) to be able to assemble the sheets more easily into a poster. The result is a downloadable PDF file which you should print on your own printer.
Reducing photos
Reducing the size of graphic files is generally easier than enlarging. When you e-mail a photo, your e-mail application may even suggest compressing it automatically. However, certain details may be lost as a result of compression. If you’re an Adobe Photoshop user, you can apply the “Bicubic Sharper” method (via Image ; Image Size ; Resample Image ) to circumvent this problem.
Rsizr. In the Retarget tab, the Rsizr webtool ( http://www.rsizr.com ) lets you indicate by means of the “preserve” and “remove” brushes which parts are important and less important when reducing the photo.
Image Resizer ( https://imageresizer.codeplex.com ) is a simple but handy tool to resize pictures: you only need to right-click on a file in Windows Explorer and select the new size you want your photos to have.
Create your profile to unlock this advice and many more.