I am imressed with this software!

Genuine Fractals Print Pro, I just downloaded a trial version and I was impressed how well it works and how easy to understand.

Does anyone use this? I am considering to buy it, but what version is smart to get

Genuine Fractals Print Pro
or
Genuine Fractals 4.1

or wouldnt you recommend it at all?

Why do you need it? Do you do a lot of huge prints? Do you use a lab that expects things print ready, or do they use a RIP which can do the job for you?

You know I would probably just use it on those wedding shots that I cropped quite a bit to safe a otherwise lost shot or for personal reasons when I happen to take a good shot with my little point and shoot. Just another toy to play with, you know?

Personally i'd not bother with it, but if you like toys go for it

you are probably right and I should save it for more important stuff... hmmmm

may want to take a peek at this first...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/​fractals.shtml

appeares to work best on 20mb files or larger. That may rule out crops and p&s cameras.

well we shall see... I had a picture that I absolutely loved of my son... taken with my 3 pixel point and shoot and later crooped. Ordering it online it was hardly recommended for a 8x10. I ran it through that program (trial) and was now able to go up to 20x30 without a warning sign. I ordred the pic in 18x24 and will see how it comes out when I get it

Jenni, you need to understand what's going on with that software. You have a set of pixels, this along with the acceptable print resolution will define what will look good on paper. Both genuine fractals and photoshop can make more pixels for you so you won't get warnings, the only difference is how they make those pixels. Photoshop by default uses the bicubic algorithm, whereas genuine fractals uses a fractal system. Neither can magically create information that isn't there, but for different pictures different algorithms (programs) will do a better job. I studied fractals as part of my engineering degree, specifically around fractal image compression algorithms, in the end I put them down to magic (I wrote that in my notes - fractals - magic). Luckily there weren't any questions on it in the exams!

After trying GF I wasn't impressed enough compared with photoshop to spend the money on it.

Thanks Tim. I am realizing that it wont be worth my money (not saying that it doesnt still impress me though..lol)

Hello,

You can do the same sort of thing with Qimage, and it's only $49. By default, it scales low-res images for printing to an inkjet printer, but you can print-to-file as well. I've made A3 size prints from a 1mp digital camera that looked pretty impressive (as long as you don't look too close). Qimage, like GF, will scale the image in such a way that you don't see pixelation (square blocks that make up the image), but they can't add sharpness or detail that was not in the original image.

So, blown-up images will look a bit soft, but can still be usable in some cases. Just remember that there's no such thing as magic. Hope this helps.