best way to print very low resolution photos

I was one of the unfortunate ones ... I got a Sony Mavica when they first came out -- 0.3 megapixels.

I tried to print a few of these old photos at 4x6, and they were pixelated. I think if I print them 3x4, they will be fine.

Does anyone know a photo lab that prints 3x4 size prints?

Or, alternatively, does anyone know a software program that would help me print them myself? (The only programs I have require you to select each photo and put in into place on a page ... I am hoping to just say 'print all' and let them go, printing six or eight to a page.)

Thank you for any help ... I have a year's worth of memories just stuck on a hard drive!

I use Genuine Fractals. It seems to upscale photos fairly well...

With Photoshop you could put the image on a larger white canvas - So when you order prints you'll get a 4 x 6 with a really big white border.

Thanks for the idea, Curtis.

Can that be done with batch processing? I've only got hundreds of photos!

You're going to have to post a full review for myself and others. This looks like a great add, but the price is eye-watering.

I've recently discovered the SAR upressing s/w at
http://www.general-cathexis.com/index.htm​l. and have been playing around with it. The interface is a bit intimidating at first and a read of the Help file is a must, but once you understand what's happening it works well.
Over the last year or so its author Roger Aruzinsky has been involved in several long debates with his main competitor Mike Chaney of Qimage on several forums and although Aruzinsky maintains that Qimage's very popular Pyramid interpolation is inferior to his methods, in the latest version of SAR, 2.2Beta, he has an imitation of Pyramid that I quite like. Trial version is fully functional but you can't save the file. Cost is $25, an awful lot less than GF. So far I've printed half a dozen 11x16 (A3) and I'd say it might be worthwhile investigating if you print your own or even if you send them out but are (like me) a control freak. Same is true of Qimage at $50.
Elie

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Oh, right. Sorry!

Here's a review Shutterbug did in March of this year: GF Review

Hope that helps a little. It's not magic, and it's quite pricey, but it still works a bit better than PS resizing.

jbkalla wrote:
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Oh, right. Sorry!

Here's a review Shutterbug did in March of this year: GF Review

Hope that helps a little. It's not magic, and it's quite pricey, but it still works a bit better than PS resizing.

I don't give poo-poo what Stinkbug Magazine says...I want to see some 100% crops of before and after from you.

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to write a script to do it, though I'm a Paint Shop Pro user, so I can't help much with Photoshop.

Another option would be to print them all as 4 x 6 but view them from across the room.

OK. Hopefully I did this correctly.

The first shot is upsized 300% using PS Bicubic Smoother.
Second is upsized 300% using GF Print Pro.
Third pic is the original crop.

I guess to see how it compares to the original, it's best to download the original crop and view it at 300%.

There are things that Genuine Fractals excels at and things it isn't so great at. It's much better at smooth lines than rough edges. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes PS is better.

Note how the lines appear sharper in the GF upscaling. I would imagine a small amount of noise reduction would help the GF image immensely.

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Original crop:

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I think the eye reflection in particular looks better with GF.

Here is a case when a bad mobile phone pic is probably upsized better with Photoshop Bicubic Smoother.

First pic is Bicubic Smoother.
Second is GF.

Both were upsized 400%. Note the artifacting in the statue to the right of her face.

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Original pic.

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Thanks John. That's pretty dramatic.

John -
Just for fun I blew up your crop in SAR. Hope you don't mind. I am not spamming or recommending this application, I just thought it might be of interest to somebody to see the comparisons. I tried 2 methods - Data Dependent Lanczos and IFS, which is described as similar to GF.

DDL

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