Cliff Smith looks at a package to explode your images

sizefixerPRICE: £140.86

*OPERATING SYSTEM: WindowssXP+,Mac OSX
*CPU: 500MHz or greater
*MEMORY: 512MB RAM
*CONTACT DETAILS:www.sizefixer.com

Even with a professional digital SLR, in order to produce prints larger than about A4, you?ll need to increase the size of your images. The usual way to do this is to use bicubic interpolation resize in Photoshop or another image-editing program, which increases the size of the image by adding extra pixels according to a mathematical algorithm. However, there are several programs on the market which use more complex methods, claiming to give superior results, including Extensis SmartScale and the better-known Genuine Fractals from DCP Systems. SizeFixer from FixerLabs is a new program offering the promise of 400% enlargements with no loss of detail. It features a versatile and easy-to-use interface with a range of pre-set print sizes and processing options. I tried it out on a 2,008 x 3,008 17.3MB TIFF image from a Pentax *ist-D digital SLR. In enlarged it to the maximum A1 size with all the options on, giving a final image of 7,015 x 9,933 pixels and a file size of over 200MB, an enlargement of approximately 350%. As a comparison, I enlarged the same image to the same size using bicubic interpolation in Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9. The most immediately noticeable difference was the time taken to upsize the image. In PSP9 it took just a few seconds, while Size- Fixer took over 14 hours! The results were very interesting. The image enlarged using SizeFixer had noticeably more enlargement artefacts, looked over-sharpened, and contained no greater detail that the bicubic enlargement.

VERDICT
The high cost and the length of time it takes to produce mediocre results make it not worth buying.

SCORES:
PROS: Interface
CONS: Processing time, cost, results are mediocre



Features 18
Ease of use 17
Performance 9
Design 15
Value 10

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