Genuine
Fractals Print Pro Review
By: Don
Bice
Here is a description of the product from the User's Guide PDF:
|
Genuine Fractals PrintPro gives you unprecedented flexibility in working with images. That means, you no longer have to re-scan or store several copies of an image for multiple output requirements. Images encoded with PrintPro are resolution independent, which enables you to encode once at a medium resolution then decode to any image size or resolution, depending on the job being run. Resolution on demand means you get multiple uses from the same image asset. |
The focus of this review is on the quality of enlarging graphics rather than the file size. Achieving a smaller file size for a graphic is not as important as it used to be because of widespread use of Zip Drives and CDRs.
I normally use 30% quality for all jpegs.
This is a 32x32 pixel
image. The purpose of this test is to see how GFPP
can increase the image size while still making the
image look good. This is the same image
expanded to 10 times its size using
Photoshop. This image was expanded
to 10 times its size using GFPP. The globe looks
good (especially South America) but the hand is
very smeared. The smearing can be
easily cleaned up in Photoshop and that will result
with a nice enlargement. Original
image. Original image made 10x
larger in Photoshop. Original image made 10x
larger using GFPP. This image sort-of looks
like a painting of the original image.
Summary: Even though I would never purchase this product for myself, and Photoshop itself does a pretty good job of enlarging images, I am still giving it a positive review because I'm sure it would be useful for companies that print banners or billboards.
Rating: 
System Requirements: PowerPc, Photoshop 3.04 or later, Mac OS 7.5 or later
Price: $299