Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

SizeFixer works on both 8-bit (24-bit RGB) and 16-bit (48-bit RGB) images and uses
what the vendor calls “Super-Resolution Technology” to enlarge while preserving fine
detail.
To introduce SizeFixer to the photographic world, the vendor originally offered it as an
online service as well as a software application. But now the software has become established,
the service has been dropped. Enlargement is to A0 (33"×46") size or larger. It
requires an uncompressed, unsharpened TIFF image from a quality camera, complete
with attached Exif data. The software uses information in the Exif data to optimize the
image.
Comments
SizeFixer is the vendor’s flagship product: stand-alone software that “up-rezzes” for printing
more effectively than any standard image editor, including CS3. It is certainly one
of the most effective rescalers currently available. Macworld mentioned its relative slowness
(it is now five times faster on an Intel Mac) but gave it a glowing review for the
quality of its output. SizeFixer uses the LensFIT technology that is also available in the
vendor’s plug-ins (FixerBundle) to customize sharpening for the particular camera used
for taking the original. It preserves an exceptional level of detail, making it ideal for anyone
preparing exhibition-quality prints.
Version: SizeFixer SLR 1.3.0r9, SizeFixer XL 1.3.3r9 (2008)
OS: Windows 2000, XP, and Vista; Mac OS X (Mac version of Home product in development)
RAM: 512MB
Supported file formats: RGB, TIFF, and JPEG
Price level: Home version $60, SLR version $120, XL version $200 (all approx.)
Address: FixerLabs, Watford, United Kingdom
www.fixerlabs.com
Summary
Chapter 28 ■ Image Rescalers 325
Image rescaling (or up-rezzing) is a process that increases the number of pixels used for
representing an image, prior to printing. Without rescaling, the pixels themselves can
become visible to the eye, but the process ensures this does not happen. Many different
and competing algorithms have been developed for this purpose, the most popular
of which are now the intelligent, “adaptive” algorithms. These adaptive algorithms can
detect the edges of objects and treat them differently from the rest of the image.
Professional print shops use products such as Genuine Fractals or BlowUp to rescale
images when making poster-sized prints.