pxl SmartScale for Mac

User Reviews

• It's not bad

  sugarmoon--2008July 21, 2005

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Just depends on what you use it for. I create digital paintings out of photographs and since I'm not looking for totally realistic results, its great. I have used it on photographs with very good results too.

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• Not Great

  KALE805May 25, 2004

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Maybe I went into this with my sights set too high. I actually expected it to meet the claims made on the Extensis website. Silly me. The truth is there is no golden standard for upsizing low res pictures without artifacts, noise, etc. at this time. This program is best for working with larger files e.g., 5 MB and up. With these it did an impressive job. But when it comes to smaller .jpegs, say for instance, one of those pics at wireimage.com, forget about it! A lot of you will probably say that's not what this program is designed to do, and to that I say bollocks! If I already have a 4x6 picture scanned on a high quality scanner at 300 ppi, what do I need this program for? Photoshop can handle that upsizing. I'm looking for a program that can take small, low res images and upsize them intelligently. I know: that's a lot to ask for. It's almost like demanding artistic skill from a computer program. I agree, just don't claim your program can this on the website.

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• Superb

  hydephotoJanuary 12, 2004

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />As a professional photographer I find this product quite outstanding. It beats Genuine Fractals (which I also own) hands down in every respect and is IMO considerably better than Photoshop's own interpolation (except for Photoshop CS's ability to interpolate RAW files from the browser which I would go for as a first option if I have shot RAW) It's colour fidelity is excellent.

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• Mmm....

  M2/.November 16, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />... maybe it's time for an update? I just tried to install the demo in Mac OS 10.3 with Adobe Photoshop CS, and it tells me it doesn't need to install the files. And then quits. I guess it really doesn't work with Adobe CS... yet.

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• Requires Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 or higher...

  bwickensNovember 11, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />...except Photoshop 8 (i.e. CS). In that case all the dialog boxes are loaded with oversized typed that wraps and crops and you can't see anything you are supposed to be doing. Not a peep on the Extensis site about CS compatibility issues (which are obvious) or system requirements. It's troubling how much they keep in the dark about this, and their other products, when it comes to compatibility both with host applications (like all the Adobe CS applications, and the host operating system Mac OS X 10.3, which are now both current - and have been available to developers for many months). Extensis are a company that relies SOLELY on their 'hosts' so this is a curious business strategy, to not keep in step with developments.

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• \"Requires Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 or higher\"...

  bwickensNovember 11, 2003

  Pros

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  Summary

  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />...except Photoshop 8 (i.e. CS). In that case all the dialog boxes are loaded with oversized typed that wraps and crops and you can't see anything you are supposed to be doing. Not a peep on the Extensis site about CS compatibility issues (which are obvious) or system requirements. It's troubling how much they keep in the dark about this, and their other products, when it comes to compatibility both with host applications (like all the Adobe CS applications, and the host operating system Mac OS X 10.3, which are now both current - and have been available to developers for many months). Extensis are a company that relies SOLELY on their 'hosts' so this is a curious business strategy, to not keep in step with developments.

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• Ridiculous.

  Balav-OneJuly 10, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />And a bit of a scam, just take the pics they use for example (the girl pic) and try do get the same result.

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• SmartScale

  ghykhapJuly 10, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Tried it out tonight... compared to Genuine Fractals, and Raw Photoshop. It does well. Not really that much better however. To my eye GF is still a bit ahead of either. It seems to handle noise in the neutral tones better than either of the others. Photoshop is the worst in this actually. I was working with 4.1 megapixel files take out to 36" x 48" at 284 resolution. Cropped a 10 x 15 out at 100% and compared. They do have to be printed out for any good evaluation as someone stated earlier. When I am in a hurry... Photoshop, when I need the quality, Fractals (yes I get gray waiting for big files) I want to try taking 35mm 1:1 scans at 1600% before I pass judgement on SmartScale... That could really improve a persons storage scheme. it is not a bad proggie however and it may very well do the best job at "really small" to "reallybig" prints. GF limits the working space to 400% of original, though one can modify the original size when scanning, you are kind of stuck with the size given to digital photos.

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• Not Impressed!

  MacHeadJuly 10, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Why Extensis continues to make Photoshop tools with NO 16-bit support is beyond me. But even in 8-bit mode, I found the results to be inconsistent and generally not worth the price--even at the lower introductory price. However it does install and run well and the documentation appears good.

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• Very nice...

  Foto555July 10, 2003

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  This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.<br />Does the job better (less distortion, better edges) than Genuine Fractals....much better than Photoshop's own bicubic interpolation.

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