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Features:
SmartScale is a Photoshop plug-in, which you would expect, after installing it, to reside under Photoshop’s main menu heading of Filters. Not so, upon installing the application, a new menu item shows up beside the Filters category called…wait for it…Extensis.
Now I have already read one review online in which the reviewer did not care for this particular altering of the Photoshop workspace and he has a good point. The Filters category was created to hold all of the aftermarket plug-ins, so this is where SmartScale should have been placed. However, I’m not as annoyed by this behavior and if you happen to have other Extensis applications installed, they will also show up in this new menu category too. Basically, there are more important things to worry about and if SmartScale lives up to all of Extensis’ promotional hype then it would be something most users could live with.
And what of that promotional hype? In reading over the brochures and other promotional documents on SmartScale, over and over again, the claim of being able to upsize to 1600% of the original image’s size was presented. 1600%!? And with minimal loss of the original file’s details? Those are some mighty big claims and we will see if it lives up to them.
SmartScale has some similar basic features as Genuine Fractals (GF), but with some additional features that make it more versatile. With GF, you save the original file as a proprietary STN file type. Doing so reduces the file size significantly, e.g. from 27 MB for a 2820 ppi film scan, down to less than 17 MB. Then when you need to access the STN file again, the Genuine Fractals window pops up that allows you to scale the STN file to whatever you wish with some basic choices for the quality desired.
SmartScale also has some proprietary file types that you can save an original file as and these are also reduced in file size as with GF. However, the file size reduction is not as great as with GF, e.g. the 27 MB original file is reduced to about 20 MB. There are two choices for the proprietary file types for SmartScale, the regular VFZ and a password protection capable PFZ. These files types are compatible with the Photoshop File Browser, so you can see what the image looks like as a thumbnail whereas Genuine Fractals STN files are not compatible for thumbnail views. This SmartScale thumbnail view does not work with the Windows Explorer browser though.
Using the menu option for Extensis, you can choose to resize an image from your file directories or for the current image open in the Photoshop workspace. Either way, SmartScale will pop up a new workspace as large as the one for Photoshop. This workspace looks very similar to Photoshop, but with far less options and palettes available (same look and style as the PhotoFrame plug-in). There is even a navigation palette that you can use to scroll through the image, and as with Photoshop, it reflects the relative size of the red outline box corresponding to your screen view versus the entire image; however, it and the main screen view are an inaccurate indicator of what the final resized image will look like, being very pixelated beyond the 100% view.
Additional palettes are available for setting the output or scaling size you want and sharpening parameters. In this regard, SmartScale attempts to provide a one-stop method of resizing and sharpening instead of a two-step edit with GF or other resizing methods. I generally find that additional sharpening is required to bring some “snap” back into the image when resizing with other methods.
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I recommended your service to some friends of mine. It's utstanding!
Thanks, Willian Watson
Great Britain
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