Understanding Resize: How Big Can I Print?

People often ask how large a print can be made with ON1 Resize. If your original image is sharp, has good details and little noise, you could go as large as 1000% of the original size. 1000% is ten times the size of the original file. For example, an original file that is 8” x 10” could be resized to 80”x100”. Viewing distance plays a big part of this. Standard viewing distances are two-times the diagonal of a print. For example, for an 8”x10” it would be about two feet away. An 80”x100” would be about 21 feet. That seems like a lot but that image is almost 7’x9’. Keep in mind that many photographers scrutinize their images closer than standard viewing distances.

Images are perceived in color, tonality and sharpness. Other interpolation techniques maintain color and tonality but sacrifice sharpness by “inflating” the image uniformly. The image still looks familiar but will not be crisp. Depending on the amount of interpolation, this can be severe and noticeable even at standard viewing distances. ON1 Resize maintains the color, tonality, and sharpness of an image at all sizes. It will always look the same when viewed at the proper distances.

It is unrealistic to assume that the fidelity when viewed at 100% will be the same for an 8×10 and an 80×100 created by ON1 Resize. ON1 Resize will maintain the edges which perceptually make the image sharp, but it cannot create detail where there was none in the past. When the shutter is pressed, a finite amount of detail is captured. A good way to think about this is to look at an insect on a leaf. If you look at it with a magnifying glass, you will see more detail than you did than when looking at it with the naked eye. Now if you take a digital photograph of that same insect and look at it in the computer and zoom in past 100% you do not see any more detail. The information you see is limited by what the camera captured. ON1 Resize works the same way, it cannot create new detail but instead takes the finite amount of detail available and increase it in size.

ON1 Resize isn’t magic. We have all watched CSI, where they take a security photo and enlarge the reflection in the victim’s eye to see the killer, with results that look amazing. This is science fiction. You cannot create detail where there was none before. But if your original file has good detail and little noise, you will be able to make very good looking enlargements from your files. This is what ON1 Resize does better than any other software.