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How to enlarge a jpg image without distortion.

Greetings,

How can I enlarge a jpg image I've downloaded from the web to use as desktop wallpaper without distorting it?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

weed

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mark2150

Some programs support anti-aliasing. This method of image enlargement doesn't just replicate pixels as the image grows, rather it interpolates the "fill" pixels based on the adjacent pixels. Photo Editor (from Office) will scale up and then you can blur the image to soften the pixelation. But weed is right, you can only go so far. In the ultimate expansion the image is just a uniform field of the "average" pixel. Kind of how they do those pictures that are made up of thousands of individual pictures.

M

weed

Interpolation can only do so much and even with a LITTLE interpolation your image still loses quality. Especially with a JPG which is already blocky due to compression.

mark2150

Oh yes weed, I quite agree.

Interpolation only really works *once*. You simply cannot do like Hollywood shows (ala BladeRunner & Star Trek) and just keep zooming in on an image and see more and more detail as you go.

M

perstam

ASKER

OK, but can I convert it into another graphics format, maybe bmp, to achieve my goal?

mark2150

Graphics format matters not. The same number of pixels are available no matter what format the file is saved in. A, say, 640x400 image will be 640x400 in .BMP, .GIF, .JPG, .TIF, .PCX or any other format you can think of.

M

weed

The only reason i said JPG was going to be especially bad is because the compression method it uses is ALREADY ugly. Its only going to get uglier when you blow it up.

perstam

ASKER

Thanks Weed & Mark2150.

Not the answer I wanted to hear, but I did learn something about graphics.

Mark,

I'll open another problem to allocate your points. Please look for it.