Graphic designers and other creative professionals who have ever faced the task of making a postcard-sized image suitable for use as a poster-sized graphic will be interested in a new Photoshop plug-in from Extensis. According to Extensis, the pxl SmartScale plug-in can increase the resolution of a digital image without compromising quality. Powered by Celartem's PixelLive? advanced scaling technology, SmartScale can scale images up to 1600% while preserving the original color brightness and edge geometry.
While observing changes in a real-time preview (and without ever leaving Photoshop), users can scale and crop images and adjust sharpness, edge detail, and edge contrast settings. It isn't even necessary to actually open the file in Photoshop. Images can be scaled from a file on disk. Colleagues or clients who would like to view the resized images outside of Photoshop can do so by downloading the free PixelLive plug-in from Celartem.
SmartScale will support Mac 9.2.2 and OS X (10.2.5 or higher), Windows 98, 2000 and XP, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 or higher, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 or higher. SmartScale retails for $199.99, with discounted prices for competitive upgrades.
Extensis is wholly owned by Celartem Technology USA, Inc. Celartem Technology Inc. is best known for its VFZ technology, which allows digital images to be stored and distributed without loss in resolution. In addition to Photoshop plug-ins and Quark Xtensions, Extensis offers Suitcase font-management software, Portfolio asset-management software, and PrintReady preflight/file-delivery software. (Extensis: www.extensis.com)