Genuine Fractals 5 Print Pro or No?

Ed911

I'm upgrading my software and thinking of buying Genuine Fractals 5

What are the advantages of buying the more expensive version (Genuine Fractals 5 Print Pro) over the standard Genuine Fractals 5 version?

I know CMYK is one added capability.

Any user commentary is appreciated.

Thanks, Ed

edgework

Ed911 wrote:

I'm upgrading my software and thinking of buying Genuine Fractals 5

What are the advantages of buying the more expensive version (Genuine Fractals 5 Print Pro) over the standard Genuine Fractals 5 version?

I know CMYK is one added capability.

Any user commentary is appreciated.

Thanks, Ed

If you compare the feature lists, CMYK is about the only significant difference. I use it from time to time at work, the regular version that is. If I need to work on a CMYK image, moving it into RGB, scaling it and converting back to CMYK is seldom, if ever, an issue.

Ed911

edge work wrote:

If you compare the feature lists, CMYK is about the only significant difference. I use it from time to time at work, the regular version that is. If I need to work on a CMYK image, moving it into RGB, scaling it and converting back to CMYK is seldom, if ever, an issue.

How well does it really work. I've read that you can take a 6 mega pixel file and blow it up to 10X15 feet without loss...this they say in their advertising for Fractal 5.

Just wondering...I've always used bicubic interpolation...but want to use this to enlarge cropped images without loss if possible...within reason...


Thanks for your comments.

Art Scott

I have never went to the extreme of 10x15'....I have used printpro4.1 and I really like it.....I have used it to scale 6 and 8mp files to 30 x 40 inches at 300dpi and it worked great......I did the move from the native 72dpi to 300 in PSCS and constraining proportions and then took that file to GFPP4.1 and in one swift step had a 30 X 40 that was loved by my clients.......I have never gotten a decent uprezed file out of PS...no matter how I did it......I've tried several stair stepping methods (percentages....5%,10% and 20%) and I got really bad artifacts.....so I am sold on GF...guess it is time to purchase this version as my GF CD is at 3.1 and the 4.1 I had been using was just their trial version.......time to see if I can get one of my academic friends to purchase thru Academic Superstore as soon as they get it in......

arodney

Flip a coin. Half the time, the differences (very subtle on output) are a tiny bit better with GF, half the time in Photoshop. Photoshop is way faster and costs no more. I've tried all the upsizing 3rd party products, comparing NOT on screen but print. Ain't worth the hassles and money.

Ed911

Art,

Thanks for the comments.

Use this link for Trials of Fractal 5 and the Print Pro version. As well as other imaging software.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/download.php#general

You may have to cut and paste the link, but I just checked and it is working fine.

Thanks again, and have a good day.

Ed

Ed911

arodney wrote:

Flip a coin. Half the time, the differences (very subtle on output) are a tiny bit better with GF, half the time in Photoshop. Photoshop is way faster and costs no more. I've tried all the upsizing RD party products, comparing NOT on screen but print. Ain't worth the hassles and money.

Thanks for the comments. I found the site that I just posted for Art...it has several imaging trail versions that are down loadable.

Here's the link. http://www.ononesoftware.com/download.php#general

edgework

Ed911 wrote:

How well does it really work. I've read that you can take a 6 mega pixel file and blow it up to 10X15 feet without loss...this they say in their advertising for Fractal 5.

Just wondering...I've always used bicubic interpolation...but want to use this to enlarge cropped images without loss if possible...within reason...


Thanks for your comments.

If their hype is to be believed, and the evidence of their file output, the program seems to map out regions of color instead of simply filling in pixels. It can produce marginally better results when, say, going from 200 dpi to 400 dpi, but not always. When doing a massive resizing, one has to assume that the output isn't meant to be viewed up close, which is good because it comes out looking like one of the art effects filters. But as you move away, the shapes of color blend nicely and get the job done. I've used it to produce near-billboard sized files which went on the sides of buildings. It worked okay.

Art Scott

arodney wrote:

Flip a coin. Half the time, the differences (very subtle on output) are a tiny bit better with GF, half the time in Photoshop. Photoshop is way faster and costs no more. I've tried all the upsizing 3rd party products, comparing NOT on screen but print. Ain't worth the hassles and money.

Not real sure how you figure PS is faster.....even Adobe has said they are not as good as GF.....with PS you must stair step the interpolation, unless something has changed with PSCS3.....but ever since OnOne bought GF and made version 4 it has been a one step uprez and no need to save as an stn file (unfortunately if I use my GF 3.1 I must still save as an stn and then change to jpg...it was the only bad thing about the early GF) and so far GF has been winning all of the accolades for uprezing beating all the others out in every way in every article I picked up for the last few years....as I stated above I do not uprez the native 72dpi of the camera....I changed the dpi in PS to at least 300....bring the physical size to approx 8x10inches then I up rez to the size I needed and for me I stop at 30 x 40 inches, because very few houses have enuff wall space to hold a 30 x 40 print matted and framed.

But in the end it actully the taste of the artist and client that counts....so each to his / her own....:D

Ed911 wrote:

Art,

Thanks for the comments.

Use this link for Trials of Fractal 5 and the Print Pro version. As well as other imaging software.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/download.php#general

You may have to cut and paste the link, but I just checked and it is working fine.

Thanks again, and have a good day.

Ed

Thanx ED for the link......I have been using GF since it was developed by Lizard Tech (years before OnOne bought it) and they keep me informed of all the upgrades.....since I did not upgrade my current GF3.1 PrintPro (LAST Lizard Tech version) to 4 or 4.1.....I emailed OnOne to see if GF 5 Print Pro would seamlessly integrate or if I need to purchase the entire new program,,,,,,seems they saw fit to send me 3 emails with like 6 lnks to most of their newly released versions and products.......so I am waitng to hear back from them....hopefully I can spend the 70.00 (will be much less if I can get it thru academic superstore) and get the upgrade....

arodney

Art Scott wrote:

with PS you must stair step the interpolation,

You don't have to, with BiCubic Smoother. In the old days, that was 'the trick' but its rarely necessary. You can build an action and its still faster to do this than GF (its dog slow man).