SmillaEnlarger

[lbaty]

Found the following on LifeHacker.

App: SmillaEnlarger 0.8

URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/imageenlarger/

Description: SmillaEnlarger is an open-source and portable application designed to help you intensively massage an image enlargement to keep it from looking jagged and filled with artifacts. You can select the level of zoom using the zoom slider and the location of the zoom via the selection box.

I can't test if this is stealth because I am using a shared PC at a cybercafe.

[Dwel]

nice, actually does what it says.

[portackager]

Yes, it works wonderfully well. The author will probably abandon it (if he hasn't already). I've seen this happen with so many applications. Sourceforge is like a ghost town for software. I'd love to be proven wrong!

[webfork]

WPP put out a version, presumably something that cleans up the registry junk:
http://www.winpenpack.com/en/download.php?view.1334

[webfork]

Quickie Review

Another one of those programs that you only need when you need it. Then, suddenly every other graphics program out there just looks behind on a key feature. Although many editors (including GIMP) can do what this does with tweaking, a few simple macros that combine the necessary plugins for enlarging are extremely helpful. Also, occasionally the algorithm will hit the nail on the head and the image will come from a terrible, blocky mess into something useful.

Recommendations: Seems to work better with:

* PNG files (which don't have JPEG artifacts that get only marginally cleaner)
* Illustrations and small graphics

Text and photographs tend to look better, just blurry.

Example: A look at the PortableFreeware logo using this program:

Before:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/135 ... larger.png

After:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/135 ... larger.png