about algorithm reshade client blog faq animation

Why the online service?

Generally images that do not fit the screen and need traditional enlarging are not that popular as desktop wallpapers. This factor is independent of the original image quality/beauty. It happens because by enlarging an image in Photoshop or other more specialized tools the image looses clarity (gets blurry). Reshading an image does better, it keeps it sharp and clear. Also users might like to select only a portion of an image for their wallpaper, like a face or an object. The tools needed for this kind of work (crop, strech, and resize) are all available at reshade.com.Secondly, you get more exposure for your pictures and your site by making your image public on reshade.com.

Why the offline resizer?

The online tool has limited maximum resolution, and only a few settings available. These restrictions are all waved away in the Reshade Client application. A great amount of tweaking is possible, and it's all on your computer. Making incredibly large high-quality posters is a few clicks away.

What's with the Reshade algorithm?

The reshade algorithm has been specifically designed to maintain as much quality as possible in a resized image, and if not, create new details. The best results (no visible degradation of the image, in many cases improvements) are obtained for zoom factors of maximum 300%. The algorithm can be used easily for greater zooms but some distortions will be noticeable. This is not a bad thing, the images look pleasing even so, and as much realism is maintained as possible, while keeping edges clear and sharp.

Why are there only a couple of resolutions available?

The resizing process takes time, so caching is needed. Fixed resolutions make this possible. Besides, you might not need other sizes. Most desktop resolutions are supported, and you can crop your pictures to change their aspect ratio (width to height).

How well does upsizing with reshade work for printing?

The printed images look even better than on screen. Reshading creates sharp textures and clear edges maintaining the original image overview. Enlarge images for free up to 1900x1200 on the site. If you need greater resolutions purchase Reshade Client and resize images on your computer.

Why not use Photoshop?

It's pretty expensive to buy Photoshop. If you already have it installed though you could try to resize the picture using bicubic interpolation, and maybe, if you know how, try to sharpen the image with all the available tools (smart sharpen / unsharp mask work best). Even though there are some advanced techniques to obtain results similar to reshade for low zooms, these take a long time to master, and even so a lot more to apply on an image than what reshade.com offers for free and instantly.

Why not use other resizers, there are plenty online?

Well, there might be a lot of them but none use a better method for resizing photos than reshade does.

What other uses are there for reshade.com?

Reshade.com also offers cropping for the posted pictures. This means that you can test the zooming ability even more, and on larger images. Because of processing time concerns the maximum zoom factor is 300%.

Who should use reshade.com?

If you have small, maybe older, pictures that you would like to enlarge, or create desktop backgrounds of, reshading can be very useful for you. Also you can use reshading when you want to crop a portion of a photo, zoom in on a face maybe or some other feature. If you made a picture with a lower megapixel camera or a cell-phone and want to enlarge it, reshading works best. You can also create avatars with reshade.com. For this you just need cropping and resizing. Select a small size like 100x100 for the perfect avatar. Reshade.com is also a place to show your pictures to the world, and get visits to your site at the same time. Site owners that add their pictures to reshade.com might like the idea of getting more visitors for their home page that appears under every one of their images.

What do your Terms of Service say about copyright?

Reshade.com does not assume ownership of the works posted. The author allows reshade.com to resize his pictures, that's all. The resized pictures are still copyrighted to their author, so nobody can use the resizes for any purposes not meant by the author. For example, this means that if an image has a Creative Commons Licence on it, this is transmitted to the resized image.

Can I submit pictures that are not mine?

You can submit any picture as long as you have been permitted by the author/owner to do this for the purpose of posting it on reshade.com. Please read the Terms of Service for more information. If you are not sure about a picture's copyright it's better to not submit it. Pictures from magazines, commercial sites are usually copyrighted to their respective owners.

Why should I make an image public, if I can do resizes keeping it private?

The images you make public will have a link back to your site so that visitors may admire more of your pictures. If anybody else submits any of the pictures on your site to reshade.com they will be redirected to the ones you've already submitted. This way you are properly given credit for your works.

Why not just strech the image from my computer (when I select it as a wallpaper)?

When stretching an image in windows for example you get jagged edges, with reshading this is not the case.