Vector images to upscale photos

Most of the compression in a JPEG is with the number of colors- resolution is not changed except for color shading. When I make decals I reduce the number or colors anyway to eliminate shading caused by lighting and contour variations.  you can also do interpolation when upscaling a photo.  Doesn't help beyond a factor of two, but if the original photo is high enough res, then the 2X helps.

gregbale

 

 

Bakster

Hey Greg--that is a good point/tip about JPEG verses TIF. That makes sense. That never occurred to me to try working within TIF as a way to avoid scaling issues. I will give it a try. Thanks!

 

 

That comes from having friends in the commercial graphics trade. I doubt I ever would have managed to tumble to it on my own!

Glad to be of help.

 

Jon_a_its

JPG's are 'lumps & bumps', or pixels.

When upscaling Jpegs, the image quality can go from LEGO to DUPLO, as the existing pixel is stretched. The best way way work with JPG's is to start with as high a DPI or PPI as possible, 300 DPI is always going to look better than a 60 PPI icon. Some graphics programs can 'smooth' (add more dots) to an image before scaling.

Photoshop, Photoshop lite/student, PaintShop Pro, GIMP, & CorelDraw/CorelPaint can do this.

Vectors are 'lines & degrees', so when you upscale, there shouldn't be any scaling issues.

What Don S says is good, but can you post an pics of what you are trying to do, and what programs you are using? MS Word, Publisher, even Paint can do a lot with pics & scaling, but not with perhaps the finesse of (expensive) other programs.

Edit: JPG/BMP to Vector programs do exist (Corel and Photoshop, and others) but are a whole other learning curve.

Good luck

 

Say Jon--thanks for that good input.

You asked what I am trying to do and if I can post. I can't post it yet because I have not created the graphics yet. My initial post was driven by this thread and others like it concerning scaling and degradation. My post is also driven from my photoshopping experiences where I have seen these sorts of degradation when layering and scaling different source material images.

What I am trying to do is this: I am working on a spaceship (Icarus) where I want to make graphics for the instrument panels. When said and done, the graphics may be as small as a few millimeters; dang small. I suspect I am pushing the limits of the make your own decal process but, I feel adding some detail is better than nothing, even it looks kind of crummy. With that said, I want to give the process the best chance for success that I can.

So--how I approach this is the question. Making the graphics should not be a problem at all using my PSP program. What I was unclear about is if I should try creating them as vector images, or am I ok with raster (jpeg type). Making graphics through vector would be a learning curve for me, I have not done them before. And that is the reason why I was hoping to make them as raster and then convert to vector. And maybe the real answer is that I don't need to, just go with the raster.

I am probably overthinking all this but hey--it's good fodder for discussion.

If you have more thoughts on this--let me know.

Thanks!

Bakster

Hey Greg--that is a good point/tip about JPEG verses TIF. That makes sense. That never occurred to me to try working within TIF as a way to avoid scaling issues. I will give it a try. Thanks!

That comes from having friends in the commercial graphics trade. I doubt I ever would have managed to tumble to it on my own!

Glad to be of help.

gregbale

One needs to remember that JPEG as a format is built around compression of the image elements; I find any scaling or resizing of JPEGs automatically introduces too many artifacts and associated 'fuzz,' degrading the image quality. For decal work, my first step is always to save the image as a TIFF file, then work exclusively with that. It's much cleaner.

I've never bothered with vectors. Simply resizing the non-JPEG images as several replies have outlined above has always produced great results for me.

 

Hey Greg--that is a good point/tip about JPEG verses TIF. That makes sense. That never occurred to me to try working within TIF as a way to avoid scaling issues. I will give it a try.

Thanks!

One needs to remember that JPEG as a format is built around compression of the image elements; I find any scaling or resizing of JPEGs automatically introduces too many artifacts and associated 'fuzz,' degrading the image quality. For decal work, my first step is always to save the image as a TIFF file, then work exclusively with that. It's much cleaner.

I've never bothered with vectors. Simply resizing the non-JPEG images as several replies have outlined above has always produced great results for me.

JPG's are 'lumps & bumps', or pixels.

When upscaling Jpegs, the image quality can go from LEGO to DUPLO, as the existing pixel is stretched. The best way way work with JPG's is to start with as high a DPI or PPI as possible, 300 DPI is always going to look better than a 60 PPI icon. Some graphics programs can 'smooth' (add more dots) to an image before scaling.

Photoshop, Photoshop lite/student, PaintShop Pro, GIMP, & CorelDraw/CorelPaint can do this.

Vectors are 'lines & degrees', so when you upscale, there shouldn't be any scaling issues.

What Don S says is good, but can you post an pics of what you are trying to do, and what programs you are using? MS Word, Publisher, even Paint can do a lot with pics & scaling, but not with perhaps the finesse of (expensive) other programs.

Edit: JPG/BMP to Vector programs do exist (Corel and Photoshop, and others) but are a whole other learning curve.

Good luck

Jon_a_its

I've had quicker results, drawing a box to the size artwork I want, import the jpg or scan to another layer, then scaling it to fit, lock that layer, then use the Vector drawing tools to re-create  the artwork, on another layer, deleting the jpg when done.  

I have Paint Shop Pro and I am unfamiliar with vectors. I probably have what I need but I tried googling the subject and I couldn't find anything about converting jpeg to vector. Ideally it would be great if there was a process using free or even Microsoft provided OS software. In my case, I will scale down dramatically and I know the image will fall apart. There is probably a simple solution but I am struggling to find it. Any help would be appreciated.

I find my graphics program (which can do both raster and vector) does a fine job of scaling even in raster mode.  When I scan the old decal sheet I use a raster scan with very high resolution, usually 1200 ppi.  My software allows scaling by percentage, to nearest percent, and I find that accurate enough.  Never had a problem with sizing.  Also, most images I obtain in a Google image search (some of which I have used to make decals), are in jpeg or gif raster, and I have had no problem sizing those. If the decal is a simple one, and I am making it from scratch, then I may use vector, but most of time even from my own graphics, I have found raster works fine.  If there is any shading, like in a piece of nose art, then raster is far easier.

JMorgan

Has anyone used jpg to vector conversion software to enlarge a jpg decal scan to make different scale decals? I need some advice on how this worked. Thanks in advance.