Hal Lane wrote:
...get a form of anti-aliasing applied to your image -P.N.L.
I've sometimes calculated fractal images 4 times larger in X and Y and downsized them. This may be a bit of overkill, but I feel like this provides the ultimate in image quality of a Fractint fractal that you can reasonably do.
I only use 4 times 'over-sizing' and 'quarter down-sizing' for creating desktop wallpaper from .GIF fractals.
Even multiples are best, since you're talking about individual bits arranged in a basically-square grid. So 4x oversizing gives you 4 pixels to use in determining the color of the 1 pixel in the downsized version. Next step up would be 16x. Fractint can generate, what, 32768x32768 images now, or bigger? Generate it that size, downsize it to 1/16 that size, and you've still got a high rez fractal ...
It's important to have the output from the resizing be a JPG image -- and make sure the JPG encoding 'quality' setting is high enough to not discard some of the smoothing that you have just gained by the re-sizing...
You don't need the lossiness of JPG to encode 24-bit color; PNG supports that quite well. For archival storage of source images for future rework, write a fractal generator that produces 48-bit color and stores them as TIFF files. I think what GIF supports that the others don't is the ability to essentially include the parameters in the GIF file itself? I seem to recall reading that it used text blocks that the GIF format allowed, but that most graphics programs would clear when they saved a GIF file ... I don't think JPG supports that- does PNG? -- David gnome@hawaii.rr.com authenticity, honesty, community