Here’s how it works. You can create a graphic (typically with a scanner or digital camera) at a relatively low resolution and save it in a fractal file format. If you need to make it bigger, you can expand it without the distortion and jaggies that occurs when you mess with a regular RGB file using bicubic interpolation formulas. If technical jargon like “bicubic interpolation” makes your hair hurt, this is probably a more sophisticated program than you need or want.

One constituency for this program is digital photographers. I read through some Internet discussions about Genuine Fractals. Users seem to be able to print crisp photos, relatively indistinguishable from traditionally processed photos, at 8” x 10” or even 20”x30”. 

My Nikon 990 has a maximum output of 3.3 megapixels, or 2048 x 1536 resolution. If I snapped all of my photos at this size we’d need a second mortgage to pay for memory cards. Depending on the anticipated end use of the photos, I’m most apt to shoot at XGA size (1024x768). As you can see in the chart below, at this resolution the biggest size good-looking print I could produce is 3”x5”. 
 

What Genuine Fractals will do is take my puny file and using fractal geometry make it scalable so that I can enlarge it for printing. Images can be scaled down to ¼ of their original size and up to 100 times their original size. Genuine Fractals was used to create the world's largest print of a digital camera image. Measuring 73' by 43' and totaling 3,200-square-feet, it was shot with the Nikon Coolpix 990 and digitally re-sized from a 4” x 6” to a billboard with little loss in image quality.

The second purpose of Genuine Fractals is to make it possible to work with and store smaller files. Do you remember the painting of St. Isidore tapping away on his laptop on the cover of April’s PC Alamode? The original TIF file was 22.9MB. Encoded as a STN file, one of the fractal formats, it was only 868KB. Obviously, this makes it easier to store; it will fit on a floppy. It also makes it easier to work with. When I edit a large file — apply a filter or rotate it, for example — it takes a long time and a lot of memory. When I work with a smaller file, things just zip along. 

Third, Genuine Fractals makes it possible to store or archive a graphic or photo at one mid-size resolution and then re-purpose it for various uses. For example, you might need one size for a poster, another size for a printed brochure and yet another for a Web site. With Genuine Fractals, you save the file once, and change it to the size, resolution and ultimate file format as needed. 

Finally, you can “create tiny encoded files that quickly display full-color photos on the Web.” But don’t do this. I was having trouble displaying the FIF file format on a Web page and e-mailed customer support. They responded, 

Genuine Fractals exports graphics in two file formats. The STN file format produces lossless encoding. It also lets you crop, rotate and change the color and zoom in on a your images from a preview screen. This format gives you maximum flexibility and maximum print quality. The FIF file format, used for Web graphics, is being phased out. 

Besides Adobe Photoshop, Genuine Fractals is compatible with PhotoDeluxe, Corel Photo-Paint 9-9.02, and Jasc Paint Shop Pro 5.03-6.02. I tried it with PhotoShop 6.5 and PaintShopPro 5.01 and it worked fine with both. 

One of the drawbacks to Genuine Fractals is that you need the program to read the native STN and FIF files. You can also revert to a TIF, JPG or whatever to send to others who need to work with them but the end user will not get any benefit from the technology. Another drawback is that you have to flatten your file before you export it to Genuine Fractals – if you used layers you will lose them. It also cannot create color separations – for that you need their PrintPro Software. 

The documentation is lousy. The manual is only 15 pages long and leaves great gaps. For the FIF format you can save images on a scale from 1 (small photographic) to 50 (tiny impressionistic.) Now you tell me: which one is the larger, better quality file? I had to guess. The answer is 1. When I saved my Paris picture, the original JPG file was 147KB The level 1 FIF file was actually slightly larger, 155KB. The Level 50 FIF was only 41KB and I couldn’t tell the difference among the three formats. There is slightly more information in the program’s help file, and a little more on the company’s Web site, but not enough. I never thought I’d complain that a manual was too short but this is a case where I needed more guidance and couldn’t find it. 

There do not appear to be any local retailers who carry Genuine Fractals but you can buy it directly from the company, Altamira, either by downloading it from their Web site or by calling them at (800) 913-3391. Their mailing address is 1827 West Verdugo Ave., Burbank, CA 91506. It comes in both Windows and Mac versions, $159 apiece. Nikon is now bundling Genuine Fractals with their scanners, so the technology might start taking off with professionals (the cheapest Nikon scanner retails for $825 so you’re not going to find it on my desktop until I win the lottery.) There is also a LE version for digital camera enthusiasts which retails for $49.95. This gives you only the ability to enhance the size of your digital photos. For example, a 1.3 megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 1280x960 would normally only produce a crisp 3”x4” print; Genuine Fractals LE will let you push it up to an 8”x10”. 

The more I played around with Genuine Fractals the more I grew to like it. If I printed more of my photographs or worked more often with professional printers I might be more excited. If you’re a graphics pro, this seems to be an essential addition to your bag o’ tricks. If you play around with digital photos, the LE version will probably do everything you need.