I have done this with a hammer. Really hurt too!

A thumbnail is nothing more than a representation of a graphic file rendered into a set size and resolution. I would think that the better the resolution the file has, the better resolution the thumbnail COULD have.

That being said, the real issue is, "how does the operating system produce the thumbnails?" If you can tell the operating system to translate the images to thumbnails with greater resolution, you'd have it made.

Two questions:

Why do you want to do this?

What is your operating system?

Mike

To Mikerho

My OS is bare bones XP Pro.

I have many thumbnails that I saved back before I discovered their low resolution that I can no longer get the original pics. I have tried bringing these thumbs back with various programs, but the best I can get are very poor resolution. What I need is a "thinking" program that can fill in where the thumbs leave off.

Ken

Check out the opportunities here

Hi Kenneth,

I think we're not on the same page here.

My definition of a thumbnail is an image displayed in Windows Explorer when you select "Thumbnails" in the "View" menu. The thumbnail is only a representation of its image file. If you delete the file represented by the thumbnail, you will no longer have a thumbnail. You cannot save a thumbnail, only the file it represents.

This is the way I understand it, so tell me if that's not what you are thinking and in what way.

Mike

Really, thumbnails are any small pictures. For example, our avatar images are considered thumbnails.

OK - semantics. Damn the semantics!

The problem with bitmap graphics (as opposed to vector graphics) is that there is only so much info in a bitmap. You can make the pixels in the bitmap larger, but then that results in a distorted, blocky image.

On the other hand, there are some limited mathematical processes using Fourier transforms and fractals that can can make "guesstimates" and produce some useful effects, but they're not unlimited. Often these programs will take an image and run it through several processes, then provide you with several images, from which you make your choice about the image you like best.

Needless to say, there are a limited population of mathematically inclined programmers that have the chops to pull it off. If it was relatively easy, these programs would be going for $29.99.

do this test.

Take another picture, right click on the file and inspect the properties. This will give you the file size.

Then creat a thumbnail the same way you did before. Then save it as a file with a different name in the same folder. Again right click...properties..file size.

As you can see, the thumbnail is far far smaller.

As far as I know, there is no way to go back to the full sized file, because information has been discarded in the thumbnailing process.

If the thumbnails were saved in Vector format (usually not!), with the right program you can make it almost any size you wish. As far as I am aware, most other graphic formats do not have this ability.......

Regards.

I fully with your remarks about IrfanView.

I add to your post:

Download ZIP file [ it is down down in the website ]

Extract in a folder anywhere you like.

make a short-cut of exe file & place it at a convenient place say desktop

Don't forget to also download "All plugins" exe file & run it to install.

It will extract all plugins to proper folders in your Irfanview folder.

Go to options [press P] & configure to your chioce. And click in "Extensions" tab for

"shell Menu" if required.

There are lots of ... to explore in Irfan view.

Enjoy & have a fine day !!!!!

Great entry, You laid it all out for the Member who asked.

I find myself learning new things about IrfanView often and I recommend that a user really explore what the program offers.

Thanks & Regards

They can only do this in Hollywood spy movies.

de brain fills in some of the blanks but when you enlarge it to a certain point the brain cannot make heads or tails out of it.

You cannot make more information from nothing, when making a thumbnail a lot of information is lost. You can approximate the original with expensive software but it will never be the same as the original

As I mentioned earlier, if the graphic is in vector graphic form (???.svg), it can be really very simple to enlarge an make smaller, with all the relevant infos still visible.......

If you are interested enough to want to learn more, there is an excellent simple description with good examples here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics

This will demostrate fully to you that pictures can be scaled without losing integrity or changing into coarse blocks.....

Yes, but it still would be an approximation, Vector graphics or good for objects but small nuances in the picture would still be gone, the outline would be correct though.

off course if the original .SVG file would be scaled to 100 by 100 pixels, then that would mean that the original data is still there. For example a picture of 800kb would still be 800kb to keep all the information, but alas most sites the file-size of the thumbnails(avatars) are restricted

The fine details also remain intact, but of course file sizes remain larger.....

That was not part of the original question/post which was how to make larger without losing detail.........the .svg file format when correctly used does just that.....allows scaling to small or back to large.

The way it works is that it stores shapes and not pixels, which is the secret.....

Yes, but his questions are related to some thumbnails he has, as the asker replies at #3 those are standard thumbnails and those cannot be enlarged without losing detail.

True if they are in .gif, .tiff, .jpg etc formats.......

I have not tried it, but I wonder if converting to .svg, then enlarging will keep the detail at least that is still there.....its certainly possible.....but anything already lost will stay lost!!!

To all who answered

I am totally confused now. All this talk about this format and that format and what can and cannot be done with them has led me to the conclusion that N.C.I.S. Abby and Magee's computers programing whereby they take the most obscure images and make full sized, fully detailed prints are all make believe.

It seems to me that someone using dithering and a competent program can reproduce anything from nothing given a something to start.

Or is that all scifi and/or pie in the sky?

Ken

Pure fiction. You can't get something out of nothing. You can "enhance" the low res photo so you can have a better guess on what it was.

Yes, these NCIS tricks largely script fiction.

They can enhance contrasts, adjust brightness in certain ares, detect edges.

I remember one movie, blade runner, where they moved a perspective to, in effect, look around a corner. Not doable.

What they can do is ray trace sharpening. By taking a high density pixel image, they can perform calculations on each pixel and move them around and find an edge, and then another edge at a different distance. and so on by progressive iteration focus more sharply. It is prey to aliasing.

It is computationally intensive in the extreme. Simple deblurring in photoshop is a simple version of what they do.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22image+processing%22+%2B%22blur+removal%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

these searches yield some fascinating links.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22image+processing%22+%2Bfocus&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Use RegEdit to go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Make a new DWORD value named ThumbnailSize. Double click the value and type in a number in decimal anywhere from 32 to 256. Making it smaller will display more images on the screen.