ARLEYART MOTIVATIONAL PRINTS

 Arleyart.com is a platform where Arley Clark, the owner, sells his unique motivational art. Arley, born in 1947 and raised in Bremerton, Washington, has always been inspired by words of wisdom. This includes quotes, phrases, song lyrics, and even advertising taglines. Throughout his career, motivational or thought-provoking messages were always on display on his office walls. Frustrated by the limited selection of display-worthy plaques, posters, or art prints available in the market, he decided to create his own. Upon retiring from a management career in the sporting goods industry, Arley decided to check the market for his kind of motivational art, leading to the birth of ArleyArt​1​.

 Despite some tech-savviness, setting up the SuperRes Diffusion colab was a bit of a struggle, and using it was overall a confusing experience. I encountered numerous glitches along the way. It stopped in the middle of a script's execution or showed errors, after some of which I had to restart the whole thing.

 To run SuperRes or similar colabs, you must be a Google Drive user AND grant a colab—someone else's program—access to your Drive's entire content: with modification rights. I am a trusting (or just reckless ;)) person, but for many, this can be a privacy concern.

 I'll be honest, the colab world is very new to me, and my first user experience with it wasn't smooth. Even though using SuperRes turned out to be easier than it seemed at the beginning, the environment doesn't make a non-software engineer feel comfortable. And occasional errors that explain nothing (e.g., "Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'next'") don't help, too.

 Then there is also a GPU time limit for free users that is difficult to control and runs out too fast.

 In the end, I am sure colabs are powerful and versatile tools for those advanced enough to be able to use them. But in the case of SuperRes Diffusion, its speed and quality of its results couldn't outweigh its disadvantages.

 chaiNNer is "a flowchart/node-based image processing GUI aimed at making chaining image processing tasks (especially upscaling done by neural networks) easy, intuitive, and customizable."

 chaiNNer is a powerful tool to do so many things that upscaling becomes a fraction of its functionality. It is a spaceship! This is fantastic if you're into space traveling but overwhelming when you need a drive to a local supermarket. 8)

 After downloading and installing chaiNNer, you will need to also download and set up the libraries you want to use. Upscale.wiki offers a massive list! There are hundreds of them: from universal-purposed models to very specifically-targeted ones (VHS restoration, Super Mario textures upscaling, models trained on coins, or cats, etc.). They have descriptions, but not all have examples of their outcomes. So you might have to choose from a few dozen of seemingly similar entries.

 chaiNNer's interface is nicely designed, but it might scare an unprepared beginner. Especially if this is your first time working with node-based software. The principle, however, is pretty simple. There is a canvas where you arrange cards that represent inputs (like your image), actions (like applying an upscaler model), and outputs (like saving the result). By setting/dragging links between those cards, you define the workflow.

 With chaiNNer I ran all tests using three different models: 4x Valar (for realistic photos), Face-Ality V1 (trained on faces), and Digipaint (an upscaler for digital art).

 There is a learning curve to start with chaiNNer. Its interface is well-designed and pleasant to use, but the whole thing might be overwhelming for an unprepared user.

 chaiNNer runs on your computer, utilizing its resources. If your machine is not advanced enough, that might result in waiting hours for even one upscale.

 chaiNNer is a powerful tool with features going way beyond simple upscaling. And open databases of free AI models are its infinite fuel source. With some learning and practicing, chaiNNer might become an impactful addition to your toolbox.

 With its lightweight interface (maybe not the best one aesthetically ]:->), Upscayl offers a straightforward and fast user experience while utilizing advanced AI models and producing a decent result.

 You can use the same models as Upscayl with chaiNNer, where they are only 1/100th of its powers. and that gives much more versatility in configuration.

 Upscayl is a minimalist AND free tool that works! It has a small variety of preset models and almost no settings you can tweak. So simplicity and availability are definitely its strong points. It's not as versatile as chaiNNer, but it's definitely a better fit for someone who look for a more effortless and accessible instrument.

 For the final part of this test, I decided to see how Gigapixel AI upscales will behave on paper—with a particular focus on fine art prints. Each sample was printed at 300DPI on A3 size (297 mm × 420 mm, or 11.7 in × 16.5 in.)

 Printing enthusiasts and professionals know: you can emphasize any image's strong sides or conceal its shortcomings with the right choice of medium and printing technique.For this test I went with:

 Gigapixel AI showed excellent results even on the most demanding paper. All prints turned out perfectly detailed, without artifacts or pixelation. A3 is a perfect size for both selling prints directly or exhibiting them at a gallery show (or on your wall!). And Gigapixel upscales absolutely shined as A3 pictures. However, my impression is that you can go at least 1,5x bigger without losing quality.

Words of Wisdom Art Prints

 In this study, I tried to show specific tools but also outline the ways you can go if you are serious about upscaling your images. Whether you are ready to buy yourself a headache-free ready-made solution, or you will settle with a simpler free tool, or you will go into node-based programming and simply coding—there are plenty of options that await you on all those paths.

 We can’t deny the fact that the latest smartphone cameras have made some remarkable achievements in developing a decent landscape photography image quality, especially if these images are only being used on social media sites. Although there are a lot of innovative algorithms that create landscape photography images that look similar to those from a DSLR on screen, have you ever tried to create a fine art print from your smartphone or your DSLR, only to be disappointed with the results?

 There are many factors that affect how well smartphone or camera images print. So, before we get into the steps to getting colors right for fine art prints, let’s look at a few important steps needed to capture the image correctly before the printing stage (the first two steps below).

 An image file format describes how data related to the image is stored and most importantly, how much data is retained. Landscape photography image data can be stored in compressed and uncompressed format. Each format has its advantages and disadvantages.

 As a landscape photographer, you probably shoot in Raw or Jpeg, or sometimes both. And then you usually edit the image in Photoshop, Adobe Camera Raw, or Lightroom. Then you save your image. How do you save it? Do you save as a PSD, Tiff. or Jpeg?

 JPEG format is meant for transmitting photos over networks and showing on screens. It sheds a lot of the (unrecoverable) original data that was captured by your camera. In this format, the camera processes the appearance of the photo; your scope for further manual editing remains but is greatly reduced. When using a JPEG, I always use the highest quality setting for saving the file.

 For fine art prints I use a TIFF file format to save all my travel or landscape photos. You will also want to save your work as a Photoshop PSD or a TIFF file format when you have Photoshop layers that you want to preserve. These formats allow for uncompressed saving with no loss of data and are preferred for high quality fine art prints – especially large ones.

 For fine art prints I use a TIFF file format to save all my travel or landscape photos. You will also want to save your work as a Photoshop PSD or a TIFF file format when you have Photoshop layers that you want to preserve. These formats allow for uncompressed saving with no loss of data and are preferred for high quality fine art prints – especially large ones.

 Image resolution in digital photography has a technical metric: pixels per inch (ppi) of image dimensions. Higher resolution doesn’t necessarily mean sharper landscape photos – that also depends very much on camera lenses, camera sensors, focus setting, and other factors.

 So, what is a good resolution for printing a photo? We recommend something in the range of 300 to 360 pixels per inch for landscape photography prints created using Canon, HP, or Epson photographic printers. The total pixel dimensions determine the linear image dimensions you can have at those resolution values. Keep in mind that you can also resample the images in Photoshop in order to change linear dimensions at a given resolution or work with lower resolution.

 So how big can I print my photos? This can easily be measured in Photoshop or other post-processing software. For example, I shoot with a Canon 6D full frame 20.2MP camera. When I shoot in RAW file format, it creates a 57.1M file size. If I create an 300 ppi image, I receive a 12×18″ print at 300 ppi. Depending on the image, I might at times work with a 200 ppi file size. In this case, I receive an 18×27″ print from the printer. Note that if you send more or less resolution to the printer than the printer’s native resolution calls for, the print process resamples your file on the fly to match this native resolution. When printing large landscape photos, the quality of the photo itself and the pixel dimensions count.

 One of the most important steps for creating fine art prints is to have a high enough quality monitor that can be properly calibrated and profiled. The monitor is your only insight into the photo until it emerges from the printer. There are several software packages that you can use to calibrate basic parameters for your monitor (such as white point, black point, contrast ratio, brightness) and then, with that calibration in hand, create a profile consistent with the calibration parameters. These packages include X-Rite i1Display Pro or X-Rite ColorMunki , but there are others as well.

 Also, it’s helpful to view photos on a monitor in a properly lit room in order to minimize the impacts of distraction and the appearance of diluted color from too much ambient light hitting the display. There is an appropriate balance to strike between the levels of monitor brightness and ambient light. If you find that this level of management isn’t meeting your requirements or expectations, you may want to investigate the issues and re-calibrate your monitor.

 No matter how carefully a landscape photographer sets up the exposure and composition, photos often require a few tweaks. One of the most important post-processing adjustments for creating a professional looking landscape photography prints is sharpening. Some landscape photographers prefer Photoshop to do this and some prefer Lightroom.

 It is important to remember that an image captured by DSLR or mirrorless camera goes through many stages before it’s printed. From the lens to the sensor, through the software processing, some of these steps can soften or degrade your image. So, sharpening can improve your fine art print, although, if done correctly, won’t affect color accuracy in any way.

 One of my favorite sets of Photoshop filters to sharpen comes from Sharpener Pro from NIK. Sharpener Pro is a photo editing plugin offering two stages of sharpening. The first stage is RAW Pre-Sharpener, a tool to extract the correct level of detail from a photo. The second stage is Output Sharpening, which can adjust an image for its intended destination, whether it’s for a fine art print or a screen.

 Canon, HP, and Epson offer a type of turn-key solution, especially when using their media. These printers have built-in profiles for correctly printing their own media. They have also developed their printer drivers over the years to accommodate third-party media. Using manufacture’s papers and printer profiles do provide a turn-key solution producing good quality prints right out of the box. If you decide to go this route, you should select let printer manage color in Photoshop or Lightroom.