AKVIS Magnifier AI 11 Plug-in Review

Introduction

AKVIS Magnifier AI 11 is a standalone program as well as an Adobe Photoshop-compatible plug-in that intelligently enlarges images. AKVIS Magnifier is best suited for images that are older and you can therefore not get a higher-quality image in its place. Using AKVIS Magnifier on these images, you can use color process improvements to create larger-resolution images with minimal quality regression.

Magnifier is from AKVIS, a company based in Russia that specializes in graphic programs. We already reviewed a much older version of AKVIS Magnifier in the past.

You can download a free 10-day trial version of Magnifier AI 11 from the AKVIS site.

My contact at AKVIS for this review was Kat Kharina. Thank you, Kat.

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How To Use

Follow these steps to use AKVIS Magnifier AI 11:

1. Open an image you want to use inside Adobe Photoshop or another image editor that supports plug-ins. You can see a sample image from AKVIS in Figure 1, below. You can also open the image in the standalone version of AKVIS Magnifier AI 11.
2. 
   Figure 1: Image opened in Adobe Photoshop
2. If you choose to open the image in an image editor, access the AKVIS Magnifier AI 11 plug-in. In Adobe Photoshop, we chose the File | Automate | AKVIS Magnifier AI option, as shown in Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: AKVIS Magnifier plug-in within the File menu
3. Either way, you’ll see the selected image within the Magnifier interface, as you can see in Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: AKVIS Magnifier AI 11 interface
5. The AKVIS Magnifier interface is explained below. Each area corresponds to the area marked in Figure 3, above:

A. Control Panel

6. The upper part of the interface is the Control Panel with buttons located on both the left and right sides. Options are available to visit the Magnifier home page, share on social media sites, start processing the image, and apply the result to the image. There are also buttons to launch the information dialog, help files, the Preferences dialog box, and see notifications.
7. You can see the Preferences dialog box in Figure 4, below. Note that this new version of AKVIS Magnifier uses neural networks to resize images up to 800%. To use the old algorithm, you can select the check-box highlighted in red within Figure 4.
8. 
   Figure 4: Preferences in AKVIS Magnifier AI 11

B. Preview

9. The Preview area has two tabs: Before and After, that show previews of both the original and changed images. Additionally, the Before tab sports the Preview window that allows you to preview what you would see in the After tab for a small square section, represented as a green frame, as can be seen in Figure 5, below.
10. 
    Figure 5: Before and After previews

C. Tools

11. In the Tools palette, docked to the left, you will find a set of tools, explained below:

i. Hand (Pan) and Zoom

12. There are some other tools such as Hand and Zoom. These let you alter the viewing area of the open image.

ii. Image View Modes

13. You can choose to see both Before and After tabs horizontally or vertically, or swap positions of tabs.

D. Navigator

14. On the top right, you'll find the Navigator. This also lets you choose the area of the image to be shown in the Preview pane.

E. Presets

15. The Presets drop-down list contains several presets, as shown in Figure 6, below. You can use these presets using default values, or you can edit them by changing values within the Settings Panel. These altered parameters can be saved as new presets, that can be used in the future.
16. 
    Figure 6: Presets for Magnifier AI

F. Settings Panel

17. Within this panel you can find all the parameters to adjust the settings of focusing.
4. Play with the parameters, and when you'll get the result you want, apply the changes within the plug-in by pressing the Run button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 7, below. Doing so applies the effect and creates a preview of the changed image in the After tab, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 7.
5. 
   Figure 7: Preview changes in AKVIS Magnifier
5. Once you're done, apply the result to the image by pressing the Apply button, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 7, above to return to the image editor.

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Specifications

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