Hi Gradient:-

I have Genuine Fractals, too, and used it prior to Alien Skin. But after having used both for a while, I can tell you that I prefer Alien Skin for a couple of reasons, first of which is that the image quality is better. I had some shaky images that customers ordered as murals, and Blowup came through beautifully, much to my surprised relief.

Another benefit: it automatically duplicates the image before blowing up, and you can blow up images that are layered. It also has a grain addition feature and a sharpen feature, very handy. And right before blowing it up, you can see the actual pixel preview of what your image is going to look like.

I also found that it works faster than Genuine Fractals, although both aren't going to win any marathons. Kinda ironic I would prefer Alien Skin, because "Genuine Fractals" has a name close to my heart. Most of my work is fractal-based digital art.:) (www.peapoddesign.net/gallery.html)

The advice given here has been really wonderful and very helpful. I must admit I have heard of "RAW" but don't know a thing about it. So thank you, I will be researching that. It's pretty crucial for me to learn this stuff anyway, and not for my own photography, but for others'....we do a lot of work for photographers and artists who want to print their own work on tile murals (gass, ceramic and stone) as well as coffee mugs and other gift and home decor products. I am just as anal about their work coming out perfectly as I am my own. :)

Thanks again, you guys are really wonderful. I am so glad I came here. :)

Warmly,

PPG