Message-Id: <199710081601.JAA60110@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 09:00:48 -0700 From: John Blunden <mailto:blunden2@LLNL.GOV> Subject: Re: Digitization standards To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>Altamira's Genuine Fractals
>John, I'd be interested in this. Can you tell me more about it?
>Jennifer QCa
>
>````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
>Jennifer Brasher
>Librarian (Slide/ Art Reference) EMAIL: mailto:j.brasher@ins.gu.edu.au
> PHONE: INTERNATIONAL 61 7 3875 3130
Jennifer
Altamira has a interesting product here altho there is always a tradeoff in any technology. In this case, the compression is lossless and HUGE, but there is a significant number crunching period to get the file compressed. Once done it decompresses for use quite fast. Some samples I saw at the Seybold show were truly amazing. For instance, a photograph showing toy trucks was scanned from a 4x5 original transparency for a 40MB file. This was run through their encoder using a Photoshop plug-in and file size was reduced to 2.6 MB! They then modemed this file to a FTP site where the file was uncompressed by Genuine Fractals and rendered at 360 MB to produce a huge Duratrans on a Durst Lambda printer.
Sounds like a bit of magic doesn't it. They have a mathematical algorithm that encodes continuous tone images into resolution independent formats. The ad blurb says you don't even need to know the final output specification, just get a 15 to 40 MB image and you can ouput any size. I will reserve judgement on the true functionality of Genuine fractals until I get some input from users (non-vendor info) and see how it fits into our workflow. If some kind of overnight batch processing of the files on a fast PC was available that could be a solution to the slow compression times.
If anyone else has had any experience with this application, I would be interested in hearing successes and horror stories.If you wish to contact Altamira Group, they are at 1827 W. Verdugo Ave, Suite C, Burbank, Ca. 91506. (818) 556-6099, FAX (818) 556-3365 I don't have the web URL or any E-mail for the company, sorry.
John
John Blunden mailto:blunden2@llnl.gov Phone (510) 422-4989 Fax (510) 422-6944 "My job is not all that difficult, but I do have to know the entire alphabet." -Vanna White