PhotoLab 9.6.1 Bicubic resizing terrible quality

[John-M (Melbourne, Australia - Win11)]

@azu

Now I have everything I need - new and proper configuration file and the ability to customize the sharpening level.

That’s a clever (and very interesting !) deduction, @azu …

I can confirm your discovery - and I can add a few more elements;

1. A setting of 0/zero produces exactly the same results as for the standard Bicubic output …

• That is; <a:Sharpness>0</a:Sharpness> == <a:Sharpness i:nil="true"/>

2. These settings apply ONLY for interpolation algorithm = Bicubic … They have NO impact on output using the Bicubic Sharper algorithm

3. Settings between 65 - 70 produce a result that’s visually equivalent (at least, for my eyes) to output using Bicubic Sharper

• Specifically, tho, a setting of 67 (using the Bicubic algorithm) is closest to result from Bicubic Sharper, in terms of resulting file-size (as an indication of degree of detail in the file).

4. So, in practical terms, one can apply settings between 0 - 67 to achieve a custom level of sharpening in the range of Bicubic (Softest) to Bicubic Sharper (Sharpest).

@azu

… … edit the user.config file, and replace all values:
<a:Sharpness i:nil="true"/>
with
<a:Sharpness>32</a:Sharpness> (change the 32 value to your liking).

I found some occurrences (in my user.config file) where there was a space-character between the literal “true” and the following forward-slash … So, for others reading this, be aware of that if you’re aiming to replicate this process.