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With the Gallery Wrap Panel, you can automatically extend your image in Photoshop CS4.

The latest version of Alien Skin’s Blow Up® image-enlargement plug-in for Photoshop includes a free panel that can help users of Photoshop CS4 make gallery-wrapped prints. You can use the Gallery Wrap Panel to automatically extend your image along the borders so that you won’t lose any of the original image when the printed canvas or fabric is stretched around the wooden stretcher bars on which the print is displayed.

Alien Skin provides three options for filling the border:

• A solid color of your choice;
• Reflect Edges, that automatically mirror the edges for you;
• Reflect with Fade, in which the edges are mirrored and gradually faded to a color of your choice.

Other options enable you to blur the boundary or extend the front image slightly to hide the seam.

You must have Photoshop CS4 or later to run this feature. To get the panel, simply install Blow Up 2.03. During the installation, you’ll be given the option of installing the panel. After installing the panel and restarting Photoshop, you can run the panel by selecting Windows>Extensions>Gallery Wrapper.

The Gallery Wrap Panel doesn’t rely on Blow Up to do its work. As a result you can keep using it, even if you uninstall Blow Up after the trial period ends.

Blow Up® 2 is a Photoshop® plug-in that can produce dramatically sharp enlargements, even from the low-quality source images that consumers and office employees sometimes supply to businesses that specialize in designing and printing posters, large-format signage, or photo enlargements on canvas.

The Gallery Wrap Panel provides three options for filling the border.

Blow-Up uses an algorithm that temporarily converts pixels to a vector representation which results in perfectly smooth, crisp edges. Simulated texture and film grain keep photos looking natural even in extreme enlargements. Blow Up can even clean up JPEG compression artifacts.

The latest version of Blow-Up also features a startup panel that sits in your Photoshop window and can be use to launch Blow Up or resize images up to 24 x 36 in. with a single click. Blow Up software applies the proper amount of output sharpening based on whether you’re using glossy, matte, or luster inkjet paper.

Alien Skin recently announced that Blow Up 2 is available as part of their Photo Bundle, which also includes:

• Bokeh lens simulation plug-in;
• Exposure film simulation plug-in;
• Image Doctor photo restoration and retouching plug-in;
• Snap Art artistic effects plug in.

The Photo Bundle lists for $595. A discounted price is available to owners of current versions of any one of the products in the bundle.