Improving newspaper images

Hi guys

Has anyone used or come across a software program for improving newspaper images? Usually the pictures have golf-ball size pixels the more you enlarge them. Anyone aware of a program that can, say, "interpolate" the pixels to provide a better result? Thanks

perhaps you should contact the newspaper in question and purchase a copy of the photo from them and thereby get a good quality photo print (and also respect the copyright of the photographer who took the photo......) ?

Have tried that. Negs and any hard copies long gone. The records now only exist on microfilm in the local library

Contrary to what you see in the cinema and on the telly, adding information to low resolution images is a myth. It's like trying to do a sum where you have the wrong answer and none of the column(s) of figures. You can shrink the images and reduce the very visible gaps between the "golf-balls" which will improve how the pictures look slightly, but you're pretty much stuck with what you have. Sorry

The 'golf-ball' interference is called a moiré pattern caused by interference between the scanner and the halftone image produced by the printing press. Basically both the scanner and the printing press produce images that are made up of dots and these interfere to produce moiré patterns. Most good scanning software should have a filter to remove the interference. For example, with Epson scan you can select the source as 'newspaper' and this removes the interference pattern. Or you can select 'descreening', which has the same effect.