The pictures which had been rendered in Photoshop were consistently inferior to the straight scans. An even easier solution is to have no scanning software either, just press a few buttons and, Zappo, there is your wide format print, direct from the scanner. You never even have to look at the image on a monitor. Not everyone has the time or opportunity to master Photoshop. Most use turnkey arrangements, the scanner is from the same company that makes the overall system.
Problem here is that the scanner usually turns out to be the weakest link.
Vivid Image solves this situation by working with cost-effective yet more capable scanners. The list of supported scanners grows each month. Places like Kinkos could offer this setup for people to enlarge family snapshots. Museums, art museums, natural history museums, botanical gardens, zoos, libraries, photographers, all have thousands of prints. Vivid Image now offers the opportunity to enlarge such old prints to make posters, banners, signs, or teaching aids.