Warren and others,
I agree that HT is the way to go for permanent stretch (though Harry's use of a combination of HT and masked stretch sometimes works great to keep stars small). Question is, have you played with AdaptiveStretch at all. In a post, Juan suggested it was a poorly understood and underused process. I have been playing with it a bit. I like the result except it seems to bloat the stars, requiring a second stretched image to blend.
Just curious.
Thanks,
Jim