What Is Upscaling?
Upscaling simply means increasing the size of an image or video.
Upscaling involves adding missingpixelsto an image, and the technique itself is nothing new.
Black_Kira/Shutterstock.com
Older upscaling techniques simply involve “stretching” the image by duplicating pixels, or usingdithering.
Modern techniques use artificial intelligence (AI) to add a superior level of detail.
These techniques have come a long way, but they’re still far from perfect.
Matching the upscaling technique to the source image or video can drastically alter results.
you might use AI upscaling tools that run both locally on your system or run in the cloud.
Upscayl gives some of the paid options on this list a run for their money.
The app can also remove blocky compression artifacts which are often present on heavily compressed images.
There’s no cloud component to this one, the app runs natively on Windows or Mac computers.
You’ll then be able to download your image.
Alternatively, you candownload the waifu2x tool from GitHuband use it via the command line.
Also available isWaifu2X.io, which is unrelated to the original project but offers up to 10x upscaling.
These additional enhancements removeartifacts, balancesharpness, and attempt to maintain a natural look.
The service is powered byPixelBin.io, a separate service that allows you to upscale images in bulk.
The premium service gives you access to background erase tools, supersampling tools, and a watermark remover too.
Video2X(Free)
Video2X is a great place to start upscaling videos.
The app can produce 4K or 8K videos by intelligently optimizing source files and carrying enhancements over between frames.
There are various improvements available, including super-resolution which can upscale video up to 8K resolution.
If you go this route, you’ll pay per gigapixel.
you might work out a rough price using thePixop Pricingpage.
It’s expensive, but it could be cost-effective if you only want to perform a small job.
waifu2x Videois a macOS-native solution that leans on waifu2x for a solution that mostly favors animated video upscaling.
