4 Ways to Make an Image Larger without Losing Quality

Have you ever wondered if enlarging your image will make it lose its quality, especially if the image is not a high-quality image originally? Well, you’re not alone. In image editing, the process of making an image larger is called “enlarging” or “upscaling”. In technical terms, it’s often referred to as “image scaling” where you are essentially increasing the dimensions of an image by resizing it to a larger size.

Enlarging an image while maintaining its quality can be challenging, as simply increasing its dimensions often leads to pixelation and blurriness. To avoid losing quality, various techniques and tools exist that one can use, each with its own benefits.

In this article, we’ll explore different effective ways you can enlarge an image without sacrificing quality, including using cloud-based solutions like Cloudinary and raster graphics editors like GIMP and Photoshop and AI-based tools.

In this article:

• Why Do You Need High-quality Images?
• Using Cloudinary to Make an Image Larger Without Losing Quality
• Upscaling with GIMP
• Upscaling with Photoshop
• Using AI tools

Why Do You Need High-quality Images?

There are several reasons you might need to resize an image while preserving its quality.

• For websites, apps, and digital platforms, high-quality images improve user experience. For instance, large images take up larger file size than smaller images. This means smaller images are faster to load and transmit, compared to larger images when page loading speed is crucial. This is also especially important in industries like e-commerce, where the time taken to load product images can influence buying decisions.
• For businesses and digital professionals, high-quality images contribute to a professional appearance, which boosts the credibility of a business and reputation of a digital professional.
• In print media (e.g., banners, posters, magazines), high-quality images are necessary to avoid pixelation and blurriness when images are scaled and printed at resolutions greater than their original sizes.
• In critically important fields like medical imaging and scientific research, high-quality images are critical for accuracy, as any loss of quality could lead to incorrect interpretations or missed details.
  

  Using Cloudinary to Make an Image Larger Without Losing Quality

  Cloudinary uses advanced machine learning models to analyze every pixel in the input image in relation to its neighboring pixels. Then, using the patterns it has learned, the AI predicts and generates new pixels to add in between, effectively increasing the image’s resolution while retaining its original details.

  The e_upscale transformation parameter can be used to programmatically upscale small images on the fly using any of the programming SKDs. The parameter uses AI-based prediction to add fine detail while upscaling small images, scaling an image’s dimension by four and multiplying the total number of pixels by 16.

  Integrating Cloudinary’s upscaling feature with super resolution in your applications is just a matter of simple API calls.

  Let’s take the following sample image with a 200 x 303px dimension:

  

  If you try to upscale this image to, say, four times its original size, you’re likely to end up with a distorted or blurry image with a great loss of detail. But using the e_upscale parameter, you can upscale the image as much as you want while retaining much of its original details.

  The simplest way to use the generative AI upscale effect is to add the e_upscale parameter to the image you want to upscale, assuming it has already been uploaded to your Cloudinary product environment.

  Here’s the upscaled version of the image with 4x the original size:

  https://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/e_upscale/docs/tall-hall.jpg

  

  Here’s the image upscaling implemented using Cloudinary’s Python SDK:

  import cloudinary
  import cloudinary.uploader
  import cloudinary.api
  
  # path to the image we want to upscale 
  img = 'tall-hall-small.jpg'
  
  cloudinary.config(
    cloud_name='<YOUR_CLOUD_NAME>',
    api_key='<YOUR_API_KEY>',
    api_secret='<YOUR_API_SECRET>'
  )
  
  def upscale():
      try:
          # Upload the image with eager transformations for upscaling
          upload_result = cloudinary.uploader.upload(
              img,
              public_id='tall-hall',
              eager=[
                  {"effect": "upscale"},
                  {"width": "4.0", "crop": "scale"}
              ]
          )
  
  
          # Generate a secure URL with the same transformations
          image_url = cloudinary.CloudinaryImage(upload_result["public_id"]).build_url(
              secure=True,
              transformation=[
                  {"effect": "upscale"},
                  {"width": "4.0", "crop": "scale"}
              ]
          )
  
  
          print("Upscaled image URL:", image_url)
  
      except Exception as e:
          print("Error uploading image:", e)
  
  upscale()

  To dive deeper, check out the upscale effect in the Cloudinary documentation. It’s comprehensive and includes several examples you can learn with.

  Upscaling with GIMP

  GIMP is a free cross-platform graphics image editor available for GNU/Linux, macOS, Windows and more operating systems. GIMP contains a variety of powerful image editing features which make it one of the best alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. The Scale Image command can be used in GIMP to enlarge the physical size of an image by changing the number of pixels it contains.

  You can access the command from the menu bar by going to Image > Scale Image:

  

  To change the image size, either some pixels have to be removed or new pixels must be added. Our original image has a 200 x 303 dimension, scaling it 4x means the new dimension will be 800 x 1212.

  

  The Interpolation drop down list provides a selection of available methods of interpolating the color of pixels in a scaled image. There are five interpolation methods available in GIMP, and you can read about the effect of each of them here.

  We’ll use the default Cubic interpolation method. It is considered to give the best quality, but usually takes longer processing time.

  If you compare the scaled image with the one processed using Cloudinary, the difference in quality is quite noticeable. While GIMP can upscale various types of images, its performance and accuracy heavily rely on the original image quality. Unlike Cloudinary, GIMP lacks the advanced super-resolution technology needed to upscale images with the same level of precision.

  Upscaling Using Photoshop

  Adobe Photoshop, commonly known as Photoshop, is a raster graphics editor for editing photos, creating graphics, and designing images. Photoshop was developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS operating systems. Unlike GIMP, Photoshop is proprietary software and is only available as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud plan, which requires a monthly or annual subscription to use.

  To upscale images without losing their quality in Photoshop, we can use the Preserve Details 2.0 upsampling algorithm. Upsampling is a type of resampling process in image editing which simply means increasing the number of pixels in an image.

  Steps to upscale an image with Photoshop

  1. Open the image you want to enlarge in Photoshop.
  2. Go to Image > Image Size.
  3. Make sure Resample is checked, and select Preserve Details 2.0 from the dropdown menu.
  4. Adjust the width and height to the new dimension you want to scale the image to.
  5. Click OK to apply the changes.

  Photoshop’s upscaling method uses artificial intelligence (AI) to preserve finer details during enlargement, making it produce more quality result when compared to the traditional methods like Cubic or Nearest Neighbor interpolation found in GIMP and other image editing tools.

  Using AI tools

  If you’re looking to perform a one-time image enlargement, AI-based tools could be a more efficient and faster option. These tools use advanced algorithms to upscale images while maintaining quality, often outperforming traditional methods in terms of speed and precision. They also simplify the process, requiring minimal manual adjustments, making them ideal for quick, high-quality results. Some of the most popular ones are listed below.

  Bigjpg

  Bigjpg is an online-based image enlarger that uses Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to reduce noise and serration in images. According to its website, bigjpg employs a special algorithm adjusted specifically for the images’ lines and color.

  Colors are well kept, and there is almost no ‘glitter’ or doubling visible. More importantly, the noise, which seriously influences quality, cannot be seen in the resulting images.

  

  Spyne Image Enlarger

  Spyne is an AI image editing platform with several image editing tools. Their image enlarger uses AI to enlarge image resolution, detail, and quality while preserving sharpness. The tool allows you to enlarge images up to 2x, 3x or 4x their original size. Note that using the tools requires sign-up. After you sign up, you’ll get 5 credits to use the tool and you can download the enlarged image in different formats, such as PNG, JPEG or WebP.

  

  Fotor Image Enlarger

  Fotor is an all-in-one, online-based photo editor designed for easy editing. Its AI image enlarger allows you to enlarge images up to 2x in the free version while still maintaining improved resolution and quality.

  However, there are a few limitations. You’ll need to sign up before using the tool, and downloading the enlarged images requires a subscription. Also, the free version includes frequent ads, which can be a bit distracting during the editing process.

  

  Wrapping up

  High-quality images play a crucial role in creating a positive impact across different areas. By understanding the principles of image resolution and utilizing the appropriate tools, you can effectively enlarge images without compromising quality.

  As we have seen, Cloudinary offers a scalable, automated solution for image processing through cloud-based APIs, making it a perfect solution if you’re looking for programmable upscaling in your applications.

  To start enjoying all these benefits today, simply sign up for a free Cloudinary account and explore everything Cloudinary has to offer.