Sometimes you need an image enlarger to enhance your images, not only the size but also quality. For example, when you save some online pictures on your mobile phone, it happens that the pictures you’ve saved are normally blurred and not in the original quality. If you plan to use them as wallpapers or something else, you have to enhance its quality at first. Then image enlargers play their roles.
Although there are many online photo enlargers on the market, and they are quite common and convenient, many of them only enlarge the image size and pixels instead of its quality. For example, you use a product to enlarge your photo from 600×400 pixels to 4000×3000 pixels, you may find some blurriness or pixelization in the output. Therefore, even though you get an enhanced image with a higher resolution, it can’t work at all.
Image enlargers that can enhance both size and quality are normally AI products. Combined with deep convolutional neural networks, the AI photo enlarger is able to achieve image enhancement without losing quality.
You are also welcome to read Image Upscalers Review to find out more desktop programs to enlarge images without losing quality.
Evaluation criteria of these products
- Interface & operation
- Supported resolutions
- Supported image formats
- Processing speed
- Output quality
- Cost performance
- Other related functions
Top 10 Image Enlargers 2020
The article doesn’t cover many online photo enlargers because most of them lose quality while enlarging regular images. Then desktop software and mobile apps will be the focus of this article. We’ll give an introduction to the functions, features, comments as well as prices of these products. Just read on and choose the one that suits you best.
1. Gigapixel AI
Price: $99.99
Compatibility: Mac & Windows
Speaking of output quality, this product is no doubt the best one. Combined with advanced processors and graphics, this AI photo enlarger is able to enlarge images by up to 600%. Through training and exposure to millions of test images, Gigapixel can do really very well in enlarging images while remaining the quality.
Unlike some other products, this AI image enlarger can actually add detail back to your upscaled photo. Instead of increasing edge contrast, Gigapixel increases the actual sharpness of your photo by recovering real detail in it.
As it’s known to all that faces in pictures are very difficult to upscale. Most image enlargers can deal with other photos well except portraits. However, with their automatic face refinement, Gigapixel AI can produce a more seamless enlargement of faces in your photos. If you have a high requirement for the output quality, choose this one and you’ll not regret it.
Pros:
- Scale up to 600%
- Very excellent output quality
- Applicable to portraits
Cons:
- Have a requirement for your system
- Quite expensive
2. Fotophire
Price: $29.99/year, $69.99/Lifetime
Compatibility: Windows
This photo maximizer zooms pictures up to 1000% without much pixelation and blurriness. It allows you to change the white equilibrium, saturation and many more in a quick way. Four styles are possible, including side-by-side, partition views, horizontal and vertical styles. The output quality is even able to be printed.
Besides, you are also allowed to edit your pictures in many ways, like removing or replacing the background, adding special effects, and applying filters.
Pros:
- After you download the software, there is a trial version
- A lot of other image editing features
- Select a preset size & resolution
Cons:
- Only Windows available
- All features are sold together
3. Adobe Photoshop CC
Price: Subscription plans start from $9.99 per month
Compatibility: Mac, Windows
Adobe Photoshop is quite a versatile and professional photo-editing tool. With this software, you can edit your photos in almost all possible ways. Add filters, use artist-designed templates, create layers, apply effects, and enhance pictures, it integrates almost all features that you can imagine.
If you only enhance your images and don’t want to spend much time learning the tool, this one is probably not for you.
Pros:
- Edit your photos like applying effects, filter and more
- The output quality is quite good
- Professional & versatile
Cons:
- Has a requirement for your hard disk space
- Quite complicated for beginners
4. A Sharper Scaling
Price: Free
Compatibility: Windows
This image enlarger is developed for Windows OS only. The free version is available but you may face issues of limitation of features. It supports to enlarge the photos up to 400% without losing much quality. With bicubic or bilinear interpolation, this software is able to produce some of the best quality enlargements among open source, freeware, image-editing programs.
To enhance your photos through more advanced settings, you can read the Photo Enhancers Review to enhance your photos in all aspects.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Do some tweaking and fine-tuning on your enlargements
Cons:
- Only applicable to Windows
- Not offer any preferences or options
- Not allow batch processing
5. PhotoZoom Pro 8
Price: € 159.00
Compatibility: Mac & Windows
With plenty of pre-defined settings to choose from, this image enlarger helps you enlarge your photos easily and quickly. It produces high-quality enlargements without distortion. Besides, it also supports to edit images in batch and saves you much time. This image enlarger can work as a plugin for Photoshop and other software if you like.
Pros:
- Easy to use for beginners with multiple preset settings
- Multiple types of processor support
Cons:
- No other editing features
- Quite expensive
6. STOIK Smart Resizer
Price: $49
Compatibility: Windows
Reduce or enlarge images up to 1000% without losing quality. With a new Super Resolution algorithm applied, this product maintains overall crispness, high level of details and straight, jaggy-free lines throughout the image.
It has some other editing features to enhance your photos all round, but it does not perform well in processing speed and batch resizing.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Other editing features include
- Edit photos in batch
Cons:
- Some functions don’t work properly
- Processing speed is too slow
7. GIMP
Price: Free
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, Linux & other various platforms
This freeware can produce enlarged images without too much quality loss. Since it is open-source, you can optimize the program if you’re a technical type. On its official website, there is much other free open source software available. If you’re interested in that, it is something you can’t miss.
Pros:
- Open-source free to download and use
- Available to many platforms
Cons:
- Not too easy to use for everyone
8. Reshade Image Enlarger
Price: Free
Compatibility: Windows XP or later
Easily enlarge photos and preview the results with this photo enlarger. This free image enlarger supports batch processing and some other editing functions, like cropping a photo. Before it enlarges your photo, you may select a resolution for the output photo or choose which area you want to enlarge. You can also easily focus on the blurred images and reduce photo defects and noise of the photos.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Batch processing
- Focus enables you to set the blurry photos
Cons:
- The output is not very good
9. ImgLarger
Price: Free & Paid (Premium $14.99/month, Pro $39.99/month)
Compatibility: Online & Windows & Mac & Android & iOS
With machine learning technology and GPU of the new generation, ImgLarger is able to quickly analyze and enhance the images you upload while preserving the quality. After your files have been processed through this online image enlarger, you are also allowed to share them with your social media via this site.
The free version limits files to 5M and 1200 x 1200. Max file size and resolution for paid users are 10M and 2000*2000 respectively.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Able to choose 2x/ 4x/ 8x scale-up
- JPG, JPEG, PNG
- A free version is available
Cons:
- No custom output resolution
- The output quality is not quite excellent on the whole
- Output resolution is not very high but already enough for most people
10. Bigjpg
Price: Free & Paid (basic: $6/2 months, Standard: $12/6months, Premium $22/year)
Compatibility: online & Windows & Mac & Android
With the neural network, this AI photo enlarger is capable of adjusting the images’ lines and color, and making the enlarging effect excellent. Besides, anime images and illustrations can be processed better than regular pictures.
There are some limits to the function, like less than 10MB, lower than 3000x3000px, and single-image processing. Paid users enjoy a faster and more stable processing speed. It supports a higher resolution and many more features.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- The free version is available
- Support API
- 3000x3000px
- JPG, JPEG, PNG
Cons:
- Processing speed is kind of slow
- The output has some visible blur
- Can’t choose the output resolution
Summary
If you have a high requirement for the output quality, then we recommend you Gigapixel AI. When you’re looking for a tool that can both enhance your images in quality and other aspects, such as applying filters and effects, then we recommend Fotophire and Photoshop (only professional users recommended).
On the condition that you don’t have a high expectation for the output quality and don’t want to spend much on it, we recommend you A Sharper Scaling and Reshade Image Enlarger.
If you don’t want to install any software or extension, then we recommend this online image enlarger ImgLarger.
Before you pay for any product, you’d better have a trial to test its functions and make sure it is the one that you need.
To enlarge anime images specifically, we recommend you Anime Image Enlargers to do that.
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