Increasing image size (next-gen upscaling) for higher print quality

We've all heard the adage that there's no way to increase the detail of a given image, that blowing it up will just make it blurry, etc., and TBH that's been my experience up till now. But i stumbled onto a site called bigjpg.com which claims to be using neural networks to intelligently upscale images without losing clarity (I don’t think it actually uses the word detail). It claims to work best with anime/art, not with photos, but so far I’m mighty impressed by what I’ve seen. I don’t use photoshop or illustrator myself, but I’ve seen comments saying bigjpg is much, much better than either of those, and I believe it. It’s certainly better than anything else I have used, in fact it seems to be doing something completely different.

The site lets you do twenty or so upscales for free from your personal IP, at a max of 4x on a 3000x3000 input res picture. However, you can upscale something smaller than 1500x1500 by 2x, then re-input that image for further 4x enlargement. There are paid tiers for more images, higher upscaling and faster processing.

We have got to be able to use this to generate better arcade artwork from lower res examples. You want images to be at least 800x600 to begin with I reckon, before the upscaling works properly, but higher is still better. And even then not everything is perfect. I can't post the end results as pics, the file size is too large. Instead i'm linking to a zipfile of a before-and-after. This is the Black Tiger arcade flyer at the highest res i could find it online, and then the results of upscaling with the bigjpg site. This is going from 850x1200 to 6500x9400 or thereabouts (I think i must have cropped the final result for A1 ratio) with the noise-reduction set to high each time. The little screenshots in the lower corner end up a bit blurry, though probably ok to print at A1 if people don't stick their faces up to it. But the dragon and the hero comprising the main image, and the big logo over the top, seriously look like they were drawn at the upscaled resolution to begin with.

https://my.mixtape.moe/ychnfp.zip

Sometimes it will blow up or create small artifacts, but these can be scrubbed with paint.net or a simple editing program if you're worried. I did a few test prints of other images at A1 on crappy 80gsm plain paper roll with help from a friend, and the image res is exactly as clear as it looks. I’m now going to slip these images to a poster printing place a few at a time as cashflow permits :)

EDIT: lineart, that's the term I keep forgetting to use. Bigjpg.com claims to be good for lineart, which probably means waifu2x is as well.

EDIT2: all done, the prints look fricking amazing. Even the little screenshots on the upscaled Black Tiger flyer are perfect from two feet away. Can recommend posterfactory.com.au as being super cheap and great quality.

Awesome info, thanks Buttersoft ☺

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Aussie Arcade mobile app

Fractal image enhancement is good for natural images too.

I remember using some fractal enhancement software late 1990 or early 2000's.

It much have been Genuine Fractals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine_Fractals

It's now known as ON1 Resize. https://www.on1.com/products/resize/

It's pay for software, Though it's not that expensive.

Any mention of Zoom and enhance always reminds me of Red dwarf making fun of CSI shows:

Fractal image enhancement is good for natural images too.

It's now known as ON1 Resize. https://www.on1.com/products/resize/

It's pay for software, Though it's not that expensive.

I dunno, i consider $60 an investment these days :) And i find it interesting there's lots of nice design on their website, and some nice pretty pictures, but no real examples or samples of what the software does and no free trial for that product. The former seems to be the case for a lot of this kind of software, now i go looking. There is nothing like that zipfile i put in the OP, and that makes me nervous. Then again, that's upscaling on illustration, not photos, so it's a different field.

I think the bigjpg site is based on waifu2x, but it's interesting to see the tech getting better anyway! Most of the free sites i found online were just doing filter-based interpolation upscaling, which remains the same garbage it always was.

Thanks for the link, always handy. I've used some of these programs over the years with varying results. I use mainly an old version of "Photozoom" (https://www.benvista.com/photozoompro), which does a similar process to that website, however you can tweak all the settings for edge enhancement, blur etc...

Nothing will ever match having a good high res version of the original art, but these programs can help a lot and are sometimes good enough if you can't find any alternative.

I dunno, i consider $60 an investment these days :) And i find it interesting there's lots of nice design on their website, and some nice pretty pictures, but no real examples or samples of what the software does and no free trial for that product. The former seems to be the case for a lot of this kind of software, now i go looking. There is nothing like that zipfile i put in the OP, and that makes me nervous. Then again, that's upscaling on illustration, not photos, so it's a different field.

 

I think the bigjpg site is based on waifu2x, but it's interesting to see the tech getting better anyway! Most of the free sites i found online were just doing filter-based interpolation upscaling, which remains the same garbage it always was.

I'm sure there are free alternatives that do the same thing. But it's no magic trick - You can only get so much out of this sort of software.

Yes - When searching this sort of software - There's a lot of chaff and snake oil.

You can only get so much out of this sort of software.

But that's what i'm trying to say is different now. It may only be for lineart like comic art or anime, but i've tried it with a few good images at about 1000x1600 and the way it keeps the inking intact and clean means you could just keep blowing it up bigger and bigger. It seems to be good for any high-contrast or distinct-colour transitions - hence my saying the main elements of the Black Tiger poster in my link genuinely look like they were drawn at that 8x higher res.

EDIT: i should apologise for the tone, not trying to get into a blue. Having played around a bit i was just surprised at how good this tool was for lineart. It's not adding detail so much as keeping the definition of the original brushstrokes or penwork even when blown up umpteen times. I hadn't seen that before, but maybe it's available elsewhere.

But that's what i'm trying to say is different now. It may only be for lineart like comic art or anime, but i've tried it with a few good images at about 1000x1600 and the way it keeps the inking intact and clean means you could just keep blowing it up bigger and bigger. It seems to be good for any high-contrast or distinct-colour transitions - hence my saying the main elements of the Black Tiger poster in my link genuinely look like they were drawn at that 8x higher res.

 

EDIT: i should apologise for the tone, not trying to get into a blue. Having played around a bit i was just surprised at how good this tool was for lineart. It's not adding detail so much as keeping the definition of the original brushstrokes or penwork even when blown up umpteen times. I hadn't seen that before, but maybe it's available elsewhere.

Stumbled upon this,

May be worth seeing how well it works. Free but Windows only.

http://a-sharper-scaling.com/