25 replies to this topic

[tjc]

Hi all...

Just wondering if any of you know of good software that`ll resize images/photos up from their original size but retain the quality with no artifacts etc?

I do some photography (although haven`t done so for a while) but I have some old images I originally saved at low resolutions I`d like to try and resize up but keep them high quality. Unfortunately I no longer have the original images to re-edit.

I`ve been looking around but thought I`d ask here to see if anyone has any recommendations.

Cheers

tj

[fajanko]

Try Gimp.
https://www.gimp.org/

Lost pixels are lost.

Edited by fajanko, Oct 13 2020 - 07:38 AM.

[Stefan Roess]

PhotoFiltre 7 (freeware)
https://www.photofiltre-studio.com

There are language files in the download section for many languages.








==================================================

IrfanView (freeware)
https://www.irfanview.com/

Edited by Stefan Roess, Oct 13 2020 - 11:35 AM.

[tjc]

fajanko, on Oct 13 2020 - 07:38 AM, said:

Try Gimp.
https://www.gimp.org/

Lost pixels are lost.

I have Gimp & PS. Have tried to upsize with both of them. Both give ok results but yeh, could be better I think. Lost pixels are indeed, lost. Hoping there`s a software out there that will give better results though.

[tjc]

Thanks Stefan... I`ll check both of these out.

[jgf]

You can probably find free downloads of older versions of Paint Shop Pro (I still use V8.5, which I purchased 15 years ago and never replaced because I've found nothing I like better);  it gives numerous pixel options for resizing images.  And in any editor you will have better results doing all editing, including resizing, in bmp format, then convert to whatever format you need.

[ginetto]

You might try Perfect Resize.
I used it for a while (v. 7.5) and worked pretty good, better than PS CC; no miracles though.

[tjc]

jgf, on Oct 13 2020 - 03:37 PM, said:

You can probably find free downloads of older versions of Paint Shop Pro (I still use V8.5, which I purchased 15 years ago and never replaced because I've found nothing I like better);  it gives numerous pixel options for resizing images.  And in any editor you will have better results doing all editing, including resizing, in bmp format, then convert to whatever format you need.

Thanks jgf.

[tjc]

ginetto, on Oct 14 2020 - 03:44 AM, said:

You might try Perfect Resize.
I used it for a while (v. 7.5) and worked pretty good, better than PS CC; no miracles though.

Came across this when searching. Will see if I can download the free trial.

Cheers ginetto.

[ginetto]

IIRC the regular version had a 30 days trial period with all the tools working.

[tjc]

ginetto, on Oct 14 2020 - 06:40 AM, said:

IIRC the regular version had a 30 days trial period with all the tools working.

[leon_90]

I've got Faststone, which does lossless resizing too among other stuff

https://www.faststone.org/

[KARTM]

jgf, on Oct 13 2020 - 03:37 PM, said:

You can probably find free downloads of older versions of Paint Shop Pro (I still use V8.5, which I purchased 15 years ago and never replaced because I've found nothing I like better);  it gives numerous pixel options for resizing images.  And in any editor you will have better results doing all editing, including resizing, in bmp format, then convert to whatever format you need.

me too ,still  use PSP 7   for near 20 years , tried many  other editors , but always come back , first used it on win98 , and on win7  after and it still work fine now on win10

[Michkov]

I thought I posted in here yesterday, but alas I didn't seem to have.

It's not so much that lost pixels are lost, you never had them in the first place. When you blow up a picture to say 4x the size you have 3 pixels that need to be created out of the information the original pixels provide. You can see that with just the original image and just interpolation you are never going to get the desired details a bigger pictures warrants. Depending on the algorithm used you get less and less blocky pictures these days, but dont expect details to appear that havn't been in the original. All you going to get is artefacts.

[jgf]

Michkov, on Oct 14 2020 - 06:10 PM, said:

...Depending on the algorithm used you get less and less blocky pictures ...

That's why I like PSP, it gives several options for enlarging or reducing, with recommendations on which works best for different images, but often it's a matter of trying each to see which is best.  Also has numerous filters to help clean up an image (and can use Photoshop filters and plugins) either before or after resizing.

[tjc]

leon_90, on Oct 14 2020 - 01:24 PM, said:

I've got Faststone, which does lossless resizing too among other stuff

https://www.faststone.org/

Thanks leon. I`ve used FastStone in the past but only really for viewing images. Will check things out with the resizing.

Edited by tjc, Oct 15 2020 - 05:45 AM.

[tjc]

KARTM, on Oct 14 2020 - 02:12 PM, said:

me too ,still  use PSP 7   for near 20 years , tried many  other editors , but always come back , first used it on win98 , and on win7  after and it still work fine now on win10

Michkov, on Oct 14 2020 - 06:10 PM, said:

I thought I posted in here yesterday, but alas I didn't seem to have.

It's not so much that lost pixels are lost, you never had them in the first place. When you blow up a picture to say 4x the size you have 3 pixels that need to be created out of the information the original pixels provide. You can see that with just the original image and just interpolation you are never going to get the desired details a bigger pictures warrants. Depending on the algorithm used you get less and less blocky pictures these days, but dont expect details to appear that havn't been in the original. All you going to get is artefacts.

jgf, on Oct 15 2020 - 12:19 AM, said:

That's why I like PSP, it gives several options for enlarging or reducing, with recommendations on which works best for different images, but often it's a matter of trying each to see which is best.  Also has numerous filters to help clean up an image (and can use Photoshop filters and plugins) either before or after resizing.

Cheers for all the info guys.

[Michkov]

In all my confusion yesterday I forgot to mention, if you have the pictures or negatives at hand, scanning them at a higher resolution is the way to go.

Edited by Michkov, Oct 15 2020 - 02:24 PM.

[tjc]

Unfortunately I no longer have the original RAW files to work from or that`s exactly what I`d do.

Edited by tjc, Oct 15 2020 - 03:45 PM.

[one2fwee]

If you are just resizing images and are unhappy with results in GIMP, you won't be happy with paintshop pro either. They all use the same selection of algorythms under the hood. You can try between bilinear, cubic or lanczos. Personally i don't like the ringing artifacts of the latter 2, but they will make it sharper.

The problem is you have downscaled the images so it will always look bad, it's physically impossible to do what you want.

The nearest you'll get is using some AI upscale algorthym on the GPU that you train with similar images. I don't know anything about it but you can look.
You could use something like this:
https://github.com/xinntao/ESRGAN
https://www.reddit.c...srgan_tutorial/
https://upscale.wiki...ide_for_Windows

Some things it looks good with but others it doesn't, and it's not nearly as good as the hype on the internet would have you believe. It really depends what it is trained with i guess. But it tends to be too filtery and "SHARPEN MORE". It can look good sometimes though.

For example:
https://www.dododge....the-movies.html
https://www.reddit.c...parison_of_the/

To be honest most of the time, for old games etc i just prefer the original textures, maybe blended with a CRT filter, depending on the game.

But who knows, if you train it with a lot of similar photos to the photo you are trying to enlarge, maybe you will get something you are happy with.