This free AI service upscales grainy photos into digital delights
This free AI service upscales grainy photos into digital delights
Upscale lets you say so long to old, low-res images.
BY JR Raphael
These fancy-schmancy phones of ours sure can take some phenomenal photos, but you know what? That incredible quality also highlights just how awful our older images are in comparison.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got tons of small-size, almost comically fuzzy old photos in my collection. And there’s not a heck of a lot the cutting-edge camera in my current phone can do to help ’em.
So what if there were a super-simple tool for sprucing up older images and bringing ’em into reasonably modern resolutions—while also making ’em crisper, clearer, and generally just better all around?
My fellow photo-finessing friend, have I got just the tool for you today.
Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of incredible tech treasures!
From old to new, in no time
’Twas a time when trying to take an image and make it both larger and higher in quality was a near-impossible feat. If you somehow managed to pull it off, it’d take tons of time and complex programs to master.
? Not anymore. An incredibly cool new tool called Upscale makes it easy as can be to—well, upscale any old photo you’ve got in front of you.
? You’ll only need about 10 seconds to do it, in fact:
- Just open the Upscale website and hit the button to sign in. You can either use your Google account or create a new account on the site with any email address you want.
- Once you’re signed in, hit the button to choose an image from your device. Or, if you’re using a computer, drag and drop an image directly from your desktop into the site.
- Upscale will take a few seconds to process and will then give you a sized-up, cleaned-up version of your image at twice its original resolution.
- You can then download the image, if you’d like—or you can click or tap a “Change resolution” option to switch to four or even eight times the original photo’s size.
And man, lemme tell ya: The results are something else. I’ve used the tool on a bunch of older images, including one of me dressed up as my namesake Ninja Turtle—as one does—many moons ago.
The image started out tiny and not exactly exceptional in quality, outside of the stunning splendor of the subject itself:
(Have I ever mentioned how much of an honor it is to have a warrior shellback named after me?)
After a couple of quick clicks on the Upscale site, the image transformed into something larger, less grainy, and generally just much more usable. Here’s the photo at four times its original size, with all the included enhancements:
Now, that’s one ravishing reptile.
- Upscale is available on the web on any device—phone, computer, tablet, you name it.
- It’s completely free to use, with a limit of a handful of upscales per email address per day.
- The tool comes from a company called Sticker Mule, which creates stickers and other printed products. It’s a reputable organization, and it doesn’t do anything disconcerting with your data. Creating an account will result in your getting a few emails about the company’s services—from which you can easily unsubscribe—and that’s it.
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