Photoshop

CS5 | Upscaling: enlarge your images the right way

We all have been there; sometimes a client gives us an image he/she wants to use for a printed material but the image is at 72 dpis for web and it is the only image he/she has. Normally this is a disaster and you would need some antacids. But with a careful upscalling you can increase the size of the image and use it even for printed material. When you make an image larger you have to contend with the problem of inventing extra information that isnt present at the original. Photoshop uses a method of interpolating pixels. The problem is that interpolating tends to produce results that are fuzzy and blurry. You cant put data that wasnt in the original.
Sample Image: this image is 300 x 200 pixels at 72 dpis.

Step 1. 105% Increases

a) Select image size: image > Image Size b) Multiply the width for 105%. In this case the result is 315. c) Select Resample image: Bicubic Smoother

Step 2 Repeat the process

Repeat this process several times until obtaining the desire size. You can create a simple Photoshop action to perform this task. I repeated the process several times until my image was 800-pixel width. By repeating many small enlargements you retain much of the crispness.

Step 3 Surface Blur

Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Set it to 7 radius and 7 threshold.

Step 4 Smart Sharpen

Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Set the amount to 100% and play with the radius to obtain the desire result.

Here you can se a comparison of and image scaled directly to 800 pixels and the other with 105% increments.
800 pixels directly

105 % increases

In spite of the hard edges of the calculator we have a very good result. It works better in smooth surfaces as skin.