Enlarging images without pixelation

[ravel]

Hi,

I have an image I want to enlarge a jpeg to life size without it pixelating. Can I use some kind of interpolation or vectorization of the image which will allow me to enlarge the image without turning pixels into postage stamps?

Thanks,
Tim

[Hoogo]

The quality of the result will depend on the picture and the scaling factor.

Upscaling seems to be a wide field for magic, there are lots of tools with lots of ideas around that all create "better" results, but always very depending on the picture.

If the picture is comic style or otherwise graphical, then converting to vector is a really good approach. But first you have to reduce colors and remove blends, and after converting you will still need quite some work to clean up jaggies and create new blends.

If the picture is more photographic like trees, people or otherwise natural structured, then the build in algorithms for rescaling a layer will work nicely.

If the picture is in between graphical and natural, like glossy motorcycles in front of a white background, other clean technical stuff, then the algorithms of other tools could create nicer results with sharper edges. If you are running on windows, you could try "Smilla enlarger" or "Image Analyzer" with a fractal plugin. But these algorithms will easily look like water paint or too strong denoising.

But the results for photographic pictures depend on the scaling factor, and that depends on the number of present pixels, the desired size in inch/cm and the distance from which you look at the picture. Here you have to tell more about your case.