Enlarge the image size in Photoshop. Methods for enlarging images in Photoshop

Have you ever tried resizing an image to make it bigger? This usually results in a loss of quality in most cases, where the enlarged image looks blurry and unprofessional.

Recently, one of our users asked us how to change an image when it is initially small, turning it into a large one without losing quality?

Why do enlarged images lose quality?

Bitmap is the most commonly used image format on the Internet. All png and jpeg files belong to bitmap images. It is made up of thousands of pixels. When zoomed in, we can see them in the form of squares.

Each of these points is strictly fixed in its place in the figure. Most image editing software aims to reduce the size of an image. Therefore, the loss of quality is not conspicuous, as these pixels have become even less visible.

On the other hand, when you want to increase the size of the image, the enlarged pixels become very noticeable, as a result the picture looks uneven and blurry. As in this example:

Is there a solution?

There is a solution and it consists in compensating each enlarged pixel, so that it corresponds to its closest one. This method is called such a terrible word as fractal interpolation or simply fractals. It produces the best effect if you want to enlarge a small image with it without losing quality.

We will use it for editing in such a popular program as Photoshop.

Method 1: Using Perfect Resize with Adobe Photoshop

It is a program that allows you to resize images very quickly and easily. It is available as an add-on to the Photoshop program.

The regular version costs $ 50, while the premium version that contains the Photoshop plugin is $ 150. Both of these versions are available for a 30 day free trial. If you are going to resize images on a regular basis, then we recommend that you turn to Perfect Resize for help. It is expensive, but it is high quality and professional if you want to increase the size of an image without losing quality.

Again, Perfect Resize is a Photoshop add-on.

Open Adobe Photoshop and the image that we want to redefine from small to large. To do this, go to File -> Automate and select Perfect Size

This will open the image in a separate application window. You can choose a set of presets (preset) which is located on the left or choose your size in the window "Document Size"

After entering the value for the image, you must save the changes and apply them in the Photoshop file. Go to File -> Apply.

You can now export this file by saving it as a web document.

That's all. Now our resized image will look good enough than at normal magnification.

Method 2: Using the Free Gimp Program

It is a free alternative to Photoshop. It also does image resizing with minimal loss of quality. But it is somewhat inferior to perfect size in terms of functionality.

So let's see how to change an image from small to large using the Gimp.

Open the picture that we are going to enlarge in the Gimp. Just go to File -> Scale Image.

Enter the desired dimensions for the picture. In the Quality section, select SINC (Lanczos3) as the interpolation method and click on the Scale image button.

That's all! Now you can export your image to the internet. Below is an example made using photoshop (left) and gimp (right). At first glance, it is very difficult to tell the difference.

Method 3: Enlarging an image with Irfanview

Irfanview is a compact photo editing program available for Windows users. It is very easy to work with increasing the size of the image.

All you need to do is open the image and click on Image -> Resize Resample

A dialog box will immediately appear in which you can choose your own size and method of enlarging the image and be sure to check the “Apply Sharpen After Resample” box, which means apply sharpness to the picture.

The image will be modified, save the results to your computer.

As you may have noticed, the free options aren't particularly impressive at making enlarged images in good quality, but you can change the sharpness and contrast to minimize the loss of quality.

Many designers use Adobe Photoshop for image processing. Thanks to this program, you can enlarge and reduce images. At the same time, if you reduce a large picture, its quality will remain unchanged. But in the case of enlarging the image, the quality of the photo will be subject to some distortion. In order to increase the size of a photo in Photoshop and not lose its quality, you need to know a few nuances, as well as understand the tools of the Adobe Photoshop program.

How to enlarge an image

Often the user needs to increase not the size of the picture, but simply change the scale of the image. This is most often done in order to make it easier to handle small details or specific areas of the image. The Zoom Tools are ideal for this. You can also use this tool using hot keys. It is enough to hold down simultaneously Ctrl and + or Ctrl and - to increase or decrease the scale, respectively. Also, the Loupe tool is called by pressing the Alt key, after which the scaling is performed with the mouse.

But there are times when users do not know how to enlarge a photo in Photoshop, that is, the size of the photo itself. For this it is recommended to use the Free Transform tool, which is located in the Edit menu. Hot keys are also provided for it. To call this tool, you need to press the key combination Ctrl and T. After that, special nodes appear around the image, pulling on which, you can freely transform the image in different directions. In this case, if you hold down the Shift key, the image will be transformed proportionally.

Alternative ways

There are several more ways to enlarge a photo in Photoshop, which allow you to change the height and width of the image. For this in the menu "Image" (Images) there is a special tool "Image Size" (Image Size). In the special fields of height and width, you can set your own value, which is located in the pixel array section. Here you can also select the item Constrain Proportions, which allows you to proportionally increase the size of the picture.

It is worth remembering that when the image is enlarged by 100% in one step, the distortions of the file will be more noticeable than when the image is gradually enlarged, for example, by 10%. Based on this, we can conclude that a small increase in several steps is more appropriate than one large increase. In order to change pixels to percentages, switch the value to Percent in the Document Size section.

Improving image quality

Obviously, when the image is changed, all kinds of distortions will occur in the form of digital noise, blurring of some areas, and other unpleasant consequences. To avoid this, it is recommended that you sharpen the image after the photo resizing has been applied. Then you can duplicate the layer with the Color Contrast filter and use Overlay as the layer's blending method. Don't forget about the transparency of the layers. By experimenting with this function, you can achieve high image quality.

How often, when looking at photos on a computer, we threw out cool frames because they turned out to be too small in size and of poor quality. But with the help of special programs, almost any image can be saved!

Improving image quality is a very voluminous topic. To improve the quality of photos in Photoshop, you can apply color correction, sharpening, retouching and many other operations. All of them require certain skills and possession of special techniques.

But there are also less complicated methods when you just need to enlarge the image without losing quality. Below we will look at an example of how to improve the quality of a photo if you need to enlarge a photo without losing quality.

How to enlarge a photo without losing quality

Everyone has come across a small, low quality image. In such images, at magnification, the pixels are strongly visible, the points from which the raster image is built.

Enlarging the image by stretching it free transforming will only worsen the situation.

For this tutorial, you will be working in Photoshop CC 2017. But first, we'll look at the method for other, older versions of Photoshop. And then we'll show you how Photoshop CC 2017 can do the whole procedure automatically.

Open up the image in Photoshop. Now we will gradually increase it in several passes. It should be noted right away that you can enlarge the photo and raise the quality, but with a limitation in size.

Press the keyboard shortcut Alt + Ctrl + I... We will open a window "Image size"... It is necessary that between Width and Height a paperclip was pressed. Then the width and height will change proportionally.

Enlarge the image twice, 20% each time. To do this, in the drop-down list opposite "Widths" change pixels to percentages (Pixel / Percent), and the numerical value from 100% to 120% and click Ok... Then we call the image size window again ( Alt + Ctrl + I) and increase by 20%.

We have increased the image size from 950x632 pixels to 1368x910 pixels.

For a visual comparison, let's approximate the original image (950x632 pixels) and the resulting one (1368x910 pixels).

We enlarged the image by almost one and a half times and even improved the quality. As you can see, pixelation is less noticeable if you zoom in on the image.

It remains to refine the result. Apply a filter "Smart Sharpen" to the resulting image.

We go in: Filters / Sharpen / Smart Sharpen... Moving the sliders, we select the appropriate sharpness. If you click and hold the left mouse button on the image in the small preview window, you can see the picture before applying the effect. The difference is palpable. Especially noticeable is the smooth color transition (without cubes) on the lenses of the glasses. We have completely removed the noise by moving the slider all the way to the right. The radius of sharpness was taken at 0.3 pixels, the effect was applied at 79%.

Let's compare the results again.

Left - the original image, in the center - after enlarging the size, on the right - with the "Smart Sharpness".

After application "Smart Sharpness" the noise in the photo is gone, the image is clearer.

Here is our result.

Now let's enlarge the photo and improve its quality using automatic tools in Photoshop 2017.

Open the image in Photoshop, press the keyboard shortcut Alt + Ctrl + I... We will open a window Image Size... Pay attention to the point "Fit To" / Dimensions... Expand this list. In it you will see presets for image enlargement / reduction without loss of quality. Let's use automatic selection (the second item in the list). In the window that opens, select the item "Good" and press Ok... It is not worth choosing the best, because the original image is of too low quality, and there is no point in enlarging it so much.

Please note that if we managed to select to enlarge the image from 950x632 pixels and a resolution of 96 pixels / inch to 1368x910 pixels with the same resolution, then the program increased to 1969x1310 pixels with a resolution of 199 pixels / inch.

Let's apply Smart Sharpness.

Now you yourself are convinced that you can enlarge a picture without losing quality, and even improve the quality of a photo.

It should be noted that this method can be useful not only for enlarging and improving small photos. For example, you need to provide a photo for an Internet resource or for printing in a publishing house. At the same time, your photo is of excellent quality and large size, but the publishing house needs an even larger size. By applying the described method of enlarging the picture and improving its quality, you will get excellent results. After all, photos of large sizes with good quality will go through this procedure much easier.

The procedure is extremely simple. Don't give up on small pictures. Give them a second chance.

To make an unforgettable photo yourself and to please your loved ones, you definitely need a good camera. Regardless of whether you want to become a professional photographer or a designer, the problem of choosing a camera is always very acute. There are more than enough options on the market: and compare, starting from your budget and needs.

To obtain a high-quality photograph, in most cases, post-processing is required. In this article, you will learn how to increase the size of a photo using the crop tool in Photoshop to make it look more professional.

The crop tool in Photoshop is usually used to crop out unwanted parts of an image.

A little-known function of the crop tool is that it can also be used to add white space around an image, called a mat.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to add white space around a photo by increasing its size using the crop tool.

So, here is the original image.

Launched Photoshop, opened the image, let's go!

Step 1: convert the background to a regular layer

If we look in the Layers panel, we see a thumbnail image as a background layer, which is currently the only one in our document.

Before we enlarge the canvas by adding more space around the image, the first thing we need to do is convert the background layer to a regular layer. The reason is that we want the extra space to appear on a separate layer. But Photoshop won't let us place the layers below the background layer. The simplest solution is to simply convert the background layer to a regular layer. To do this in Photoshop CC, all we have to do is click on the little lock icon to the right of the background layer name:

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Click on the lock icon for the background layer.

In CS6 and earlier, hold down the Alt (Win) / Option (Mac) and click on the layer name.

The background layer is instantly converted to a regular layer and renamed to "Layer 0":

Step 2: select the Crop Tool

Now, let's find out how to add extra space around the image. Select the crop tool from the toolbar on the left side of the screen. You can also select the crop tool by pressing on your keyboard C key:

With the crop tool selected, Photoshop denotes the crop boundaries. By default, they are at the top, bottom, left and right borders of the sides, and at the corners. We'll use these handles to resize the border of the image, adding extra space to the canvas:

These markers are circled in red around the image.

Step 3: Drag the sizing handles to the borders of the image

To add extra space around the image, all we need to do is click on the handles and drag them outward.

For example, we want to add space to the right of the photo, click on the right handle and move it to the right, further away from the image:

By dragging the right handle to the right.

When we release the mouse button, Photoshop will add extra space and fill it with transparency. A checkerboard pattern in Photoshop denotes transparency, that is, white space.

Photoshop adds white space to the right of the image. Similarly, you can add space around the rest of the image. Let's just do it differently using the keys.

But first, let's undo what we did and restore the original borders of the image. To do this, press the Cancel button on the options bar or press the ESC key:

To add extra space on the left side of the photo, click on the left handle and drag it to the left. Or, to add an equal amount of space on both sides of the image at the same time, press and hold Alt(Win) / Option(Mac) as you click and drag the left or right handle. This will change the border of the crop from its center, resulting in the handle on the opposite side to move simultaneously in the opposite direction:

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Adding extra space for both sides by holding down the key option Alt(Win) / Option(Mac) how do i drag.

Equal padding has been added to both sides.

We can also add extra space above and below the image. To add space above it, click and drag the top handle up. To add space below it, click and drag the Bottom Handle down.

Or, to add an equal amount of space above and below the image at the same time, press and hold the keys again Alt(Win) / Option(Mac) on your keyboard as you drag the Top or Bottom marker. The opposite handle will move with it, in the opposite direction:

Release the mouse button, then Alt(Win) / Option(Mac), and you end up with equal white space above and below the image. Again, make sure you release the mouse button first and then the key, or it won't work:

With the help of Photoshop, it is easy to reduce or increase the size of an image. Moreover, this can be done in different ways, depending on what result you are striving for.

Before proceeding with the consideration of methods, first a little theory.

First, what is an image downsizing or upscaling? First of all, this concept should be understood as a decrease / increase in the resolution of a picture, that is, its length and width and, accordingly, the number of pixels that make up any raster image. ...

Second, what happens to the quality of a picture after resizing it?

• In the process of decreasing, there is a loss of pixels, but the quality in general does not suffer, it remains quite clear.
• In the process of increasing, Photoshop stretches the pixels and draws them in accordance with its algorithm. Therefore, the picture quality always suffers when enlarging. The higher the magnification, the more clearly the irreversible loss of quality is seen.

A similar question was covered in the tutorial related to layer resizing.

An illustrative example of how the image quality changes:

In this article, we will look at 4 ways to change the size of a picture in Photoshop and analyze the cases when and in what way it is best to use.

Method 1 - Image Size Dialog Box

This is the classic and most versatile way. It is suitable in most cases, especially when you already know to what size you should reduce and increase the size of the picture.

Open the image in Photoshop.

Open a dialog box Image - Image size(or the key combination - Alt + Ctrl + I). A window like this will appear:

Pay attention to the fields right away Width and Height... The values ​​that will be indicated there are the current dimensions of the image. By default, they are measured in pixels.

If you initially know to what size you need to change the image, then enter these values ​​in the above fields.

Proportions

If there is no check mark in the window settings Maintain proportions, you can enter any values ​​in the length and width fields. But you run the risk that the picture will turn out to be stretched vertically or horizontally. It is very easy to make a mistake and choose the wrong proportions.

Example without preserving aspect ratio

Aspect Ratio Example

Method 2 - Resize with Transform

Image transformation is a cool way to add to your Photoshop knowledge base. This method is good in two cases:

• reduce or increase the size of the entire image;
• reduce or enlarge the inserted picture in Photoshop.

The size is more detailed each case.

How to reduce or increase the size of the entire image

Step 1

Open the picture. Select a team Editing - Free Transform or press the key combination Ctrl + T.

Note

If this command is not active (grayed out), then your background layer is locked to change. This is signaled by the lock icon directly on the layer.

To unlock the background layer, double click on it. A window will appear New layer, Press OK.

Step 2

A frame appears around the image. There are markers in the corners and on each side that you need to drag to zoom out or vice versa to enlarge the image.

After resizing, click on the checkmark at the top of the options bar. There is a bug in Photoshop CS6, and this checkbox is not visible. If you also do not see it, then press the Enter button to accept the changes or Esc to cancel.

Step 3.1 Magnification case

If you enlarged the picture in this way, then, as you can see, part of it has become hidden, it does not seem to fit into the size in which it was opened. On the one hand, this is not bad either, and in some cases it can also be used.

But if you insist that the image be shown in full, select the command Image - Show All.

Step 3.2 Reducing case

When you zoom out, you will see a checkerboard background. This is emptiness, transparency. When you save the image, it will disappear. But it will be correct to cut off the void in order to ultimately see what the final size of the picture is.

To cut off the void, choose Image - Trimming.

In order not to disturb the proportions of the image in this method, when you drag on the frame handles, simultaneously hold down the key Shift.

How to reduce or enlarge an inserted picture in Photoshop

In any case, take the case described above into service. Namely, the ability to use the command Free transformation(Ctrl + T). This technique is needed to carry out such a frequently occurring operation, as a decrease or increase in an inserted picture, object, object(call it what you want).

So a familiar situation: you inserted another picture to your main image in Photoshop, but it did not fit in size.

Select this picture and use the transform command. Now, as described above, pull the markers in the desired direction.

Method 3 - Canvas size

Not the most popular way, but nevertheless, we will also consider it - the command.

A feature of this method is that we change the size of the image resolution, while the picture itself does not change in any way. Photoshop simply cuts off part of the image (if we are talking about a reduction), or adds a background color (if it is an increase).

That is, let's say your picture is 700x700 pixels. Across Image - Canvas Size you set the size to 500x500. As a result, Photoshop cuts off the extra 200 pixels in height and width. In the settings, you can specify where it cuts from: it is either evenly from all sides, or you can select a specific side.

How to reduce image size without losing quality

We've covered 4 ways to reduce the size of an image. Of these, two methods: Canvas Size and Cropping are not related to loss of quality. In fact (width and height) the images become smaller, but the content itself remains at the same scale. To achieve this, you need to sacrifice part of the picture, in other words, just crop it to the desired size. For more details on how to do this, see the text above.

How to reduce a cropped image in Photoshop

In order to reduce the size of the cut object in Photoshop, you need to be able to: cut out objects, manipulate the cut area (including its reduction).

Read about how to cut objects in other articles. Let's dwell on reduction in more detail.

In this situation, knowledge of how to use the command will also come in handy. Free transformation.

When the object is cut, you need to form around it. After that, apply a transformation and, according to the instructions above, drag the markers towards the reduction of this object.

In any case, when reducing the cut out fragment in the vacant space, Photoshop will automatically add a background color. Therefore, if you have a simple case, then take care first and choose the same background color that surrounds the object to be reduced. To do this, get a color swatch using and.

If you spot an error in the text, select it and press Ctrl + Enter. Thanks!