How to upscale photos on a Mac

Tool prices checked on the vendors' own pages on November 9, 2026. Local Upscale Studio is in development.

There are two ways to make a photo bigger on a Mac. You can resize it, which every Mac can do for free in Preview, or you can upscale it with AI, which predicts the detail a larger photo would have. Resizing is honest but soft. AI upscaling looks much sharper, but some of what you see is a guess. This guide covers both, and how to choose.

Resize in Preview (free, no AI)

1. Open the photo in Preview.
2. Choose Tools > Adjust Size.
3. Make sure "Scale proportionally" and "Resample image" are both ticked.
4. Choose "percent" next to Width and Height and enter, for example, 200.
5. Click OK, then use File > Export to save a copy, so the original stays as it was.

Preview fills the new pixels by blending the ones next to them. No detail is added, so a big enlargement looks blurry. It's fine for a small step up, or when the photo is already sharp and you only need more pixels for a layout.

Upscale with AI

An AI upscaler is a model trained on pairs of small and large images. Given your photo, it predicts what a larger, sharper version would look like: crisp edges, hair, fabric texture, skin. The result can look far better than a resize. It can also be wrong in ways you need to check:

• Faces can change. On small or blurry faces the model may invent eyes, teeth or wrinkles that weren't there. Check people you know.
• Text and patterns can turn into nonsense. Small lettering, signs and fine repeated patterns are hard to guess.
• Damage can be sharpened. JPEG blocks, scratches and dust can come out as crisp texture rather than disappearing.
• It is not a record. Don't use an upscaled photo as evidence of what something looked like, or to read details such as number plates.

2× or 4×?

Work back from what you need, then use the smallest step that gets you there. The bigger the step, the more of the result is invented.

• For a print, multiply the print size in inches by 300 to get the pixels you want. A 6×4 inch print needs about 1800×1200 pixels; a 10×8 needs about 3000×2400.
• For a screen, match the display. A photo shown full screen on a 4K TV needs 3840 pixels across.
• 2× doubles the width and height (four times the pixels). It is the safe default for most photos.
• 4× is for small images, such as a 600-pixel picture saved from a website or an early phone, where 2× still isn't big enough. Check faces and text closely.

Upscale once, from the original, to the size you need. Upscaling an already upscaled copy adds guesses on top of guesses.

Old prints and scans

• Scan at a higher resolution first. If you still have the print, a scan at 600 dpi usually holds more real detail than an upscaled 300 dpi scan. Rescanning beats upscaling.
• Clean the glass and the print. Dust becomes sharp specks after upscaling.
• Crop and straighten before upscaling, so the model works only on the picture.
• Expect faces to need the most care. Old family photos are where AI models most often invent features. Compare side by side with the scan.

Small images from the web

• Look for a larger original first. A reverse image search often finds one.
• Expect compression damage. Small web JPEGs have blocky artefacts that some models mistake for texture.
• Check you can use it. Upscaling someone else's photo doesn't change who owns it.

Tools compared

Prices are in US dollars, before tax, as charged on November 9, 2026. Vendors change prices often; check before you buy. Studio's row describes what is being built. For more on the paid options, see alternatives to Topaz Gigapixel.

Which to use

• A small step up, or a sharp photo: Preview.
• Trying AI upscaling for free: Upscayl. Start here.
• You already pay for Adobe: Lightroom's Super Resolution, for a 2× step.
• You want an editor too: Pixelmator Pro.
• Professional work every week: Topaz Gigapixel has the most models and plugins, at a yearly cost.

Where Studio fits

Studio is a pay-once Mac app for photos and video. For photos, Fast mode uses Real-ESRGAN and runs on every Apple silicon Mac. Quality mode uses SeedVR2, a newer open model, for the photos where detail matters most, such as old portraits. A short test on first launch picks the model your Mac can run well, and you can override it. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account.

The app isn't finished, but you can see early results on a 1942 portrait, with speeds measured on our development Mac. If you also have old tapes to digitise, see how to upscale old home videos on a Mac. Coming from Topaz? See how Studio compares.

Questions

Will upscaling make a blurry photo sharp? Partly. AI models can sharpen mild blur and make edges crisp, but a badly out-of-focus or shaken photo has lost the detail, and the model will invent it. Treat the result as a cleaned-up version, not a recovered one.

Is it better to save as JPEG or PNG? Save as PNG or TIFF if you will edit the photo further, so it isn't compressed twice. Use high-quality JPEG or HEIC for sharing.

Why does my upscaled photo look painted? The model has smoothed fine texture, often skin, into flat areas. Try a gentler model or setting, or a smaller enlargement.

Does upscaling increase the DPI? DPI is only a print setting. What matters is the number of pixels. Upscaling adds pixels; you then choose the DPI when you print.

Sources

• Preview: Apple Preview User Guide, "Resize, rotate or flip an image"
• Upscayl: github.com/upscayl/upscayl, Mac App Store listing
• Pixelmator Pro: Mac App Store listing; Apple Creator Studio
• Adobe Super Resolution and Lightroom plans: adobe.com Super Resolution
• Aiarty Image Enhancer: aiarty.com/store.htm, product page
• Topaz Gigapixel: topazlabs.com/gigapixel, system requirements

Mac, Preview, Photos and Pixelmator Pro are trademarks of Apple Inc. Adobe and Lightroom are trademarks of Adobe. Topaz Labs and Gigapixel are trademarks of Topaz Labs. All other names are trademarks of their owners. Local Upscale Studio is not affiliated with any of them.