If I told you that there is a way of rescaling an image up to twice its size without being pixelated and loses visual quality in the process, you probably would not believe me, or assume that it is a rather complicated work that maybe only in Hands of an expert. But, that’s exactly what this tool does.
The best part is that you do not have to learn anything special or use a super complicated program. Really? I swear. It sounds like an offer too good to be true, but it is not. Waifu2x is a website from which you can improve the resolution of illustrations and photographs while reducing noise and avoiding artifacts.
If more than once you have a very small picture or illustration and you want to use it for a project that needs to be bigger, you should have noticed that simply stretching it in basic programs like Paint, or some more advanced like Gimp or Photoshop, does not give you the best results.
Here comes the magic of waifu2x, which has that name basically because the project was created with the purpose of increasing the resolution of anime / manga style digital art, although it works with photos as well. Waifu2x is an open source project, you can learn more about it from its GitHub page.
Its operation is extremely simple, all you have to do is paste the URL where the image you want to improve is located, or select the file from your computer. You have some limits: the maximum image size is 5 MB, the noise reduction will be efficient to a maximum of 3000×3000 pixels, and the increase of the resolution is applied in images up to 1500×1500.
Considering that the purpose of the tool is to increase the size, it is difficult to be a nuisance these limits, because you have a lot of room to maneuver. Once you have selected your image, you only have to mark if it is an illustration or a photograph , select the noise reduction level (default is medium and it is recommended), choose a level of resolution increase, and press the Download button. You do not have to believe me, just try and smile.