Enlarging images has stopped being a nightmare of artifacts and spontaneous errors. Thanks to the intervention of new AI-based algorithms, the process of “inventing pixels” now delivers very convincing results, especially when it comes to illustrations or specific styles like anime. Real-ESRGAN-GUI is one of the best applications we have found for this task, integrating six different models under a very intuitive interface.
Enlarging an image can be a total success or a complete disaster. For example, the “nearest neighbor” option is the most common and fastest, but it becomes very powerful when processing images with specific sizes (say, exact percentages like going from 100 to 200 percent). The problem is that many users try to use it in every situation, ruining the final image.
That's when alternative algorithms come in, much more robust depending on the type of content. Initially, it wasn't so easy to use them, but with the appearance of new developments, we can now activate them easily in a couple of clicks. One of those developments is Real-ESRGAN-GUI created by “tsukumijima” on GitHub.
How to Enlarge an Image with Real-ESRGAN-GUI
Don't let the Japanese language on the GitHub profile scare you: Real-ESRGAN-GUI works portably and switches to English when we first run it. Its interface is divided into two tabs, Real-ESRGAN and Real-CUGAN. The comparisons between Real-ESRGAN and Real-CUGAN have been extended to exhaustion on the Web, but the conclusion is always the same: We have to experiment.
Fortunately, that is very simple. Under the Real-ESRGAN section, we have three models: animevideo3 (ideal for video, but works very well with illustrations), x4plus-anime for anime drawings, and x4plus, for general use. In the case of Real-CUGAN, the models are also three: Model-nose with finer edges, models-se with different degrees of scaling and noise removal, and models-pro, which has a bit more performance than models-se.
The most important advantage of the Real-CUGAN section is that it presents a denoise parameter, and it gets along better with 2x or 3x values (models-pro does not allow 4x). On the other hand, if you try to use x4plus or x4plus-anime with an upscaling less than 4x, you will get a corrupted image as a result. Regardless of the algorithm you choose, Real-ESRGAN-GUI will allow you to process one image at a time, or entire folders with the Folder Selection option.
The latest version of Real-ESRGAN-GUI was published in late September, and we haven't found any problems beyond the natural limitations of each model. Perhaps in the future this tool could implement more precise resolution control (i.e., manually defining width and height), but it works perfectly in its current state and deserves your attention.
To finish, if you feel you need an alternative to this, don't forget Waifu2x-ncnn-Vulkan GUI Edition Reloaded, which received an update in recent days.
Official site and download: Click here
