With the advent of photography in the first half of the 19th century, there was a natural desire to enlarge the image to the size of an art canvas. One of the real and most effective methods, which is still used today, was to redraw by cells, but today they rarely give such advice, because it is obvious that those who want to enlarge an image are interested in how to increase the size of photos on a computer.
Image size on PC monitor
Since we’ve started talking about PCs, we’ll say that on the monitor the image size decreases / increases with the Ctrl key combination (- / +) or the mouse wheel with the same pressed Ctrl key. And if you are on the web, you can affect the image size by changing the scale in the "View" tab in the browser menu. No one is forbidden to change the screen resolution (screen resolution) by calling this command by right-clicking directly on the desktop.
Now, if you follow the “from simple to complex” principle, you need to figure out how to increase the size of photos in Paint, because, firstly, this is a standard graphics editor (Start> All Programs> Accessories) that comes with the Windows operating system, and secondly, many are unaware of some of his abilities, including the "Resize" button on the "Home" tab.
Stretch a picture in Paint
In the "Resize and Tilt" dialog box, usually check the "Keep aspect ratio" checkbox and indicate either the percentage or a specific value in pixels. In the second case, it is enough to specify only the desired image width (change horizontally) so that the second parameter changes automatically.
In some versions of Paint, there is also the "Dots" option, which allows you to enter specific image sizes. If everything is OK, then tell the editor.
Figuring out how to increase the size of photographs, most users probably do not even consider it necessary to add that without loss of quality, believing that this goes without saying. However, this silent condition is not so simple to fulfill, because the image can be roughly compared with a mosaic of multi-colored pixels. It is easy to imagine how the picture will look if you simply stretch it, because the number of informative pixels will remain the same, and the physical size will increase.
In order to somehow maintain quality to a certain extent, you need to fill in the "voids" taking into account the content of surrounding pixels. Unfortunately, the good old Paint does not cope with this best of all, but there are many programs that can use various algorithms for interpolating data between stretched pixels (resample / resample methods) to enlarge images with very decent quality. Most of these services, among which the paid PhotoZoom Pro is especially popular, are functionally similar and simple to use, but if you simply recommend them to those who want to learn how to increase the size of photos in Photoshop, this will be an evasive answer.
Photoshop's ability to resize photos
If you are going to enlarge the image, you should keep in mind that the result directly depends on the quality and size of the source material. After uploading the photo to “Photoshop”, in the “Image” menu, select the “Image Size” command, thereby opening a window of the same name, in which a dialogue with the program is conducted.
If you fully trust the program, you can only specify the width and height in the fields of the "Document Size" block and leave the rest of the options selected by default, including the "Resample Image" function and the "Bicubic Automatic" resample method (Bicubic), which is usually preferred by the other five algorithms. Then, using the "Auto ..." (Auto) button, open the "Automatic Resolution Selection" window, select the desired quality (the default value is "Good") and click OK.
Note : Resample is a function to control the amount of data in images that resize or resolution.
Little tricks
Perhaps not everyone knows about some well-known recommendations regarding how to increase the size of photographs with minimal loss of quality using any graphics editor with correction and resampling functions, but this does not have to be Photoshop.
First, you need to prepare the original image by slightly increasing its scale and carefully examining it for noise, blurry areas (where they should not be), various spots and other possible defects. All deficiencies must be eliminated (corrected) and only then proceed with resizing.
Next, you need to enlarge the photo twice as planned, work with sharpness, contrast, saturation, then return to the desired size and make sure that the quality remains at the proper level. Here's a little trick, but that’s not all.
What people just won’t think of is an original solution to how to increase the size of photos.
It turns out that if you enlarge the image size by 10%, visually quality degradation will not be noticeable. From here the obvious conclusion suggests itself: repeatedly increasing the size by 10%, you can ... well, and then - who has what kind of imagination. But this method is not universal, and its indiscriminate use for all photographs in a row will not necessarily lead to good results, which largely depend on various qualitative parameters of the image, including the format. Black and white photographs, for example, manage to stretch as much as 50%.
These "secret" tricks are permissible only in those cases when for some reason there are no other options, and most likely, "tricky products" will require very serious post-processing in Photoshop.
Specialized Programs
If you need an answer to the question of how to increase the size of photos with a minimum headache, use one of the specialized programs that have more interpolation algorithms than Photoshop and have their own original technologies. In addition to the previously mentioned PhotoZoom Pro program, these are services: Perfect Resiz, Reshade Image Enlarger, OnOne Genuine Fractals Pro v6.0, Akvis Magnifier v3.0 and others.