xanderfrangos/upscayl

Upscayl is a free, open-source desktop application that uses AI to enlarge and enhance low-resolution images. If you have an old photo, a blurry screenshot, or any picture that looks pixelated when you try to make it bigger, this tool sharpens it up and adds plausible detail so it looks crisp at a larger size. Under the hood, the app relies on an AI model called Real-ESRGAN. Rather than just stretching pixels (which makes images look blurry), the AI analyzes the image and intelligently guesses what the missing details should look like, filling them in as it enlarges the picture. The app itself is a graphical interface around this technology, making it accessible without needing to use a command line. The developers plan to add more AI models and video upscaling in the future. The tool is designed for anyone who needs to improve image quality, photographers cleaning up old shots, designers working with low-res assets, or people restoring family photos. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, though it's built with a "Linux-first" philosophy. One important requirement: your computer needs a GPU (graphics card) that supports Vulkan. It won't run on CPUs or integrated graphics, so older laptops without a dedicated graphics chip likely won't work. The project bundles a pre-compiled binary for convenience, since setting up the underlying AI tools manually would be complex for most users. However, everything is fully open source, so if you're comfortable with Python and compilation tools, you can build it yourself from the original Real-ESRGAN source code. There's also a command-line tool available separately for those who prefer that workflow.