One of Genius Printings optional extras includes the up-scaling service.
Up-scaling is when you take an image and make it much bigger. The problem with normal up-scaling is that it can make the image look very blurry and 'noise' is more noticeable - and on a canvas that's not a good thing!
Using our up-scaling service, we perform the up-scaling and then manually fix the image as best as possible. Keep in mind, that if the detail isn't in the image to begin with, we can't add or create detail - we can just sharpen the image to give the impression of detail. There will be a slight 'smoothing' in some areas but the result is much better than it was and the canvas texture helps the smoothing to remain invisible.
We choose 100 DPI (What is DPI?) as the 'line in the sand' - if your image is under 100 DPI, we'll recommend up-scaling. Remember that if your image is at 50 DPI, it will be 'half the minimum quality'. So you can see that a 10 DPI image will be '10% of the MINIMUM quality' - which is REALLY pushing it! How far we can push it does depend on the image and we'll let you know if we think an image can't be up-scaled.
Here's an example of an image that started at 50 DPI. You'll be able to see the artifacts in the below image and that it's slightly blurry as well.
The image below is after the image has been upsized to 150 DPI and then had our up-scaling service applied. You can clearly see the increase in quality.
If you're unsure whether you should use this service, we recommend using the
Image Calculator to find out what the DPI of your image is. You can also and read the Image Quality page to get a better understanding of when the DPI may be too low.
If you upload your image to our SmartUploader or Image Calculator, it will warn you if your image is less than 100 DPI and recommend using our up-scaling service.
