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I want to increase my image resolution to 300 dpi, and also I have a text image which is unreadable, so I want to zoom its word size and clarity. How can i do that?

............... from beginner

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Are you asking about how to write the algorithm programatically, or just looking for software? –  ahockley Feb 6 '09 at 15:40
I think the questioner has been watching too much CSI. –  spoulson Feb 6 '09 at 16:07
to bad you can't +1 a comment, @spoulson nice! –  discorax Feb 6 '09 at 16:20
youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk –  discorax Aug 19 '10 at 17:44

4 Answers 4

If you have a blurred image, you can't unblur it -- the information is simply already lost. Increasing image resolution of an existing image also cannot add information. All you can do is interpolate the existing features.

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This is not entirely true. Given that you know something about the blur effect used you can sharpen it. I have done so in a lab with motion blur. Original image was totally unreadable but result was very readable. –  Hannes Ovrén Feb 6 '09 at 16:28
I was not talking about systematic blur but about the blur that occurs through lack of resolution. I believe that this was also the point of the question. –  Svante Feb 6 '09 at 19:54

There are some software products, such as Genuine Fractals (Photoshop plug-in), which do a decent job of artificially increasing resolution during image enlargement. However, these tools can only go so far, and it totally depends on how much information is in the image to begin with.

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Genuine Fractals is a fascinating product. Good recommendation! –  spoulson Feb 6 '09 at 18:39

If you have an existing image file, there is only so much information present. If there is not enough data, there is nothing you can do to improve the situation.

If you have almost enough information, interpolation, anti-aliasing, edge detector, or other techniques may help you to see what is there.

Without a lot more information, it is unlikely that we can offer any help.

Edit: You see a lot of nonsense on TV shows and in movies. In general, you can not zoom an image as far as you want and then magically unblur it.

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I have written a "beginner" tutorial on how to get a printable screen capture.

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but the principles are good. You can take a screen shot of your image and blow it up to a printable size.


The trick that I've used is to convert your image to indexed color (as opposed to RGB) which can scale up and stay generally crisp. Then you can up the DPI in index color and finally convert back to RGB before you print.

Visit the site for a step-by-step.

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