Increasing resolution of a computer image

Question

Is there a way to take a pic from the internet and make it into a decent sized poster. there is absolutely no way of me being able to do this without the online image, because they dont make the posters anymore. im not expecting a miraculously clear image, i just want it to be big without everything turning into a bunch of pixelated squares.

example: http://www.emuaythai.com/members/uploads/102006/24194828-284.gif

i would want that to be a decent sized poster....probably around 2'x3'

if anyone can help me i will love you forever

Answer 1

unfortunately no, you can't enlarge pixels without the image becoming blurry.

Answer 2

The only thing that I can tell you, is that if the picture is at least 2000px X 2000px, then it will look good at a 2'x3'.

But, it's still going to depend on what the resolution of the image is. It needs to be at least 125dpi.

Tip: You can open your image with PhotoShop and go to the image menu and hit the image size option. It will show you what the resolution measured in dpi and the size measured in pixels of your original image.

Tip 2: There is a program called BlowUp that takes your decent sized images and makes them ready for large format print. Enhances resolution, clears up the photograph and can change size.  

Answer 3

maybe try to find a bigger picture?

if not i'd still print the picture as big as i can somewhere and get it blown up (funny phrase i know) to 2x3 and just see how it looks... last resort you could edit it and make the blurry square-ness look neat? haha  

Answer 4

Not with any real success, and, certainly what can be done would be severely limited in the size increase.

There is no way, at all, this can ACTUALLY be done, but, there are techniques to help "fake" an increase to some degree.

One way is to, first, increase the image size by a certain amount.  Try experimenting with your image to see how far you can get away with it. The result will be, of course fatter pixels and jagged curves and angles.  Then, in something like Photoshop's filters menu, add some noise, say, about five percent.  This will result in some of the fatter pixels to be broken up into some smaller ones, adding a few dots of random color.  You can then play with a few other filters to smooth edges and average some colors out.

When done, you should see some reduction in pixelization, but, the random color noise may not be an effect you like.  The bigger the enlargement, the less convincing the technique is.  In no case can this enlargement result in replacing any missing detail.  No software can "know" what the missing detail is in an image that doesn't have the detail in the first place.