Upscale: bigger, not invented

Upscale enlarges finished cover art toward print resolution by sharpening what is already in the picture, not by inventing detail that was never there.

AI proofs are deliberately small. Every operation in the hub works at roughly a megapixel — large enough to judge a cover on screen, cheap enough to run a dozen times while you make up your mind. A 6 by 9 inch paperback at 300 DPI wants 1800 by 2700 pixels, and no proof arrives anywhere near that.

Upscale closes that gap, and it is the last step you should take. It reads the art on your canvas at a much wider band than any other scene, enlarges it, and sharpens the edges and texture already present. It does not invent what was never there — the note printed under the target chips says so, and it is meant literally. Your typography needs none of this: titles and author names are live vector type on a layer above the art and are already sharp at any size.

How to use it

1. Finish the art before you enlarge it
   Order matters more here than anywhere else in the hub. Every change you make after an upscale — a background swap, a character edit, a region repair — hands the canvas to an operation that works at proof size, and the enlargement you paid for is gone. Get the picture right, then enlarge it.
2. Open Upscale and check the source
   The scene reads your canvas art automatically, but not the way the others do: it takes a far larger read of the same image instead of the proof-sized one, because shrinking a picture on its way into an enlarger would defeat the operation before it started.
3. Choose a target
   Three chips: 2× for ebook and screen use, Print 300 DPI for the print path, and 4× for the largest trims. 2× always doubles. Print 300 DPI measures your art first and asks for however many times it takes to clear 1800 by 2700 pixels — two on a large proof, three or four on a small one — and 4× always goes to the maximum. Pick what the job needs; going beyond it only leaves you carrying a heavier file.
4. Run it and study an edge
   One credit. The result carries Before and After tabs, so flip to Before and study an edge, a texture, a line of rigging: that is where you see what the operation did and did not do. Placing an upscale result puts it on the canvas as it is, skipping the extra enlargement pass the other scenes run when you place their proofs, because this image has already been through one.

What it solves

A puzzle book that was crisp on screen and soft in print

Low-content titles are printed large and inspected closely, which is precisely the combination that exposes a proof-sized cover. The file approved on a laptop becomes a soft, faintly plastic front on the printed copy. Enlarge before you export and the difference shows up in the first physical proof you order.

The same art on a much bigger trim

Artwork that carried a 5 by 8 paperback now has to fill an 8.5 by 11 planner, and every extra inch at 300 DPI is more pixels the picture never had. This is what the 4× chip is for: you are not chasing sharpness here, you are covering area.

A cover that survived five operations

Brief, then refresh, then a background swap, then a region repair — a thoroughly normal path, and every one of those steps handed the canvas back at proof size. What you end up holding is a good composition at a small resolution. Upscale is the single step that turns that history into a file with enough pixels to export.

Frequently asked questions

Does it add detail that was not there?

No, and the scene says as much under the target chips: it does not add artificial detail, it sharpens edges and texture while preserving them. A face that is a blur at proof size becomes a larger, cleaner-edged blur. Missing detail is work for the operations that generate pixels — repair the area with Region fix while the image is still small, then enlarge.

Which target should I choose?

Match it to the job. 2× is enough for an ebook cover and for screen use. Print 300 DPI reads the size of your art and picks the factor that clears a 6 by 9 inch page at 300 DPI, so it lands on two when the proof is already large and on three or four when it is not. 4× earns its credit on large trims and on full wraps, where the art has to cover back, spine and front at print resolution.

Does this make my cover print-ready?

It makes the art layer big enough to print well, which is a smaller claim than it sounds. The print-ready file is the studio's export: your trim size, bleed, spine width and 300 DPI, assembled from both layers in one pass — and that export costs nothing, as does everything else in the studio apart from the AI operations themselves. Upscale opens the print path; the export is what walks down it.

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