How to Upscale Images in Affinity Photo (2026 Guide)

How to Upscale an Image in Affinity Photo Using Super Resolution

Once you understand what Super Resolution does, applying it inside Affinity Photo is straightforward. The tool works through an “Enhance” process where the AI analyzes your image, generates a preview, and then creates a higher-resolution version with reconstructed details.

Step 1: Open Affinity Photo and load the image you want to upscale. For best results, start with the highest-quality source file available.

Step 2: Install the Super Resolution model. The Super-resolution model must be downloaded prior to using the feature. The model is available in Settings > Machine Learning Models section. To use it, you need to be subscribed to the Canva Pro plan.

Step 3: Choose on your source image and click Super Resolution on the left side bar. The moment you click it, Affinity Photo starts analyzing the image and processing the picture.

Step 4: Review the preview carefully. The preview may take a little time especially for large files. After then, Affinity generates an AI-enhanced preview showing a side-by-side comparison of the original and upscaled version. You can compare fine details such as edges, textures, hair, and text clarity before applying the result.

Step 5: Click “Apply” to generate the final upscaled image. Affinity Photo will create a new, higher-resolution version while keeping the original image unchanged.

How to Upscale an Image in Affinity Photo Using Generative Upscale

Affinity Photo also offers Generative Upscale, an AI-powered tool designed for larger enlargements by synthesizing additional image details. Unlike the on-device Super Resolution tool, Generative Upscale requires an internet connection and a Canva Premium subscription. Its tool icon is not visible by default, so you may need to add it to the toolbar before use.

Steps to Use Generative Upscale

1. Select the image layer. Open your image in Affinity and select the layer you want to enlarge in the Layers panel.
2. Add and open the tool. If Generative Upscale is not visible, customize the toolbar to add it. See the official guide to customizing tools for instructions.
3. Choose an AI Quality model. Select a model from the AI Quality menu. Crisp models stay closer to the source image, while Creative models have more freedom to generate plausible fine details.
4. Set the enlargement scale. Adjust Scale to choose how much larger the image should be. If you want the document dimensions to match the enlarged result, enable Scale document to fit.
5. Preview the result. Click Preview and inspect important details, including faces, hair, text, and fine textures.
6. Apply the upscale. Click Apply when you are satisfied with the result. To preserve the original, duplicate the image layer before processing.

Generative Upscale can produce convincing details at larger enlargement factors, but generated textures may not reflect the original scene accurately. Always review the output before using it for professional, archival, or other detail-sensitive work. For smaller, more conservative enlargements, the on-device Super Resolution tool may be a better starting point.

How Well Does Affinity AI Upscaling Work?

For everyday image enlargement, Super Resolution performs surprisingly well. Compared with standard resizing methods, images generally appear cleaner and sharper after processing.

Best Results for Low-to-Moderate Enlargements

Super Resolution works particularly well when:

• Enlarging social media images
• Improving product photos
• Upscaling digital artwork
• Preparing images for small prints
• Enhancing moderately compressed photos

In these situations, the AI can often recover enough detail to produce visibly better results than traditional resizing.

Why Super Resolution Looks Better Than Traditional Resizing

Traditional enlargement methods such as Bicubic or Lanczos interpolation simply create new pixels based on surrounding pixel values. While this increases image dimensions, it cannot restore details that were never captured in the original file.

Super Resolution takes a different approach. Instead of only stretching existing pixels, it uses machine learning to analyze image content and reconstruct missing details. As a result, enlarged images often appear sharper, cleaner, and more natural than those resized with traditional methods.

Generative Upscale: More Detail at Larger Scales

Unlike Super Resolution, which focuses on conventional resolution enhancement, Generative Upscale uses AI to synthesize plausible fine details during enlargement. It can produce more detailed-looking results at larger scales, particularly when the original image has limited resolution. However, generated textures may differ from the source, so check faces, text, and fine patterns carefully.

Affinity offers different AI Quality behaviors: Crisp stays closer to the source, while Creative allows more freedom to generate detail. Choose based on whether fidelity or a more detailed-looking result matters most. Generative Upscale requires an internet connection and a Canva Premium plan, while Super Resolution is the on-device option for more conservative enlargement.

Pros and Cons of Affinity Photo AI Upscaling

Affinity Photo offers flexible image upscaling through two tools: Super Resolution for more conservative enlargement and Generative Upscale for generating additional detail at larger scales. The best choice depends on the source image, desired enlargement, and how closely the result needs to match the original.

For photos that also need substantial noise reduction, blur correction, or face restoration, a dedicated tool such as AI photo restoration software may provide a more suitable workflow.

Where Affinity Photo AI Upscaling Falls Short

Although Super Resolution can improve image quality, no AI model can completely recover information that doesn't exist in the original file. As image quality decreases, the limitations become more noticeable.

1. Extremely Low-Resolution Images

When an image contains very few pixels, there simply isn't enough information available for accurate reconstruction. The AI may generate plausible details, but results can appear artificial or inconsistent.

2. Blurry or Out-of-Focus Photos

Super Resolution can improve perceived sharpness, but it isn't primarily designed for severe blur correction. Motion blur and focus errors often remain visible after processing.

3. Old Photo Scans

Historic photographs often suffer from grain, fading, scratches, dust, or scanning artifacts. While Super Resolution can increase resolution, restoration quality may remain limited.

4. Heavily Compressed JPEG Images

Compression artifacts present another challenge. Blocky textures, ringing, and color distortions may become less noticeable, but they are not always completely removed.

When Affinity Photo Super Resolution Isn't Enough

Affinity's built-in upscaling tools are convenient for enlarging images within an existing editing workflow. If an image also needs noise reduction, blur correction, or more extensive detail restoration, a dedicated image enhancer such as Aiarty may be worth comparing.

For these challenging cases, a dedicated AI image enhancer can often produce better results. Aiarty Image Enhancer is designed specifically for AI-powered restoration and upscaling, combining detail reconstruction, denoising, deblurring, and face enhancement in a single workflow.

While Affinity Photo is primarily a photo editor with AI upscaling capabilities, Aiarty focuses entirely on image enhancement and restoration. This makes it particularly useful for old photos, noisy images, heavily compressed JPEGs, and large-scale upscaling projects where preserving detail is critical.

Real Test Results

To better understand how Affinity Photo Super Resolution compares with a dedicated AI image enhancer, we tested both tools using several common real-world images.

Test 1: Low-Resolution Portrait

Original image: The photo was very small in resolution, with soft facial details that lacked clarity. The eyes and hair edges appeared slightly blurred and lacked definition.

After Affinity Photo Super Resolution: The image looked noticeably sharper, especially around edges and facial contours. However, some fine details such as eyes and hair texture still appeared slightly limited.

After Aiarty Image Enhancer: The portrait showed clearer eye detail, more natural-looking skin texture, and improved hair structure. Overall, the image felt more realistic and better reconstructed.

Test 2: Old Photo Scan

Original image: The scanned photo showed visible grain, faded tones, and loss of fine facial details due to age and low scan quality.

After Affinity Photo Super Resolution: The image became higher in resolution with slightly improved clarity, but some noise and aging artifacts were still noticeable.

After Aiarty Image Enhancer: The restored image showed cleaner facial details, reduced aging artifacts, and better overall texture recovery, making the photo look significantly more restored and natural.

Combine Affinity Photo Editing with AI Enhancement

For many photographers, designers, and content creators, the best results come from using Affinity Photo and AI enhancement tools together rather than relying on a single application.

Affinity Photo is well suited for tasks such as color correction, retouching, layer-based editing, and creative adjustments. Once editing is complete, the image can be exported and further enhanced with AI tools to recover details, reduce noise, remove blur, and upscale resolution.

This workflow is especially useful when preparing images for printing, restoring old photos, improving e-commerce product images, enhancing social media content, or creating large-format outputs where detail preservation matters.

If your final image still looks soft, noisy, or lacks fine detail after editing, running it through Aiarty Image Enhancer as the final step can often produce a cleaner and sharper result.