Paintshop Pro 2021

[Jean-Luc]

I don't get my original photo upscaled, but instead I get a larger 3840x2160 pixel image that is largely a black background with my original photo, at it's original scale i.e. not enlarged in any way, placed in the upper left corner. In other words, imagine this new image divided into quarters - my original photo occupies the top left quadrant, and all the other three quadrants are just black background. I have also tried different image formats, in case it was an issue with the TIFF format, but I still get the same result each time.

Do you get the same result with GPU Acceleration ON or OFF?

[Zantara]

I don't get my original photo upscaled, but instead I get a larger 3840x2160 pixel image that is largely a black background with my original photo, at it's original scale i.e. not enlarged in any way, placed in the upper left corner. In other words, imagine this new image divided into quarters - my original photo occupies the top left quadrant, and all the other three quadrants are just black background. I have also tried different image formats, in case it was an issue with the TIFF format, but I still get the same result each time.

Do you get the same result with GPU Acceleration ON or OFF?

Great one! With Acceleration OFF it works and takes seconds.
However, I seem to get the feeling that it mostly turns portrait into landscape with little upsampeling, really.
My example with the fungus seems to show that it changes shape, rather than bringing the subject, as is, to the front of the photo
Tried it with several photo's now. And the upsampeling only seems to work on photo's in portrait mode, not landscape. Could be my way of photographing

[bernoullis]

Zantara and Jean-Luc, thanks for your prompt responses, I appreciate it.

Zantara, I would be disappointed if it was a portrait versus landscape issue, because that would clearly show a lapse in Corel's programming. Admittedly, I have only tried landscape photos, so I will have to experiment a bit more. If it is an issue, Corel had better get an update out as soon as possible!

Jean-Luc, let me have a closer look at the GPU Acceleration aspect of this, and I'll come back to you.

[Jean-Luc]

Jean-Luc, let me have a closer look at the GPU Acceleration aspect of this, and I'll come back to you.

And tell me if you have a better result than PhotoZoom.

[Jean-Luc]

However, I seem to get the feeling that it mostly turns portrait into landscape with little upsampeling, really.

Do you resize By Pixels, By Percentage, or Based on one side?

I resize by Percentage and portrait or landscape images don't distort.

[bernoullis]

Do you get the same result with GPU Acceleration ON or OFF?

Jean-Luc, I experimented with the GPU acceleration option and it did make the difference ... but not consistently, unfortunately. Sometimes PSP would lock up during the upscaling and need a reset, sometimes it would produce the strange three-quarters black image, but most of the time I could get a correctly upscaled photo. I would say it worked correctly about two-thirds of the time. Thanks for your suggestion!

I had previously had the GPU Acceleration option selected, and it seems to have been the problem. My custom built laptop (built by a specialist company, not me!) has a 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M installed, and this has it's own hardware On/Off switch on the keyboard. If I am doing heavy duty processor stuff on the laptop, turning it on often helps speed things up e.g. editing or playing very hi-res videos, or handling large image files. The drawback is that it gets quite warm so the noisy cooling fan then kicks in.

After seeing your suggestion, I ensured the GPU hardware switch was on (as it was before I made my post on this thread), and opened PSP 2021. I used the same TIFF as earlier, but this time I did not select the software GPU Acceleration option. I requested a 200% upscale ... and it worked, producing a correctly upscaled image for the first time! I tried some further attempts and found it doesn't work all the time, so it is a bit inconsistent. It is better than nothing at all, but I don't quite know what is causing that inconsistency.

I experimented using both the Photography workspace and the Complete workspace, to see if that would improve the consistency in actually producing a properly upscaled image, but it didn't. I still get the strange three-quarters black image with about one third of my attempts at upscaling. I know that the GPU is actually being used because as well as the keyboard hardware GPU switch, there is an accompanying indicator LED which shows when the system is actually using the GPU - it illuminates and the cooling fan makes itself heard shortly after, as the GPU warms up.

Having had some success by not using the software GPU Acceleration option, I selected it on again and repeated the process and, sure enough I didn't get any proper upscaled images, only the mostly black images. So, strangely, it is clearly better not not to select the software GPU Acceleration option, even though it it would seem to be the better, more intuitive position. Not selecting it still somehow allows the PSP software to 'see' and use the GPU itself (on my laptop anyway, as long as I have set the hardware GPU switch on). I am also aware that the Nvidia software control panel installed on my laptop does have selections for automating much of the underlying operation of the GPU, but I have always assumed that was for 3D gaming purposes. Perhaps the more up-to-date software applications are now using these automation routines to do more of their their own thing? Whatever, the Nvidia control panel may be the source of the inconsistency in my results, but it could also be that PSP 2021, as new as it is, may need an update or two from Corel - I don't know.

And tell me if you have a better result than PhotoZoom.

The PhotoZoom Pro 8 demo version I have been using for a couple of weeks leaves small, faint watermarks on the upscaled photos, but at least today I have been able to compare upscaling of the same image in each software package.

They appear to produce very similar results. If anything, the PSP 2021 upscaled images are slightly softer, but it is a subtle difference. PhotoZoom Pro 8 has many, many more adjustment sliders to use when scaling an image, so further improvements may be possible if those sliders are used to the full. I have largely stuck to the default settings, so I cannot say what further improvements can be squeezed out of PhotoZoom Pro 8.

If Corel can be sure that the results of their AI Upscaling is consistent, then I would say that the PSP 2021 package is overall much better value for money, because PhotoZoom Pro 8 (£139.00) costs substantially much more than the full PSP 2021 Ultimate (£89.99 incl. VAT) at UK prices. PhotoZoom Classic 8, a simpler version, costs £49.00 versus, for example, the standard PSP 2021 at £69.99(incl. VAT). And remember, PhotoZoom Pro 8 only does one thing - rescale image sizes, up and down. It does it well, but at a hefty price, particularly for the Pro version.

If anyone is interested, both versions of PhotoZoom can be downloaded and tried freely, from here https://www.benvista.com/downloads/, but you will have watermarking in the resulting images until you pay for and unlock the software.

[Jean-Luc]

Thank you bernoullis !
Very detailed explanation. It could help Corel to improve the AI upscaling tool.

I will test PhotoZoom (thanks for the link).

[Jean-Luc]

The starting image:

The upsampling value was 400%. I made the following screen captures at 60% zoom. Click on each image to see at normal size.

I used PhotoZoom Pro 8 Trial at its default settings. I tried the different available upsampling methods but the default (S-Spline Max) was the best.

In PSP 2021, I applied an upsampling By Percentage, AI-enabled, Illustration mode.
The result was a little soft and I applied a Sharpen More:

I retain only the Sharpen More for the followings:

PSP 2021 AI makes a good correction of the JPG artifacts around the letters.

In my opinion, the last confirms that PSP is better than PhotoZoom Pro 8:

See the fingers, the horizontal lines in the background, and the hair braid.

[migf1]

Can anyone share any images that do not work right with the AI Upsampling?
I cannot reproduce the problem. Seems to work just fine here, no matter what pic I throw at it. I only tested in the Complete workspace.

PS. Btw, on Win 8.1 it doesn't seem to crash when I switch workspaces (either from the Home tab, or the File->Workspaces menu... but the Sea-and-Sky WS does not appear in the menu)

[Zantara]

@Jean-Luc....thank you so much for your tutorial. I'm going to study that carefully and experiment.

[megaderek]

If I use AI upscale with images using RGB -16bits/channel they end up blank. If I decrease color depth the RGB - 8bits/channel they work. Seems that switching GPU acceleration doesn't matter in the first case.

I have another issue where the application loses focus after opening images from the Manage view, then I click on the opened image and the application disappears. I can't click on any other windows as the mouse input seems to go missing and I have to alt-tab to get the focus back. This is on Windows 10.

[Jean-Luc]

Can anyone share any images that do not work right with the AI Upsampling?

If by "do not work right" you mean the canvas is resized but the image is not resized and displays in the upper left corner, it is related to the GPU. When the GPU is ON (checked), the defect MAY appear. If the GPU is OFF, the defect doesn't appear.

[migf1]

Can anyone share any images that do not work right with the AI Upsampling?

If by "do not work right" you mean the canvas is resized but the image is not resized and displays in the upper left corner, it is related to the GPU. When the GPU is ON (checked), the defect MAY appear. If the GPU is OFF, the defect doesn't appear.

Yes, that's what I meant when I said "they don't work right". I cannot reproduce the problem. In my tests, having the GPU on or off didn't make any difference... all images are upscaled fine (well, apart from being considerably slower w/o GPU).

[migf1]

If I use AI upscale with images using RGB -16bits/channel they end up blank. If I decrease color depth the RGB - 8bits/channel. Seems that switching GPU acceleration doesn't matter in the first case...

I just tested with a flat 8-bit PNG. Converted it to 16-bit, upscale worked fine. In the 2nd test, i added an alpha channel, converted it to 16-bit and the upscale failed... in my case it didn't end up black, but totally transparent (GPU doesn't seem to be related at all in my end)

[Jean-Luc]

having the GPU on or off didn't make any difference... all images are upscaled fine

Same on my side, I don't observe the false behavior. Currently, we don't know what makes the difference between users.