---
title: Upscale and enhance images as the last step
display: '*Upscale* and enhance images as the last step'
nav_title: Upscale images
summary:
  - "Upscale once, last, after the composition, edits and text are approved at the original size."
  - "Use a fidelity upscaler for approved work; a creative one only to rescue soft images, and check details."
  - "Enhance, in the bar above an image, picks an upscaler for you; its price shows on the button."
description: Choose an upscaler and a factor, balance fidelity against invented detail, protect faces and text.
section: images
order: 60
type: guide
level: Start
roles: [all]
time: { read: 6, do: 5, wait: 1 }
needs: ["An approved image"]
last_verified: 2026-11-11
models_checked: ["Topaz Image Upscale", "Magnific Upscaler Precision", "Magnific Upscaler Creative", "SeedVR2 - Image Upscale", "Clarity Crystal Upscaler", "Recraft Crisp Upscale"]
hero: images/upscale-and-enhance-images/skater-face-crop-after-topaz-4x.webp
related: [edit-images]
run_in: [model_topaz-image-upscale]
video: tutorials/upscale-and-enhance-images.mp4
video_caption: Upscale images
about: "Upscaling makes an image bigger and sharper so it holds up in print, on a large screen or as a texture. In Scenario it's called Enhance. This lesson takes a small 800 × 448 image to 3200 × 1792 with Topaz Image Upscale, then shows how to choose between the other upscalers. The models and prices in this lesson are as of November 2026."
chapters:
  - { at: 0, title: "Enhance", image: "/media/images/images/upscale-and-enhance-images/ch-01-enhance.webp" }
  - { at: 39.74, title: "Compare", image: "/media/images/images/upscale-and-enhance-images/ch-02-compare.webp" }
  - { at: 58.59, title: "Other upscalers", image: "/media/images/images/upscale-and-enhance-images/ch-03-other-upscalers.webp" }
thumb: images/upscale-and-enhance-images/thumb.webp
steps:
  - title: "Open Enhance"
    text: "Open the approved image and click Enhance in the bar above it, or ... on a thumbnail › Enhance. It opens on Topaz Image Upscale with your image under Image. The example image was made with GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst; its prompt shows in the viewer's Info panel."
    prompt: |-
      Key art from VOLTARIS, an invented free-to-play hero shooter. A young woman hero with warm brown skin, long box braids tied high with glowing cyan tips, silver hoop earrings and a cropped magenta bomber jacket with cyan piping skates fast on inline roller blades with glowing cyan wheels down the middle aisle of a salvage bazaar on a floating island at sunrise. Stalls built from old hull plates under patched canvas awnings, crates of glowing batteries, hanging cables and wind chimes, a sea of clouds beyond the railing. She leans into the turn, grinning, one arm out for balance. Medium-wide shot, her full figure in the center third, camera at hip height, warm low sun from the right with a cool rim light. No text, no signs with letters.

      Style: stylized 3D at the standard of the best free-to-play hero shooters: bold readable silhouettes, appealing expressive faces, hand-tuned stylized PBR (painted metal, soft cloth, rubber), saturated but controlled palette, cinematic key light with a cool rim.
  - title: "Set the scaling factor"
    text: "Scaling Factor 4x takes 800 x 448 to 3200 x 1792. Keep Model on Standard V2 (Text Refine for lettering) and Subject Detection on None."
  - title: "Protect faces"
    text: "Turn on Face Enhancement, keep Creativity at 0 and Strength at 0.8, then click Enhance."
  - title: "Check the result"
    text: "Drag the comparison line over the parts that matter at 100% zoom or closer: the face, edges, textures and any text."
  - title: "Choose another upscaler when you need to"
    text: "Model name › View model library › Capabilities › Show all › Image Upscale. Pick a fidelity upscaler to keep what's there, a creative one to add detail, or Scenario Texture Upscale and Scenario Skybox Upscale for tileables and panoramas."
agent_steps:
  - title: "Connect the Scenario MCP"
    text: "Connect your agent and sign in once at [mcp.scenario.com](https://mcp.scenario.com). Then tell it which Scenario team and project to use, so every file lands there."
  - title: "Give the agent the files"
    text: "The approved image, upscaled last, after every edit. Upload it with upload_asset or give its asset ID."
  - title: "Brief the agent"
    prompt: |-
      Upscale the approved image 4x with Topaz Image Upscale (model_topaz-image-upscale): model Standard V2, subject detection none, face enhancement on with creativity 0 and strength 0.8. Read model_schema_get first for the exact parameter names. Quote the cost with a dry run first and wait for my go. Then report the output size.
  - title: "Check and redo"
    text: "Accept when the face is the same person, edges are clean, textures look like their material and any text reads as in the original. Reject plastic skin, changed eyes or teeth, changed letters, grid-like patterns or halos."
    prompt: |-
      Crop the face and one hard edge from the original and the upscale at the same scale and show them side by side. If the face or any lettering changed, run it again at 2x, or with Magnific Upscaler Precision (model_magnific-upscaler-precision) for work that must not change.
  - title: "File the results and report"
    prompt: |-
      Add the original and the kept upscale to one collection, so anyone can see what it came from. Report both asset IDs, the model, the output size and the total cost spent.
updated: 2026-11-11
canonical: https://learn.scenario.com/images/upscale-and-enhance-images
---

Last updated: 2026-11-11

# Upscale and enhance images as the last step

> Choose an upscaler and a factor, balance fidelity against invented detail, protect faces and text.

In short:

- Upscale once, last, after the composition, edits and text are approved at the original size.
- Use a fidelity upscaler for approved work; a creative one only to rescue soft images, and check details.
- Enhance, in the bar above an image, picks an upscaler for you; its price shows on the button.

Upscaling makes an image bigger and sharper so it holds up in print, on a large screen or as a texture. In Scenario it's called **Enhance**. This lesson takes a small 800 × 448 image to 3200 × 1792 with Topaz Image Upscale, then shows how to choose between the other upscalers.

:::note As of November 2026
The models, settings and prices in this article are the ones Scenario offered in November 2026. New models and updates arrive often, so check the model library for newer options before you choose.
:::

:::steps Quick version
1. Approve the image first: composition, edits and text. Upscale last.
2. Open the image and click **Enhance** in the bar above it.
3. Set **Scaling Factor**, turn on **Face Enhancement** if there's a face, and keep **Creativity** at 0.
4. Click **Enhance**, then compare the original and the result at 100% zoom.
:::

## Before you start

- **Upscale once, at the end.** Every edit after an upscale has to run on a much bigger file, and some editing models shrink it again. Finish the composition, the edits and any text at the original size, then upscale the approved image.
- **Know the size you need.** A 4x upscale turns 1024 pixels into 4096. If 2x is enough for where the image is going, stop at 2x: bigger factors take longer and give the model more room to invent detail.
- **Look at what's in the image.** Faces, small text and fine patterns are where upscalers go wrong. Each one has a setting or a model below.

![The image before upscaling: 800 × 448 pixels, open in the viewer](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/1bbe86fa9371d3325ba16b64e839f8a24a52d20e5015c031d130d76fb58cc0f1.webp)

## Step 1: Open Enhance

There are two ways in:

- **From the viewer:** open the image and click **Enhance** in the bar above it. The image is loaded for you.
- **From a thumbnail:** open the **...** menu on any image in your gallery and choose **Enhance**.

The example image was made with GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst at 800 × 448, and the viewer's **Info** panel shows its prompt. Enhance itself takes no prompt here. The prompt, as run:

```prompt
Key art from VOLTARIS, an invented free-to-play hero shooter. A young woman hero with warm brown skin, long box braids tied high with glowing cyan tips, silver hoop earrings and a cropped magenta bomber jacket with cyan piping skates fast on inline roller blades with glowing cyan wheels down the middle aisle of a salvage bazaar on a floating island at sunrise. Stalls built from old hull plates under patched canvas awnings, crates of glowing batteries, hanging cables and wind chimes, a sea of clouds beyond the railing. She leans into the turn, grinning, one arm out for balance. Medium-wide shot, her full figure in the center third, camera at hip height, warm low sun from the right with a cool rim light. No text, no signs with letters.

Style: stylized 3D at the standard of the best free-to-play hero shooters: bold readable silhouettes, appealing expressive faces, hand-tuned stylized PBR (painted metal, soft cloth, rubber), saturated but controlled palette, cinematic key light with a cool rim.
```

Enhance opens with an upscale model already picked, here **Topaz Image Upscale**, and your image under **Image**. To use another image, remove this one and drag, paste or upload a new one, or choose it with **Select from Library**.

![The Enhance panel with Topaz Image Upscale picked and the image loaded](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/6ee9631931fba2d818754d135f14bdd2aed4de9893a8c168a8f7372c17311c45.webp)

## Step 2: Set the scaling factor

**Scaling Factor** multiplies both sides of the image. At 4x, 800 × 448 becomes 3200 × 1792.

| Factor | 800 × 448 becomes | 1024 × 1024 becomes |
|---|---|---|
| 2x | 1600 × 896 | 2048 × 2048 |
| 4x | 3200 × 1792 | 4096 × 4096 |

Topaz also has a **Model** setting. It's a choice of Topaz's own models, not of upscaler:

- **Standard V2:** the general-purpose default.
- **Low Resolution V2:** for very small or heavily compressed sources.
- **CGI:** for digital art, renders and illustration.
- **High Fidelity V2:** keeps the most of the original detail.
- **Text Refine:** sharpens lettering without redrawing it. Use it for packshots, labels and posters.

**Subject Detection** tells Topaz what to focus on (for example the foreground subject). Leave it at **None** unless the background turns soft while the subject is sharp, or the other way round.

![Scaling Factor set to 4x in the Topaz panel](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/baca8674a24d371e59d500ccd5807067ceb4f3ad678058877ce6c6dbcd827155.webp)

## Step 3: Protect faces

Faces are where upscalers fail first: skin turns waxy, eyes change shape, and a person stops looking like themselves. **Face Enhancement** runs a second pass on faces only. This image has one, so turn it on.

![Face Enhancement switched on](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/dcf22d9b76817d9c89f0a5f899b5e932503ad11f66156e9ab9171d109ce2aad0.webp)

Under **Face Enhancement** there are two settings:

- **Creativity** sets how much the model may invent in the face. Keep it at **0** to stay true to the original. Raise it only to rescue a face that is too blurry to keep.
- **Strength** sets how much of the face pass is blended in. The default, 0.8, is a good start. Lower it if the face looks retouched.

![Creativity at 0 and Strength at 0.8 under Face Enhancement](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/54ee66d08c19b9e3f7d5682aa11f8282de05e34891c25d24ec47f3fa87edb59d.webp)

Click **Enhance**.

## Step 4: Check the result

The result opens in the viewer at full size: 3200 × 1792.

![The upscaled image, 3200 × 1792, in the viewer](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/148077d1657293adbf16423b793eb185b6d7a76420b0a508fb67e67db2ab14c8.webp)

The line across the image splits the original, on the left, from the upscale, on the right. Under the image, click **+** three times to zoom in, then drag the line over the parts that matter.

![The comparison line over the skater's leg, zoomed in](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/b5961c11a2d3a6d9b06040465f64a3fcb94d1ada7d3b1e35679ddf88272cebd5.webp)

Check at 100% or closer, not at the size the viewer opens at:

:::compare
![Before: the skater's face at 800 pixels wide, enlarged](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/3aa1f0a471c3f493cc588d61f7b300399a96d902a98f12d05eba5431dac6a53d.webp "Before")
![After: the same face after Topaz at 4x with Face Enhancement](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/793a6dada4fc9cf395936d1845a3ee8fa17f38cf5c3468cca3cfa21147d747dc.webp "After, Topaz 4x")
:::

:::check
**Accept when:** the face is the same person, edges are clean, textures look like the material they are (fabric, wood, metal), and any text reads exactly as in the original.
**Reject when:** skin is plastic, eyes or teeth changed, letters changed shape, patterns repeat in a grid, or there are halos along hard edges. Lower the factor, keep Creativity at 0, or switch model (next step).
:::

## Step 5: Choose another upscaler when you need to

To see every upscaler, click the model name at the top of the panel, then **View model library**. Under **Capabilities**, click **Show all** and tick **Image Upscale**.

![The model library open in Enhance](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/d5895adb68f1f66fa1900be647dbd67cd21bce5ec746971ce2ac5591f393b987.webp)

![The model library filtered to the 13 Image Upscale models](https://ufgc0c9mhl4ueq76.public.blob.vercel-storage.com/academy/51b661a4dd4052c0e018f9cc9de8b698bf188bf481367b3d60a7234ffdc05cbe.webp)

They fall into two families. **Fidelity** upscalers add resolution and keep what's there. **Creative** upscalers add detail that wasn't there, which can rescue a soft image but also changes it.

| Upscaler | Family | Best for | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topaz Image Upscale | Fidelity | Photos, renders, noisy images; Text Refine for lettering | Factor |
| Magnific Upscaler Precision | Fidelity | Approved work that must not change: products, architecture | 2x to 16x |
| Clarity Crystal Upscaler | Fidelity | Enlarging portraits, faces and product photos with minimal quality loss | Factor |
| SeedVR2 - Image Upscale | Fidelity | A fixed output (720p to 2160p) or 2x to 10x | Factor or target |
| P-Image Upscale | Fidelity | A final polish to a fixed size (1 to 8 megapixels) | Target or factor |
| Recraft Crisp Upscale | Fidelity | Quick, sharp edges, no settings | One click |
| Scenario Flux Upscale | Either, by preset | Stylized art; accepts a LoRA and style images | 2x to 8x |
| Scenario Upscale V3 | Either, by preset | Quick illustration upscales | Factor |
| Magnific Upscaler Creative | Creative | Concept art and illustration that needs new detail | 2x to 16x |
| Scenario Gemini Upscale | Creative | Graphic or stylized detail, outputs at 4K, Creativity 0 to 100 | 4K |
| Recraft Creative Upscale | Creative | Adding artistic detail in one click | One click |

The list also has **Clarity Pro Upscaler** and **Phota Enhance**. And two Scenario upscalers are made for one kind of image: **Scenario Texture Upscale** for tileable materials and **Scenario Skybox Upscale** for 360° panoramas. Use them for those, so seams and the horizon stay continuous.

### Scenario Flux Upscale settings

Scenario's own upscalers have controls the others don't:

- **Preset:** **Precise** keeps the original, **Balanced** adds some detail, **Creative** adds a lot.
- **Prompt:** describe the image or the finish you want, for example "fine fabric weave, crisp metal edges". If the image was made in Scenario, its prompt loads for you.
- **LoRA (Flux Upscale only):** pick the model that made the image to keep its style. An influence of 0.50 to 0.75 works best.
- **Style images:** up to 10 references, with **Style Fidelity** for how much they count.
- **Structure Fidelity** and **Creativity:** high Structure Fidelity and low Creativity stay close to the original; the reverse lets the model redraw.

Start at 2x with the **Precise** or **Balanced** preset, compare, then go higher only if you need to.

## Common problems

| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| The face looks like someone else | Turn on Face Enhancement, keep its Creativity at 0, or use a fidelity upscaler |
| Letters changed or turned to gibberish | Use Topaz with Model **Text Refine**, or Magnific Upscaler Precision; never a creative upscaler |
| Skin or surfaces look like plastic | Lower Creativity, or the Strength of the face pass |
| New objects or patterns appeared | Switch from a creative upscaler to a fidelity one, or lower the preset to Precise |
| A tileable texture shows a seam | Use Scenario Texture Upscale instead |
| The result is soft at 8x or more | Upscale 2x or 4x, check it, then upscale that result once more if you really need the size |

## What's next

The upscaled file is the one to deliver. Keep the original next to it in the same collection, so anyone can see what it came from and upscale it again with another model if needed.

Source: https://learn.scenario.com/images/upscale-and-enhance-images