Topaz Labs releases Gigapixel 7
Topaz Labs has released Gigapixel 7, the latest major version of its AI-trained software for up-resing photos or rendered images without softening them or introducing noise.
Version 7.0 overhauls the software’s AI engine to improve consistency and performance on modern GPUs, refreshes the user interface, and improves handling of camera RAW images.
Machine-learning-trained tool enlarges images without sacrificing detail
Originally known as Gigapixel AI, Gigapixel is designed to enlarge digital images while preserving their sharpness, using machine learning techniques to fill in the missing details.
Its algorithms are trained using a data set of “millions of photos of all subjects and styles”, and can enlarge photos by “up to 600%” before image quality starts to drop visibly.
Although it’s marketed primarily at photographers, it can also be used on rendered imagery, and has had a dedicated AI mode for CG images since version 5.3.
As well as upscaling low-res renders to generate high-res images more quickly, users can remove residual noise from renders by upscaling them, then reducing them to their original size.
Gigapixel 7.0: revamped AI engine and user interface
Gigapixel 7.0 features a “massive amount of changes”, albeit largely under the hood, including an overhaul of the AI engine to make it “faster and compatible with newer GPUs”.
Topaz Labs has also rolled out version 2 of two of the software’s AI models, Standard and High Fidelity, improving consistency of deblur and grain preservation operations.
The update also refreshes the software’s UI, which now supports panning and pinch-to-zoom gestures in previews, and before/after comparisons in split-screen and side-by-side views.
Users can now drag to move the file list up and down, and use keyboard shortcuts to select or deselect all of the images in the list.
In addition, handling of previews of camera RAW images have been updated to be closer to Photo AI, Topaz Labs’ dedicated photo-enhancement software.
Price and system requirements
Gigapixel 7.0 is available as a standalone application for Windows 10+ and macOS 11.0+; and as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. New licences cost $99.
The software is OpenGL-based, and supports AMD, Apple Silicon, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs.
Read a full list of new features in Gigapixel 7.0 in the online release notes
Visit the Gigapixel product website
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