How to Fix a Pixelated Photo

Why Photos Get Pixelated

Pixelation happens when an image doesn't have enough pixels to display clearly at the size you're viewing it. The most common cause: zooming into a photo or enlarging a small image. Each pixel becomes a visible colored block instead of blending smoothly. Heavy JPEG compression, screenshots of screenshots, and images pulled from social media at reduced resolution all produce the same blocky, jagged look.

Pixelation vs. Blur: Different Problems, Different Fixes

Pixelation creates hard, blocky edges — the image looks like a mosaic of colored squares. Blur creates soft, smeared edges — the image looks like it was shot through frosted glass. Many damaged images have both: pixelated blocks with blurry transitions. AI handles each differently. For pixelation, it reconstructs smooth edges between color blocks. For blur, it sharpens and recovers edge detail. When both are present, it addresses the blockiness first, then sharpens.

Common Causes of Pixelated Images

• Enlarging a small image beyond its native resolution
• Cropping tightly into a photo and then zooming to full size
• Heavy JPEG compression (low quality export settings)
• Images downloaded from social media at reduced resolution
• Screenshots of images that were already compressed
• Old camera photos with very low megapixel counts
• Scanned printouts of photos that were already low quality

How AI Reconstructs Pixel Detail

AI upscaling doesn't just stretch pixels — it predicts what should be between them. Trained on millions of sharp images, the AI knows what edges, textures, and gradients look like at high resolution. When it sees a blocky 200x200 image, it fills in the missing detail: smooth skin where there were jagged blocks, clean text where there were pixelated letters, and natural fabric texture where there was a grid of colored squares.

Tips for the Best Depixelation Results

Start with 'fix the pixelation and sharpen' for a general fix. If the image has faces, try 'fix the pixelated face and restore the features' — AI prioritizes facial reconstruction when prompted. For text in pixelated screenshots, 'make the text readable' focuses the AI on letter edges. If the result looks too smooth or artificial, follow up with 'add natural texture back' to avoid the plastic look.