Crisper photos in seconds
Photos can look soft for many reasons: a slightly missed focus, a cheap lens, resizing, or a scan of a printed picture. Sharpening increases the contrast along edges so details look defined again.
This tool uses an unsharp mask — the same technique photo editors use — with two controls: amount (how strong) and radius (how wide the edges are). A before/after slider shows the difference, and the final image is processed at full resolution.
How to sharpen a photo
- 1
Open the photo
Choose, drag in or paste it.
- 2
Set the amount
Start around 60–100%. Increase slowly while comparing.
- 3
Adjust the radius
0.5–1.5 px for fine detail like hair and text, 2–4 px for overall punch.
- 4
Download
Save the sharpened photo in its original format.
Key features
Unsharp mask
Natural-looking sharpening, not a harsh filter.
Amount and radius
Fine control for fine detail or bold edges.
Before/after slider
Judge the effect on the actual picture.
More adjustments
Brightness, contrast, grayscale and blur are in the same tool.
Common uses
- Product photos: Make textures and labels look crisp for online listings.
- Scanned documents and photos: Improve legibility of text and fine lines.
- After resizing: Restore snap to images that got soft when made smaller.
Tips and good to know
- Sharpening can't rescue a photo that's badly out of focus or heavily motion-blurred — it enhances detail that's there, it doesn't invent new detail.
- Too much sharpening creates bright halos along edges. If you see them, lower the amount.
- Sharpen as the last step, after resizing with the Image Resizer.