Sharpen an Image
Add crispness to slightly soft photos, scans and downscaled images with an unsharp mask. Three controls let you bring out edges without making skin or skies grainy.
- On-device
- No sign-up
- Batch
- Free, no watermark
Drop images on the plate
or paste with Ctrl/⌘ V
Processed on this device
How it works
- 01Drop, choose or paste the images to sharpen.
- 02Adjust amount, radius and threshold while watching the preview.
- 03Select Process to sharpen the whole batch.
- 04Download each image, or select Download all for a ZIP.
Why use this tool
Classic unsharp mask
The same method photographers use: it raises contrast along edges so details look more defined.
Three real controls
Amount sets strength, radius sets edge width, and threshold protects smooth areas from added noise.
Live preview first
Check the effect on the first image before processing the batch, so you catch halos early.
Supported formats
Use cases
After downscaling
Photos shrunk for a website often look a little soft. A low amount with a small radius restores crisp edges.
Scanned documents
Text from a flatbed scan can look fuzzy. Moderate sharpening makes letters stand out more clearly for reading or printing.
Product detail shots
Bring out fabric weave, stitching or engraving in shop photos so buyers see texture in thumbnails and zoom views.
Technical details
An unsharp mask compares the image with a blurred copy of itself and boosts the difference. Amount controls how strong that boost is. Radius sets how wide the affected edge zone is: small values (around 1 px) suit fine detail, larger ones add punch to bigger shapes. Threshold skips areas where neighboring pixels differ only slightly, which keeps skin, skies and noise from getting gritty.
Sharpening can’t recover detail that was never captured. A photo that is truly out of focus or shaken stays blurry; sharpening only adds contrast to the edges that exist, and too much creates bright halos. If the image will be shrunk, sharpen after resizing, not before, because downscaling softens edges again. Start with modest settings and compare the preview at 100% zoom; sharpening that looks right on a large monitor can look harsh once the photo is viewed on a phone or printed.
Your files stay with you
This tool runs entirely inside your browser using Web Workers and WebAssembly. Your images are never uploaded, never stored on a server and never used to train AI. Close the tab and they’re gone. Learn more
Frequently asked questions
Can sharpening fix a blurry photo?
Only partly. It makes slightly soft images look crisper by increasing edge contrast. It can’t rebuild detail lost to missed focus or camera shake. Heavily blurred photos just gain halos and noise. Expect a modest improvement, not a rescued shot.
What are good unsharp mask settings?
For web photos, start with a low to medium amount, a radius around 1 px and a small threshold, then increase gradually. For scanned text, a slightly larger radius helps. Back off if you see bright outlines around dark edges.
What does the threshold setting do?
Threshold tells the sharpener to ignore small differences between neighboring pixels. Raising it leaves smooth areas such as skin, sky and walls untouched while still sharpening real edges. At zero, everything is sharpened, including noise and JPG artifacts.
Should I sharpen before or after resizing?
After. Downscaling softens an image, and sharpening first would be partly undone and could produce artifacts. Resize to the final size, then sharpen lightly. That way you tune the effect for exactly what viewers will see.
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