Introduction
The AI Enhance tool sharpens, upscales and restores images using models from Topaz Labs.
Do you always need a dedicated upscaler?
Often you do not. Pencil's frontier image models generate natively at up to 4K, so for many jobs you get an excellent upscale, frequently a better one, simply by running your image through one of them as a faithful image-to-image pass. This matters most where text is involved: ChatGPT Image 2, Nano Banana Pro and Nano Banana 2 can often preserve text more reliably than a dedicated upscaler, keeping letters sharp and legible. ChatGPT Image 2 in particular has the most coherent text rendering.
These general purpose image models can generate and upscale up to 4K. To upscale this way, run your image through one of the frontier models and ask for a faithful result.
For example:
"Upscale this image to a higher resolution. Keep every detail exactly as it is: preserve all text so it stays sharp and legible, hold the original composition, colours, lighting and textures, and do not add, remove or reinterpret anything. Return a clean, high-fidelity version of the same image."
You can also resize and rescale creatives in this way using the methods like the Key Visual Resize Workflow.
Since frontier image models reliably upscale creatives up to 4K resolution natively, with a high degree of accuracy and fidelity, using the Topaz upscalers is generally only recommended when you need to go beyond 4K.
How do I use the Image Enhance feature?
In Ads Editor, click on any image to open that image's Image Settings panel, then choose AI Enhance and pick a model under Select Provider.
Which Topaz upscaler should you use?
Pencil offers four Topaz models, each costing one credit per image. Choose based on the state of your source image:
Standard Max is an efficient generative model, introduced in late 2025, that gives precise, natural detail and restoration across a wide range of images, without long processing times. It is a solid default for everyday upscaling.
Recovery V2 is a speed-optimised generative model from around mid-2025, built for low-resolution or small images. Reach for it with old, compressed or heavily degraded photos.
Wonder is a powerful one-step repair model, also released in late 2025, for highly compressed, soft or very low-quality images. It cleans up and restores in a single pass, with no manual setup.
High Fidelity V2 is the original and oldest Topaz model in Pencil, dating to 2023. It stays close to the source and enhances detail with minimal smoothing, so it suits images that are already high quality, such as sharp portraits. For most other work, the three newer models above tend to give stronger results.
Redefine is a prompt-driven, highly creative generative model, introduced in late 2024. You guide it with a text description to rebuild structural detail and add new creative elements, which suits heavily degraded graphics and VFX work. It is the most creative of the set, so expect it to invent detail rather than stay strictly faithful to the source.
The three newer models share the same controls. You set how much to upscale, up to 4x, under Enhancement Options, choose a Subject Detection focus, switch on Face Enhancement with its creativity and strength sliders, toggle Crop to Fill, add an optional Prompt or let Auto-Prompt write one, and fine-tune with the Creativity, Texture and Sharpen sliders. High Fidelity V2 offers a simpler subset of these.