With Adobe, Super Resolution is literally just an on/off switch that lets you double the linear resolution – that is to say, the width and height – of an image (or, put another way, quadruple their megapixel resolution). It's worth noting up front the most immediately obvious difference between the trio of AI options: their interfaces and overall capabilities. Three different approaches to UI and complexity The Super Resolution tool in both Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom is an on/off switch, with no user controls whatsoever available.

Let's take a look at how it stacks up to what Adobe and ON1 have to offer. And hot on the heels of an update promising even better results, I was keen to learn how it compared both to its nearest rivals. My time with Photo AI made me extremely curious to see how the program from which Photo AI drew its resolution-enhancing algorithms, Topaz Gigapixel AI, might perform given its rather greater selection of controls.

Even when processing photos with quite low resolutions it delivered usable enlargements, with the only Achilles' heel being the results when shots included recognizable logos or barely-readable text. Although I've used competing resolution-boosting tools like Adobe's Super Resolution and ON1 Resize AI in the past, I was nevertheless surprised by the usability of Photo AI's resolution enhancement. In my recent review of Topaz Labs' Photo AI, I came away more than a little impressed by its AI-powered Enhance Resolution function.

Gigapixel upscale