How to restore color and sharpness of old photos

[ajgreeny]

This post may do no more than increase the confusion but as I have many old faded photos I thought it worth trying Upscayl but I tried it as the appimage version 2.9.8

It opened fine though I did run command

sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0

to overcome the apparmor problem of certain electron apps (except VS Code) not working in 24.04.
That command may be no longer needed but I tried it without that command two days ago and it would not open or run at all. However when I started the appimage today I was immediately offered an upgrade of the version from 2.9.8 to this one, 2.11.5
Upscayl starts fine and appears to run but any jpg files dragged to it and saved as .jpg simply end up as a useless black image, nothing like the original though saving as a .png works fine

I have never used any flatpack applications but I may try that next, however I wonder if anyone else has managed to get the appimage to work and produce a useful .jpg output image.

[Dennis N]

Still fail to start Upscayl

Your output appears to show the program has started. Your problem is that the GUI window does not appear.
Are you using Wayland? If so, try Xorg session at login screen. Then try again to run it.
If the Flatpak fails with Xorg, I found a .deb file for Upscayl here:
https://github.com/upscayl/upscayl/releases
That might work better for you.

[1fallen]

I found a .deb file for Upscayl here:
https://github.com/upscayl/upscayl/releases
That might work better for you.

+100 Nice Job works every bit as good as the Flatpak

@satimis if you wish to remove the flatpak version use:

flatpak remove org.upscayl.Upscayl

###And:

sudo flatpak repair

it cleans it out:

Working on the system installation at /var/lib/flatpak
[12/12] Verifying flathub:runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/23.08…
Checking remotes...
Pruning objects
Erasing .removed

If you want to Dump Flatpaks all together run:

 sudo apt autoremove --purge flatpak

[1fallen]

however I wonder if anyone else has managed to get the appimage to work and produce a useful .jpg output image.

It needs work ajgreeny, it's not as functionable.

'/home/me/upscayl-2.11.5-linux.AppImage' --no-sandbox

I don't like suggesting "sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0" many don't know why.
But for you and i it's ok, we know better.

Good Info here: Source: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/spec-...tu-23-10/37626

[ajgreeny]

I tried again using your suggested --no-sandbox option and this time no longer using that sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0 as I had rebooted.

The appimage opened fine but unfortunately it could not save an image other than the full black one mentioned previously.
For now I've given up as it is not important enough for me to keep working on it though I may try the flatpack or the .deb version mentioned in post from Dennis N in post #22

EDIT: One hour later.
Just downloaded the .deb version and tried it but I still cannot get it to output anything other than a totally black image whether .png or .jpg so now I definitely have given up on it.

[satimis]

Hi all,

Upscayl problem solved finally as follow;

1. Uninstall Upscayl flatpak package
$ flatpak uninstall org.upscayl.Upscayl

2. Install Upscayl snap package
$ sudo snap install upscayl

3. Add Upscayl icon on the Menu bar

4. Click Upscayl icon to start the application
Upscayl started.

Please refer to the screenshot attached.

Regard

[satimis]

I tried your original image in Upscayl and I think I can get a much better result. Using Fast Real-Esrgan. You should try it out.

For corrections to contrast, gamma, saturation, color balancing etc. I use gthumb. Easy.

Hi Dennis N,

Just tried your advice.

"Fast Real-Esrgan" is on Step-2

Where is "gthumb" ? (pls refers to attached screenshot)

Thanks

Regards

[satimis]

Hi Dennis N,

Further to my last posting:

After Googling a while on Internet, it comes to my understanding Upscayl only increasing the resolution of an image but doing nothing on color and other problems.

However still I can't run it to upgrade image resolution.

🚨 Error: Invalid GPU Device

Please refers to attached screenshot

Regards

[Dennis N]

If you Google with the error message "vkenumeratephysicaldevices failed -3 Error: Invalid GPU Device" you will get some results with suggestions. Hopefully one will work for you. My computer has Intel integrated graphics and I have no problems.

Unrelated to the error: Your scale is set to 8x which will produce a very big image file. Realize that the dimensions of the image will multiply by 8. So 500 x400 original will result in 4000 x 3200 pixels upscaled image and a very big file size as well. Too large for normal use.

[satimis]

If you Google with the error message "vkenumeratephysicaldevices failed -3 Error: Invalid GPU Device" you will get some results with suggestions. Hopefully one will work for you. My computer has Intel integr
Unrelated to the error: Your scale is set to 8x which will produce a very big image file. Realize that the dimensions of the image will multiply by 8. So 500 x400 original will result in 4000 x 3200 pixels upscaled image and a very big file size as well. Too large for normal use.ated graphics and I have no problems.

- snip -

Hi Dennis N,

Before posting #28 I have googling a while. Unfortunately I could not find a solution. I'm running AMD Ryzen5 on my PC.

I have tried following commands on Terminal;
$ convert -enhance -equalize -contrast original.jpg improved.jpg

and

$ convert -auto-gamma -auto-level -normalize original.jpg improved.jpg

They both work but the color quality is still poor. I think I have to run GIMP or Darkroom to do the job.

I have no problem adding blue sky to old photos either online or on DaVinci Resolve. It is very easy using online website, completely FREE

Regards