Image Enhancer

Use This Skill When

• Improving screenshot quality for blog posts or documentation
• Sharpening blurry or low-resolution images
• Upscaling images to higher resolution
• Preparing images for presentations or reports
• Reducing compression artifacts from JPEG images
• Cleaning up images before social media posting
• Batch processing multiple images
• Preparing visual content for printing

When NOT to Use

• Editing content or composition (different skill)
• Adding text or watermarks
• Professional photo retouching or color grading
• Creating new graphics from scratch
• Legal/forensic image analysis
• Images with privacy/sensitive information

Context: Image Quality Enhancement Maturity

Undeveloped: Use images as-is; blurry screenshots posted directly.

Target: Enhance resolution, sharpen details, reduce noise; optimize for use case.

Optimized: Automatic quality detection, ML-based upscaling, batch processing, use-case optimization (web vs. print vs. social).

Core Principle

Image quality reflects professionalism. Poor screenshots, blurry photos, or compressed artifacts undermine content. Enhancement improves clarity, readability, and visual impact with minimal manual effort.

Instructions

Step 1: Analyze Image Quality

Assess current image state:

## Image Analysis: screenshot.png

**Current Specs**:
- Resolution: 1920x1080 (native)
- Format: PNG
- File Size: 3.2 MB
- Color Depth: 24-bit
- Compression: Moderate

**Quality Assessment**:
- ✓ Good resolution for web
- ⚠️ Slight blur in text areas
- ⚠️ Some compression artifacts in gradients
- ✓ Colors well-saturated

**Recommendations**:
1. Sharpen text edges
2. Reduce gradient banding artifacts
3. Upscale to 2560x1440 for retina displays
4. Optimize file size for web delivery

Step 2: Choose Enhancement Strategy

Select based on use case:

Use Case	Strategy	Output Resolution	Format
Web display	Sharpen + optimize	1920-2560	PNG/WebP
Retina display	Upscale + sharpen	2x native (2560x1440)	PNG
Print (300dpi)	Upscale + detail enhance	High DPI	PNG/TIFF
Social media	Optimize + compress	1200-1600	JPG (optimized)
Documentation	Sharpen + artifact reduce	Native + 20%	PNG

Step 3: Apply Resolution Enhancement

Upscale intelligently:

# Option 1: 1.5x upscaling (minimal quality loss)
upscale --input original.png --output upscaled.png --factor 1.5

# Option 2: 2x upscaling (retina)
upscale --input original.png --output upscaled.png --factor 2

# Using AI/ML upscaling (preserves detail)
# Better than bicubic interpolation

Output comparison:

## Resolution Enhancement

**Original**: 1920x1080 (1 MB)
**After 1.5x Upscale**: 2880x1620 (2.1 MB)
**After 2x Upscale**: 3840x2160 (4K, 4.2 MB)

**Recommendation**: 1.5x for web, 2x for retina/print

Step 4: Enhance Sharpness and Details

Sharpen edges without over-processing:

# Apply unsharp mask (standard sharpening)
sharpen --input upscaled.png --output sharpened.png \
  --radius 0.5 --amount 1.0 --threshold 0

# Adaptive sharpening (preserves smooth areas)
sharpen --input upscaled.png --output sharpened.png \
  --method adaptive --strength medium

Before/after:

## Sharpness Enhancement

**Before**: Blurry text, soft edges
**After Sharpening**: Crisp text, defined boundaries

**Settings Applied**:
- Unsharp mask radius: 0.5
- Strength: 1.0x
- Preservation: Smooth gradients protected

**Result**: Text highly readable, no over-sharpening artifacts

Step 5: Reduce Compression Artifacts

Clean up JPEG compression artifacts:

# Reduce banding and block artifacts
denoise --input original.jpg --output denoised.jpg \
  --method nlm --strength 0.7  # Non-local means
  
# Alternative: bilateral filter (preserves edges)
bilateral --input original.jpg --output cleaned.jpg \
  --sigma-spatial 2 --sigma-intensity 20

Results:

## Artifact Reduction

**Common Artifacts Found**:
- JPEG blocking (8x8 block boundaries)
- Color banding in gradients
- Chroma subsampling halos

**After Denoising**:
✓ Blocks smoothed
✓ Banding reduced
✓ Colors blended naturally
✗ Minimal detail loss

Step 6: Optimize for Delivery

Optimize file size and format:

For Web:

# PNG for lossless (screenshots, text)
convert input.png -strip -interlace Plane \
  -quality 95 output.png

# WebP for better compression
cwebp -q 80 input.png -o output.webp

For Print:

# TIFF with 300 DPI
convert input.png -density 300x300 -format tiff output.tif

For Social Media:

# Optimize JPG for fast loading
jpegoptim --max=85 --strip-all input.jpg
# Result: 1200-1600px width, <200KB

Delivery optimization:

## Format Comparison

| Format | Size | Quality | Use |
|--------|------|---------|-----|
| PNG (native) | 3.2 MB | Lossless | Web, documentation |
| PNG (optimized) | 1.8 MB | Lossless | Balance of size/quality |
| WebP | 1.2 MB | 80% quality | Modern web (95% browser support) |
| JPG (80%) | 0.9 MB | 80% quality | Social media |
| TIFF (300dpi) | 8.1 MB | Lossless | Print |

**Recommended**: WebP for web (best compression)
**Fallback**: PNG for universal compatibility

Step 7: Batch Process Multiple Images

Enhance entire folder:

#!/bin/bash
# enhance-images.sh

INPUT_DIR="${1:-.}"
OUTPUT_DIR="${INPUT_DIR}/enhanced"
SCALE_FACTOR="${2:-1.5}"

mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

for img in "$INPUT_DIR"/*.{png,jpg,jpeg}; do
  if [ -f "$img" ]; then
    filename=$(basename "$img")
    echo "Processing $filename..."
    
    # Upscale + sharpen + optimize
    convert "$img" \
      -scale $(($(identify -format %w "$img") * SCALE_FACTOR / 100))x \
      \( +clone -blur 0x0.5 \) \
      -compose Difference -composite \
      +compose \
      -compose Multiply -composite \
      "$OUTPUT_DIR/enhanced-$filename"
      
    echo "✓ Saved to $OUTPUT_DIR/enhanced-$filename"
  fi
done

Run:

chmod +x enhance-images.sh
./enhance-images.sh ~/screenshots 150  # 1.5x upscale

Step 8: Quality Assurance

Verify enhancements:

## QA Checklist

**Visual Quality**:
- [ ] Text is crisp and readable
- [ ] No excessive sharpening artifacts
- [ ] Colors accurate (not oversaturated)
- [ ] Smooth gradients (no banding)
- [ ] Edges clean (no halos)

**File Size**:
- [ ] Web images <2MB
- [ ] Social media <300KB
- [ ] Print-ready at 300 DPI

**Format Appropriateness**:
- [ ] PNG for graphics/screenshots
- [ ] JPG for photographs
- [ ] WebP for modern web
- [ ] TIFF for print

**Before/After**:
- [ ] Original preserved with -original suffix
- [ ] Enhanced version shows clear improvement
- [ ] No significant quality loss compared to original

Common Enhancements

Issue	Solution
Blurry text	Sharpen with unsharp mask, increase radius
Low resolution	Upscale 1.5-2x with AI/ML method
Compression artifacts	Denoise with NLM or bilateral filter
Color banding	Apply noise dithering or gradient smoothing
Large file size	Convert to WebP, reduce DPI to 72 for web
Pixelated edges	Gentle blur + sharpen combination

Output

Deliver:

1. Quality Analysis (current state assessment)
2. Enhancement Strategy (recommended approach for use case)
3. Before/After Comparison (visual improvement documented)
4. Optimized Files
   • Enhanced version with clear naming
   • Original preserved with -original suffix
   • File size reduction percentage
5. Format Recommendations (PNG/JPG/WebP based on context)
6. Batch Processing Results (if multiple images)