Why pixel art needs its own scaler
Pixel art is drawn on a grid where every pixel is a decision. Smooth filters blend neighbouring pixels into new colours and blur the grid. Integer nearest-neighbour scaling copies each pixel into an exact N × N block, so nothing changes but size. Non-integer factors make some pixels wider than others, which is why this tool only offers whole multiples.
Scale2x and Scale3x
The EPX family looks at each pixel’s neighbours and, where two neighbouring edges agree, takes a corner from them — rounding diagonal staircases into cleaner lines. Every output colour already existed in the sprite, so palettes stay intact. Scale4x is Scale2x applied twice.
Restore an enlarged sprite
Sprites are often shared already enlarged. The detector finds the spacing of colour changes on both axes and checks the blocks are uniform; if your sprite is a 6× copy of a 40 × 40 original, it says so and can restore the 40 × 40 file for clean rescaling.
Questions
What is the best way to upscale pixel art?
Integer nearest-neighbour for a faithful enlargement; Scale2x or Scale3x if you want smoother diagonals without blur. Save as PNG to keep every pixel exact.
Why does my sprite look blurry in other apps?
Most apps and browsers smooth images when scaling. Export at the final display size from here, or set image-rendering: pixelated in CSS.
Is transparency kept?
Yes. Transparent pixels are copied like any other colour, and PNG output keeps them.
Is my picture uploaded anywhere?
No. Decoding, scaling and encoding all run in this browser tab, and the scaling engine runs in a Web Worker with no network code in it. The only download the site can make for you is an AI model file, and only after you press the button that names its size — that request contains no picture.