Smart expand: continue the edge without AI
Carry the edges of a photo outward so the sky, sea or wall simply keeps going.
Skies, seas, walls and soft backgrounds at the edge show it at its best.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Photos stay on your device
For this conversion the model is within reach: about 266 new columns on each side, 6 passes of about 15 seconds in total, after a one-time download you have to agree to. Smart extend is what the page starts on, and it needs no download at all.
Measured on a 1600 x 1200 photo (4:3): a 2,133 x 1,200 canvas, 266 new columns a side. Open your own photograph and the rail recomputes all of it against that file. It continues a wall, a sky, a lawn, gravel, water or a soft out-of-focus background, because those carry on past the frame in a way that is predictable from the edge itself. Every limit, in one table.
The seam's own texture carried across, then its colours run outward along the lines that meet the frame — at their own angle — and soften with distance. Instant, and the same every time.
Opens at 16:9 with smart extend and a 12 px seam feather. Smart extend is the base the model starts from, so switching to Continue the edge later keeps this as its starting point.
Smart extend is the base the model starts from
Before the model runs — or wherever it is not offered — the edge you see under Continue the edge is smart extend. That makes it the honest fallback: if the model is out of reach for your shape, what you get is not an empty rectangle but this, and the reach line says which you are looking at.
What it has to build
| Photo | Shape | Canvas | Built |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1600 × 1200 | 16:9 | 2,133 × 1,200 | 25% |
| 1600 × 1200 | 21:9 | 2,800 × 1,200 | 43% |
| 1600 × 1200 | 1:1 | 1,600 × 1,600 | 25% |
| 1080 × 1350 | 16:9 | 2,400 × 1,350 | 55% |
The awkward questions
What does smart extend actually do?
Two things, mixed by distance from the seam. Right at the join, the texture just inside the photo is reflected across, so grain and fine detail continue. Further out, the edge's own colours are carried outward and blurred along the edge by an amount that grows with distance — so structure fades rather than streaks. It runs in a few milliseconds and gives the same pixels every time.
Does it keep a diagonal line going?
It tries to. The outer 32 pixels of each side are read for the direction lines are travelling in (a structure tensor, in the jargon), and where one direction clearly dominates — a road, a shoreline, a roof edge — the colours are carried out along that angle instead of straight across. Where nothing dominates, it falls back to straight across, which is right for texture.
When should I use it instead of the AI fill?
Whenever the edge is sky, a wall, a gradient, water or a soft background, and especially when the model is not offered for your shape. Smart extend is also what the model starts from: the model only replaces what smart extend has already laid down.
Where does it go wrong?
Faces, hands, text and anything with a recognisable shape at the edge. It continues colours and lines, not objects, so a person cut by the frame stays cut — and the fill beside them turns soft. Blurred cover is the safer choice there.
Is anything uploaded or downloaded?
Neither. Smart extend is arithmetic on the pixels you opened, in this tab, with no model and no request.
Related
- Continue the edge with a modelAn inpainting model, 26,639,447 bytes, downloaded once on request, asked what carries on past the edge of your photograph.
- Extend an image on one sideWiden one side, or two, to make room for a title or a crop-safe margin — the rest of the frame stays put.
- Mirror the edgeReflect the real edge pixels into the added canvas, with an adjustable feather at the join.
- Six ways to fill an edge that was never photographedWhat each fill flatters, what each one ruins, and how to tell which you are holding.