Old Photo Restorer
Bring a scratched, faded or torn print back to a clean, sharp photo
4 free credits on sign-up — your first Standard image with any tool, no card required.
- 01Scan or photograph the old print flat, in even light
- 02Upload it and press Make; the tool reads the damage on its own
- 03Compare, then colorize, upscale or download the restored photo
Drag the handle: the uploaded photo on the left, what the tool made on the right.
The prints in the shoebox are fading, and a phone photo of them shows every crease. Old Photo Restorer takes that scan or snapshot and hands back a clean version. Rebuild a grandparent's wedding portrait for a memorial print, rescue a torn school picture for a family archive, sharpen a water-stained snapshot for a reunion slideshow, or prepare a century-old street scene for framing. The tool repairs damage, scratches, folds, stains and color fading, and recovers clarity in soft areas. What it preserves is what matters: the people remain themselves, the period look of the print stays, and the composition is unchanged. Nothing is modernized or restyled.
This tool runs without options because the damage tells it what to do. It identifies creases, tears, spots and mold marks and fills them from the surrounding image; it lifts faded contrast and tired color back toward how the print would have looked new; and it sharpens without smoothing away the film grain that makes an old photo feel old. Use the Compare button on the result to flip between the scan and the restoration. Look at faces first, since eyes and mouths are where a repair can drift, then at any hands, text or patterns near the worst damage. Heavily damaged faces may need a second pass or a small edit afterward.
Once the restored image sits on the canvas you can take it further. Colorize it with the Black-and-White Colorizer, ask in plain words to remove a remaining spot or lighten a corner, upscale it so a small print becomes a large one, or make a short video that slowly reveals the restored face. Sending the result to Face Cleanup handles any final skin repairs. Each restoration costs 4 credits on Standard, 12 on Pro and 44 on Max. New accounts begin with 4 free credits, which covers one Standard restoration and requires no card to unlock.
What you set
- A scan or photo of the old print
After it's made
- Change details with a sentence, or hand it to any other tool
- Standard, Pro and Max quality on every make
- Enlarge to 32 megapixels or turn it into a short clip
- Every image saved to your library, downloadable full size
About this tool
- Do I need a scanner, or is a phone photo of the print enough?
- A phone photo works if you take it carefully: lay the print flat, use daylight or an even lamp without glare, fill the frame and hold the phone parallel to the paper. A flatbed scan gives sharper input and a better result, especially for small prints, but plenty of people restore straight from a phone picture.
- How is this different from Photo Polish or Face Cleanup?
- Photo Polish tidies a modern photo that is already intact; Face Cleanup is about skin and features on a recent portrait. Old Photo Restorer is built for physical damage and age: tears, creases, stains, fading, chemical spots and the softness of old lenses. Run it first on anything vintage, then follow with those tools if needed.
- Can I use a photo where part of the face is torn away?
- Yes, and small missing pieces such as a chunk of cheek or a corner of the hairline are rebuilt from the surrounding features. When a large portion of the face is gone, the tool has to guess, and the person may not look quite like themselves. In that case, compare closely and consider a second reference photo of the same person in Edit With Words.
- Will it keep the sepia tone and the old-photo feel?
- It keeps the original look and grain rather than converting the picture into a modern-looking file. Fading is corrected, so a washed-out sepia print gets its depth back, but it stays sepia. If you want true color, that is a separate step: send the restored image to the Black-and-White Colorizer.
- Can I try Old Photo Restorer before paying?
- Yes. A new account starts with 4 free credits, which covers your first Standard image with Old Photo Restorer — no card required. After that, credits come from a monthly plan or a one-time pack.
Often used next
Black-and-White Colorizer
Give a black-and-white photo natural, period-true color
Image Upscaler
Enlarge any image to 4, 8, 16 or 32 megapixels with detail added, not smeared
Face Cleanup
Clear temporary blemishes and even out skin while your freckles stay put
Photo Polish
Polish any photo: clean spots, balanced light and true colors, framing kept
Made for