Will the restored photo look like the original people?

The tools are instructed to keep every face, pose and outfit as photographed and to repair only the damage, so a lightly damaged print usually comes back looking like itself. Where a face was torn, stained or badly blurred, the missing part is reconstructed from what remains, and that reconstruction can drift from the real person. Compare it with other photos of them before you print.

How does colorizing know what color things were?

It does not know; it infers. The colorizer chooses plausible colors from the era, the setting and the materials it sees, so a uniform, a car or a dress may come out in a color other than the true one. If you remember the real colors, type them into the hints field and the tool will follow them.

No. A phone photo of the print laid flat in even daylight works, and the Photo-of-a-Photo Fixer removes the glare, tilt and shadow that phone shots pick up. A flatbed scan at 600 dpi gives the tools more to work with, so use one when you can.

Can I use the results for a memorial, a book or a family tree?

Yes. Under the Terms of Service you keep ownership of what you upload and what is restored, and you may print, frame, publish and share the results. Because they are AI reconstructions, say so where the context calls for it, for example in a genealogical record or a historical publication.

What does it cost to restore a shoebox of prints?

On the Starter plan a Standard restoration works out to about 6 cents, so a hundred prints is a few dollars. Pro and Max tiers send more of the scan and cost more per photo; the pricing page has the full table.

What kind of scan works best?

The largest, flattest, most evenly lit version you have. Scan the whole print including the border, do not crop the damage out, and turn off any automatic sharpening or dust removal in the scanner software so the tools see the real print.

01 AI-powered photo restoration

Bring the old photos back.

Upload a scan or a phone photo of the print. The AI repairs tears, creases and stains, recovers faded color and sharpens faces, with 27 tools for everything from Polaroids to tintypes.

Restore a photo free See pricing

Free to try. No card needed.

27: restoration tools
4: free credits to start
~20 s: per pass

The original scan: torn, creased, stained and faded

The same photograph restored and colorized

RestoredAI-restored

Torn cornerCreasesWater stainsFadedColorized

Original scan

02 One print, four passes

The same scan, four passes later.

Nothing here was touched by hand. One print was scanned once and sent through the Studio: restore, then colorize, then face recovery, then upscale.

Four passes from one scan, and the next print in the box takes the same four clicks.

00 The scan

01 Restored

02 Colorized

03 Faces recovered

04 Enlarged for print

03 What we fix

Tears, fading, stains, blur, grain.

Scratches and creases are closed, water stains and foxing lifted, silvering and yellowing corrected, and soft or grainy prints sharpened. Missing corners are filled, red-eye and date stamps removed, and a black-and-white print can be colorized from era palettes or the colors you remember.

Bring the old photos back.

The same scan, four passes later.

Tears, fading, stains, blur, grain.

27 tools, one old photograph.

Polaroids, tintypes, slides, newsprint, scans.

Faces, group photos, memorial portraits.

Guides for the photos families actually keep.

Prints by decade, 1860s to 1990s

Upload. Restore. Print.

Upload the photo

Choose the repair

Review, then print

A restoration, not a re-creation

The photograph stays the photograph

Colors are inferred

Faces are recovered, and sometimes rebuilt

Your original is never touched

Priced per photo, not per hour.

Questions families ask.

Will the restored photo look like the original people?

How does colorizing know what color things were?

Do I need a scanner?

Can I use the results for a memorial, a book or a family tree?

What does it cost to restore a shoebox of prints?

What kind of scan works best?

The photo you were thinking of is one upload away.