Photo restore freeware

MouldyOldDough

I am looking for free photo restore software - to restore/improve some 100+ year old scanned photos

Some are OK but others are torn/damaged

Neil_Jones

MouldyOldDough said:

I am looking for free photo restore software - to restore/improve some 100+ year old scanned photos

Some are OK but others are torn/damaged

No software will be 100% perfect for this as the damage will be bespoke to each slide.

You may have to fix each one individually based on its need and its condition.

You can't just chunk 100 pictures at some slides and say here fix this - doesn't work like that.  Software's not going to know what's wrong with it.

You can make use of paint.net or similar to try and fix it:

https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/24078-how-to-fix-scanned-images/ might be of interest.

But don't expect miracles, particularly if the photos start off damaged, it doesn't always get better.

fenlander_uk

You might also try Pixlr E - a free online image editor. It has many of the features of Photoshop Elements, is free and being online requires no software installation. Essential for this sort of restoration are Heal and Clone functions to remove dust spots, folds and other signs of damage. Pixlr has both, unlike many lightweight image editors.

MouldyOldDough

fenlander_uk said:

You might also try Pixlr E - a free online image editor. It has many of the features of Photoshop Elements, is free and being online requires no software installation. Essential for this sort of restoration are Heal and Clone functions to remove dust spots, folds and other signs of damage. Pixlr has both, unlike many lightweight image editors.

Thanks - that looks quite good

frostysaver

These days there's various AI tools specifically designed for restoring old and damaged photos, which don't need you to be a Photoshop expert.

Google "'restore photo" to find ones you want to try.

For example https://github.com/microsoft/Bringing-Old-Photos-Back-to-Life

halfamo

Image analyser is very good and free.

Olinda99

if you do 'restore' them, might be worth also keeping the originals.