It’s always fascinating to look at photos from the past, whether they be historical ones or photos depicting regular day-to-day life. Until recently we have only been able to admire these types of images in their original black and white form, but that’s no longer the case anymore. Thanks to AI photo restoration tools, we can now colorize old photographs and get a new perspective on them. Even better, photo restoration technology has reached a point where it can easily be used by anyone. No technical skills required. With that in mind, join us as we take a look at some of the best AI photo restoration tools currently available.
Best 10 Old Photo Restoration Tools
1. Vance AI Photo Colorizer
Price: Starts at $9.90/mo
We’re kicking things off with one of the best image colorizer tools out there. Vance AI is a company that specializes exclusively in developing intuitive and easy to use online tools based on artificial intelligence. The company joined this emerging market fairly recently but its developers are industry veterans with many years of experience under their belts. In addition to the Photo Colorizer, Vance AI also offers an amazing image enhancer, background remover, sketch converter and many other interesting tools.
The photo enhancer is looking to be the company’s most popular tool at the moment but the colorizer is quickly catching up, and it’s easy to see why. Being able to add color to black and white images with just one click using an AI photo restoration tool is quite incredible. Not only can you colorize photo easily with this tool but you can also do it in bulk thanks to the batch processing feature. Plus, the price is very good as well considering a single subscription gives you access to all the other tools developed by the company.
Interestingly enough, Vance AI offers an additional old photo restoration tool, only this one is designed to fix scratches, spots, and various other types of damage.
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Fast processing times
- Bulk processing
Cons:
- No manual tunning
- Requires Pro subscription for best results
- Limited free trial
2. Colourise.com
Price: Free
Colourise.com was one of the first websites ever to offer an AI photo restoration tool. While the site feels a bit simplistic compared to some of the more modern ones like Vance AI, Colourise.com can certainly still get the job done. The main advantage of the site is that it was designed for a single purpose – old picture restoration – and it fulfils that purpose marvelously. You don’t need to stumble around the website trying to find the colorizer because you are greeted by it immediately. Meanwhile, the simple 3-step process makes colorizing any image a breeze.
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Fast processing times
- Impressive results
Cons:
- No batch processing
- Doesn’t support images larger than 1200 x 1200 px
- Only supports three image formats
Also read:How to Colorize Black and White photos with Algorithmia?
3. MyHeritage
Price: Free
A neat website with a very catchy tagline – see your heritage in color. MyHeritage specializes in historical old photo restoration, though it works just as well with more recent images as well. If you have a black and white image from decades ago MyHeritage will automatically colorize it using the power of artificial intelligence. You can also use the website to turn faded or yellowed photographs back into their original selves, complete with vibrant colors. In fact, the tool will probably make them even better than the originals.
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Restores both B&W and faded photos
- Impressive results
Cons:
- Requires signing up before using
- No sample images to try
- No batch processing
4. Hotpot
Price: Free
Hotpot is an appropriate name for a website that offers a veritable melting pot of tools ranging from YouTube banner creators to image resizers and everything in between. Of course, there’s also an AI photo restoration tool, however, this one doesn’t colorize photos. Hotpot’s tool is meant to repair damaged digital images, be they black and white or colored ones. If you do want to colorize images on Hotpot, there is a separate tool that can help you with that but it’s less impressive than the ones covered so far.
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Fast processing times
- Can print restored photos
Cons:
- No interesting features
- No sample images to try
- No batch processing
5. ImageColorizer
Price: Starting at $6/mo
Whether you’re looking for an old photo restoration software, image retoucher or black and white colorizer, this site has everything you need. The old photo restoration app, in particular, is quite impressive and capable of repairing scratches or any other type of damage from your images. No need to worry about having to sign up for an account if you only want to restore a few photos. However, the free trial is quite limited so if you need to use the tool on a consistent basis you will have to buy a subscription.
Pros:
- Very easy to use
- Supports images up to 3000 x 3000 px
- Good performance
Cons:
- Some features locked behind yearly subscription
- Only supports three image formats
- Limited free trial
6. Nvidia Image Inpainting
Price: Free
Nvidia has been focusing a lot on artificial intelligence lately and it’s starting to pay off big time. Some of the AI tools developed by the company so far include Vid2Vid Cameo, which turns 2D images into 3D models and Gaugan, a tool that creates photorealistic images from basic sketches. Then, there’s Image Inpainting. This multi-purpose tool has quite a few applications, including removing unwanted objects or people from images and removing damage from old photographs. You simply select an area to remove and the AI will fill in the blank with new pixels.
Pros:
- Multi-purpose
- No limitation on image size
- Good performance
Cons:
- Results can vary
- No auto mode
- Requires some trial and error
7. PixBim
Price: $37.99
This next AI photo restoration tool works remarkably similar to the one offered by Nvidia in that it can both restore old photographs and remove unwanted objects from them. However, this one is a bit more complex and can’t be used directly from your browser. The download size is significant but it’s worth setting aside some space for PixBim because the tool has a lot of interesting uses. In addition to removing scratches, it can also remove watermarks, image noise, and more.
Pros:
- Great for object removal
- Repairs scratches and spots
- Auto mode + manual tunning
Cons:
- Requires download
- Full version is a bit expensive
- Slow processing times
8. Photo Works
Price: Starting at $27.50/yr
Photo Works is one of the best old photo restoration software on the market. Its array of features is quite vast and includes things such as sky replacement, photo retouching, object removal, and more. Photo Works is a fairly traditional editing suite that lets you do pretty much anything you can think of while also being much easier to learn than something like Photoshop. That said, there is a bit of a learning curve here and the software certainly requires a bit more practice than a simple online tool.
Pros:
- Wide variety of tools and features
- Professional grade software suite
- Fast processing times
Cons:
- Requires download
- A bit difficult for beginners
- Limited free trial
9. PhotoGlory
Price: Starting at $27.50
True to its name, PhotoGlory is an AI picture restoration tool that aims to breathe new life into photos from days gone. The software can both repair and colorize images, as well as restore faded or washed-out photographs. You can even reassemble photos that were ripped in half with this software. There are a couple of other neat tools and features along with various filters and effects. There’s no automatic way to remove damage from photos but you can do it with a bit of work by using the clone stamp and healing brush.
Pros:
- Wide variety of tools and features
- Colorizes and repairs damage
- Lots of filters and effects
Cons:
- No automatic mode for damage repair
- Requires download
- Limited free trial
10. Akvis Retoucher
Price: Starting at $87
Last but not least we have Akvis Retoucher, an old photo restoration software that has been around for a very long time. Despite looking a bit outdated by today’s standards, the software is very efficient at what it does, allowing to both repair old photos and completely reconstruct missing parts of them. In addition, Akvis can also improve image composition by easily removing unwanted background objects like wires, utility poles, trash cans, and more. The software is quite effective at what it does but there are cheaper options out there.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Good repair tools
- Good object removal tools
Cons:
- Quite expensive
- Requires download
- Feels a bit outdated
FAQs
1. What is Photo Restoration?
Photo restoration is the process of repairing scratches, tears, spots or any other type of damage sustained by an image. While some people still restore physical photographs using traditional techniques, these days it’s a lot more common to restore them digitally using editing software. Especially software based on artificial intelligence.
2. What is the Best Photo Restoration Software?
As its often the case with these things, there is no software that can claim to be the absolute best. In fact, most of them are fairly close in terms of efficiency because they’re based on the same technology. But if you want a software that’s good, fast, and easy to use we recommend checking out Vance AI.
3. How Much Does Photo Restoration Cost?
It costs a small fortune to restore physical photos but it’s not very expensive to do it digitally. In some cases, you can even restore old pictures for free. If we’re talking paid software or online tools, you’re looking at anywhere between $10 to $30 on average. Keep in mind that you can restore multiple pictures for that price.
Final Thoughts
Photo restoration has been around for decades but back in the day it could only be done manually and required a lot of time and effort. That’s no longer the case anymore thanks to AI-powered software and online tools. Now you only need to upload the image you want to restore, click a couple of buttons and you’re all done. Of course, if you have badly damaged photos, it may take a bit more work than that, but it’s still much easier than using traditional methods. Not to mention a lot cheaper.