Old photos to restore: 18 Best Old Photo Restoration Software and apps in 2023

Photography has always been one of the most beautiful things to exist, even in today's world where there are tons of gadgets, bells, and whistles to play with. Why? Because photography is probably the only known way to stop time and capture a moment, to cherish it for an eternity. These selfies and groupies that we take today are all modernized ways of photography that have existed for quite some time now, right from the very first camera that took several minutes to make a single photograph (trust me, it's true!). It's wonderful to see how a small device like a camera can do so much, so as to freeze a moment and encapsulate it for you to view anytime you want.

Let's talk about the obvious elephant in the room now, that is, photo restorations. You might be thinking, why is this guy going to talk about photo restoration in 2023, isn't that odd? Well, while we kids have everything easy and stored up in the cloud (no, not in the sky), like iCloud, or Google Drive, or OneDrive, our parents or the people in our previous generations didn't have these avenues to store their pictures in a place where they would remain in mint condition forever. Today, we have several ways just to click a picture and store them forever, in not only the cloud services I just mentioned but many other online cloud services as well. However, back in those days, the only way to store a photo was in photo albums, not the ones in your phones, but the literal, fat photo albums, which are often used by our parents to strike the nostalgic nerve in us.

The sad part about photo storing back in the day is the fact that those photos would lose their charm within a short period of time because of wear and tear. Those albums and plastic covers are not enough to stop the photos from wrinkling, and ultimately getting spoilt. Thanks to the many online cloud and storage services, today, we don't have to worry about how or when we have to store our photos, but our parents or grandparents didn't have this privilege. Those photo albums mean the world to them as it is their only possible way to cherish old memories, but the damage and stain on the photos are very often big let-downs.

So, what can you do if you want to restore such old photos properly? Or, if it's your grandmom's birthday and you want to gift her, a beautiful portrait of herself, but the photo you have of hers is barely holding together? Or if there's a very old photo of your great-grandpa that you'd like to show your cousins, but the photo is barely understandable? Worry not, as I have the solution right here for you!

Thanks to the many technological advancements of today, there are several platforms where you can not only restore old photos but also give them some beautiful touch-ups, to make them look like exactly how you want!

Apps and Software for Photo Restorations

So, how do these apps work, exactly? The process is theoretically known as digital photo restoration, and what happens exactly is that these apps or software work on restoring the photos that have been damaged over time due to aging, staining, or mishaps like fire. These apps work on removing the marks, stains, scratches, etc. to successfully restore the old photos in a digital format, which you can edit to your liking as well. If you're wondering, a lot of these apps are available for PCs as well as mobile phones.

With the help of these apps and software, you can also digitally draw clothes, edit out skin defects, maybe color backgrounds, add objects, and do a lot more with the old photographs. Since it'll be restored in a digital format, you can inevitably store as many copies or different edits as you want as well!

We all have that one old family album that is like a treasure chest, filled with memories of the good old' days, right? The best possible way to save these photos from any decay or damage is digital restoration, and it is not as complicated as it sounds. For a novice who has little to no knowledge about photo editing, digital restoration can be as easy as taking a picture, as most of the work is done by the particular software or app itself.

How does Digital Photo Restoration Work?

How to restore old photos? Digital photo restoration is quite a simple task, even though it includes a lot of intricate processes. But for those, we have our trustworthy machines, and all we need to do is just allow them to do their work. These are the steps that together lead to the successful digital restoration of a photograph: -

• Digital Copy – The very first step of digital restoration is creating the digital copy of the printed picture. This step is significant because the data required by the digital editing tools for successfully restoring the photo, are all captured when you scan the photograph. Always remember, the better the scan, the more options you can have when you edit.

• Settings – During the scanning stage, you can also experiment a bit to find out what are the best possible settings for your scanner. However, this is mostly recommended for modern photos as multiple scans can often damage older photos that are already worn and torn out.

• Proper Resolution – Resolution is another important thing to remember for digital photo restorations. When scanning a picture, always aim for a minimum of 400-600 DPI resolution for prints. If you are scanning negatives, then a much higher resolution of 2,000-3,000 DPI is required to print larger photographs if you want.

• Bit Depth – Another important thing to remember is to scan the photos with the highest possible bit depth so that the tools can gather all the color information that is available on the particular photo. This will ultimately help you make even more adjustments to the scanned photo without making it appear as if it was over-processed.

• Archiving the Final Scan – A very common mistake in digital photo restorations is not archiving the final scan. If you don't archive it, then you won't have a backup to refer to if you, unfortunately, misplace the scanned photo. Hence, before you get onto editing the photo, make a copy of it and archive it in a safe place, and ensure this file is backed up too. That way, if you want to make newer changes or there are any mistakes in the digital edits, you don't have to go through the tedious process of scanning the photo again.

Digital Photo Restoration Software and Apps

Now, let's take a look at some of the best photo restoration software and apps out there, shall we?

1. Fotophire Editing Toolkit

When it comes to digital photo restoration, Fotophire Editing Toolkit is very often considered as one of the best apps out there. Though it is a paid restoration software, you can also use it for free, but its main USP is the fact that it is generally made for amateur editors who are not totally familiar with all the bells and whistles of a photo editing app.

Why Fotophire? – When it comes to restoring old photos to their former beauty, there are very software or apps that can outmatch the power of Fotophire. An all-in-one app, Fotohpire is packed with features that can easily remove all flaws from any photo, without too much effort. It features a highly powerful Photo Eraser mode that fixes a photo with utmost precision, by automatically removing anything you don't want in the photo, be it marks or tears. So, even if you have a stained photo with tons of tear marks, Fotophire will make sure it restores the photo in the best way possible by removing all marks.

Other Features – Other than the Photo Eraser, Fotophire also has Clone and Crop tools that can help you retouch and polish any imperfections, and you can also change the photo background in Fotophire's Photo Cutter, or even add more vivid effects with the Photo Editor mode as well! If all this wasn't enough already, this app also has a nifty help called Fotophire Slideshow Maker, in which you can easily create beautiful slideshows with photographs, through a few easy clicks. For all PC users who want to restore photos without investing too much time and effort digitally, Fotophire is definitely the top choice.

Price – Can be used for Free as a trial, $50 for a monthly subscription, and $80 for a lifetime license fee.

2. Corel Paintshop Pro

In the world of digital art, Corel has become a household name, thanks to its many products and services that are not only consistent in performance, but supreme in the same, pushing this brand much ahead of its competitors. In the same way, Corel Paintshop Pro has created its dominance in the sphere of digital photo restorations, mainly due to its advanced features and powerful options for photo restorations.

Why Corel Paintshop Pro? – Corel Paintshop Pro is a highly sought-after restoration app, mainly because it’s quite easy to manage, which is why intermediates can easily cope with the basic restoration tasks. It also comes with a very user-friendly UI and has many in-house resources for you to learn digital photo restoration if you don't already know it. Corel's interface also has several tabs with logically grouped photo editing tools, categorized by function, so that it is easier to navigate and use.

Other Features – Corel’s Paintshop Pro is filled with great features, like a good users support, efficient functionality, supporting the very basic photo file formats, an easy learning curve, and a free trial for users as well. For the paid version, Corel offers the entire package consisting of organizing and image editing tools, but if you want to test it out before dishing out your money, the free trial is available at https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/free-trials/ for you to try out anytime. Corel's Paintshop Pro comes with two main tool tabs – one for the one-click photo correction, where you just have to make one click to make all corrections, ultimately saving time. Secondly, is the HDR or Lens Correction tools, which allow users to customize the photo accurately, in any way they desire.

Price - $80 for the full version, free trial available as well.

3. Adobe Photoshop CC

Well, I don't think this particular software even needs any kind of introduction, does it? Whether you're into photo editing or not, Adobe's powerhouse of products needs no introduction as they've existed for many years now, and they continue to deliver consistently. Adobe's products are very often the go-to choice for professionals as not only is it reliable, but packs a lot of punch too, which ultimately means a top quality of work.

Why Adobe Photoshop CC? – When it comes to old photo restoration, Adobe Photoshop CC is a pro at what it does, and rightly so. With a very friendly UI, top-of-the-notch tools, frequent updates, and a wide range of photo retouching tools, there's barely any software that can match the standards of Adobe. Currently, it supports all the raster formats and works on Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS as well. Hence, you can get a lot of flexibility when it comes to switching your work from the PC to your phone and vice-versa.

Other Features – The types of digital restoration you can do with Adobe Photoshop CC are almost limitless, thanks to the many features it offers. One of the most famous features is its Clone Stamp Tool, which allows the user to copy pixels from the surrounding areas and successfully remove any kind of damage that the picture might have. It also comes with several video lessons and tutorials to help you understand the working process of Photoshop, add to that the fact that it supports all file formats, and you have a winner on your hands.

Drawbacks – The only drawbacks this awesome software has are the facts that it is quite costly and it is not at all easy to use for beginners.

Price – The price for Adobe Photoshop CC ranges from $9.99 to $52.99, depending on your needs.

4. Inpaint

Let’s face it. We all are not professionals in everything, are we? Similarly, not everyone is familiar with the techniques and tools of digital photo restoration, which is why things get difficult when using apps and software as they require at least a little expertise. For such situations, the perfect app for restoring photos digitally is one known as Inpaint. For inexperienced photo editors and digital tool users, this is quite a useful restoration app as it allows such people to help restore photos without any kind of effort at all.

Other Features – Inpaint is loved by many simply because of its friendly interface as well as the ability to do a lot of things with just a few clicks, which not only means better time management but also lesser efforts to get the restoration done. With Inpaint, you can remove any person, object, design, marks, etc. from the photo with ease, and one of its main features is making your skin tone in the photo look much more enhanced and beautiful, in case you want that, by erasing any kind of skin defects or wrinkles that appear in the photo. This means you can finally get that perfect vacation photo you've always wanted!

Price - $19.99

5. GIMP

Very often, it feels a little uneasy to dish out too much dough on digital apps and software, which is why a lot of people very often don't prefer to use software like Adobe Photoshop CC. For professionals, such apps and software are a necessity, but that doesn't mean it has to be the same for you. If you're looking for a cheaper alternative to Photoshop, the best you can get is GIMP. For years, GIMP has existed as the best alternative of Photoshop, offering almost all the same features with an easier learning curve, and all the basic photo restoration features as well. GIMP comes with free access, an epy open source, supports almost all file formats, great functionality, and decent support from the developer. What else could you want?

Other Features – One of the best things about using GIMP is the fact that you can use it online, from your desktop as well as your mobile phone, hence, great cross-platform functioning. GIMP can also be expanded with the help of plugins that you can find online pretty easily. GIMP also comes with a number of handy features, like the color adjustment function, that can be used to improve photos that are faded, while others like Clone or Unsharp Mask tools allow the user to perform photo restorations. GIMP can be installed quite easily, and even though it doesn't have video tutorials unlike Photoshop, it does have an easy learning curve for beginners who know very little or nothing about photo editing or restoring old photos.

Price – GIMP is available for free.

6. Pixlr

Very often, we try to look for apps or software that come loaded with features and options, which do more than just restore the old pictures. That way, we can get an all-rounder app that can not only restore photos, but edit them, share them, and offer a lot more. If you're looking for such an app, Pixlr might be the best option for you. It is originally a cloud-based set that consists of utilities as well as image tools, which include a screen recording browser extension, a photo-sharing service, as well as numerous photo editors. Doesn't it sound like a winner already?

Other Features – Pixlr comes with a highly similar editing panel to that of Adobe Photoshop, which has lesser functions but nonetheless, is perfect for a beginner or a novice, and absolutely enough for restoring old photos to their former glory. Pixlr is also created in such a way that it is adjusted for online purposes. For example, if you decide to move ahead onto another task after the image is distorted, Pixlr will warn you to apply changes, just in case you've forgotten to do so. Other than these, Pixlr also comes with easy access to free graphics and fonts, a powerful processor that will allow you to see the real-time effect before you apply changes. The best part is its easy learning curve, which makes it a great choice for the majority.

Price – Pixlr is a free software that you can easily download online.

7. Retouch Pilot

One of the most common problems with old photos is, the many stains they possess, mainly due to aging, wear, and tear. Most of the time, we see this when our parents or grandparents make us go down memory lane and show us various pictures in torn albums. These kinds of photos require restoration, mainly because they become prone to damage and stains, and very often getting disintegrated. If your photos are stained and scratched, and you too want to restore them, Retouch Pilot is one great picture restore the app to do so. With just a few clicks, you can easily make your damaged photo appear new again, without much effort.

Other Features – Retouch Pilot is filled with features that is easy for beginners to learn for digital photo restorations. Any kind of stains, scratches, dust particles or hair particles that have either impaired or ruined the photo can easily become visible when it is scanned and uploaded. Thus, you can say that this app is quite the expert at removing any unwanted details in the photo and also in digitally restoring a photo that is damaged. One of its best features is "Smart Patch," a very popular one among all the Retouch users, which you should definitely check out. Retouch Pilot is also equipped with a wide range of Windows versions, from XP right up to Windows 10. For novices, Retouch Pilot also comes with training support and trial versions.

Price – Retouch Pilot is available from 29.95 EUR to 119.95 EUR.

8. RePicvid Photo Recovery

Till now, we've only discussed restoration apps or software that are only available for Desktop/Web use. How about apps that can be used on your mobile phone where you can restore old, damaged photos from anywhere in the world through your beloved mobile phone? One such app is RePicvid, one of the best restoration software available for mobile use, which is absolutely free to use as well! When it comes to web use, it's quite easy, due to clicks and buttons, but when it comes to restoration through mobile, you may wonder if it's going to be tougher. Don't fret, as you can use Repicvid to repair old photos in just three easy steps.

Other Features – RePicvid not only photo restore app, but audios, videos, and music files as well, making it quite the versatile app. It also supports a wide range of storage devices from where you can restore damaged files, ranging from SSD, USB drives, and SD cards, to Mp4 players, Sony digital cameras, and many more. RePicvid also has tons of cool features, like "Supper Toolkit" and "Advanced Settings," where the former consists of professional tools for recovery, while the latter consists of very specific file types that you can select to speed up the scanning process. The types of media files that you can restore are almost endless, from HDRI images to WAV music files, you've got all options covered.

Price – RePicvid is available to be used for free.

9. AKVIS Retoucher

There are very few apps out there that are made with the sole purpose of restoring old damaged photos into their former glory. One of them is AKVIS Retoucher, an app made with its main focus lying on digitally restoring old pictures, getting rid of stains, marks, wear, and tear. The main USP of using AKVIS is the fact that it comes with a very easy learning curve, and you can master it with the first few restorations itself. It is convenient, smooth, user-friendly, and thus, requires very little time and effort as well. Users love the understandable, modern graphic interface that they get with this app, along with the organized layout that keeps things sorted and also shows an overview of the current photo being restored, a nifty little feature indeed!

Other Features – We all know that proper digital apps do not come without a hefty price tag, but there lies the difference between them and AKVIS Retoucher. This photo restoration app comes with a one-time payment option, which means no monthly payments, no sudden pop-ups, and no hassles at all! AKVIS is well-equipped with tools to help you remove any kind of scratches, dust particles, marks, and any unwanted elements on the photos. Not only that, but you can also draw and fill in the missing parts to make the photo look complete. This particular app also uses intelligent cloning techniques to cover up selected areas of the photo and also removes distracting elements and date stamps to restore the photo in the best way possible. If you wanted even more control, the app also lets you enlarge the photo's canvas using the image patterns in order to fill in the voids and make it complete!

Cons – Even though the app comes with a ton of great features and convenient usability, its main drawback is that particular one-time payment, which pushes this app much further ahead of a buying range for a random user who's just looking for an app to restore some old photos. The basic license fee is $87, and the other options are more expensive. Nonetheless, AKVIS is definitely an option if you're looking for a digital photo restore app that performs well.

Price – Ranges from $87 to $154.

10. SketchWay

A lot of these digital restoration apps use filling algorithms to help fix old photo that has damage and stain marks. The use of this algorithm means more precise restorations with the best possibility of making the old photo look absolutely new and similar to its previous golden days. One of these apps is SketchWay, a brilliant piece of technology that accurately uses filler algorithms to help restore old photos. You might wonder what separates this app from the wide range of others who use filling algorithms as well. To answer that, this app comes equipped with a feature that will also help you remove any kind of writing on top of the photo if you don't want it there. Other than this, SketchWay comes fully loaded with the latest restoration and retouching tools, which means that not only can you fix old photos, but also you can retouch them to amplify their beauty. Impressive, isn't it?

Other Features – SketchWay does it all, from removing stains, scratches, dust, to restoring previous alterations, reconstructing cracks on the pictures, and also removing any unwanted details as well. Due to its intelligent programming, SketchWay has the ability to scan and analyze the photo, in order to reproduce backgrounds that should have existed where the obstruction or object was cut out of. It also comes with an attractive, user-friendly interface that makes it easier to learn for beginners who have little to no knowledge about digital restorations. With one click, you can remove any obstructions, and the software is light, smart in its work, powerful enough to fix old pictures beautifully, easy to install and use, as well as possess great compatibility with the latest OS. What more would you need?

Cons – Since this app was created with the main focus lying on the amateurs of photo restoration, it is quite obvious that it does lack some features and tools that are mainly used by professionals in the field. Also, deep photo restorations are not possible through this app, because of the lack of certain tools and features.

Price – SketchWay is available to use for free.

11. Fotor Restoration App

Fotor is a software that is widely renowned in the world of digital arts but never possessed the best of reputations or popularity, due to its lack of unique features or capabilities. However, the newest version can be considered a great option for photo restoration, even though that is not its strongest suit because of color correction features, which allow some great photo restorations and touch-ups. The main reason why many people like using Fotor is because it comes in two versions, the Free one and the Pro one, which means this app is suitable for both demographics: beginners as well as professionals in this task.

Other Features – Even though Fotor isn't the best in the genre, it does come jam-packed with some great features like processing of RAW photos (which many digital restoration apps and software DO NOT provide) as well as the ability to support almost all the popular graphic file formats. Fotor may not be as powerful as its better counterparts like GIMP or Adobe Photoshop, but it does do a pretty good job when it comes to editing and color-correcting RAW image files, adjusting white balance, and similar things with faded shades and colors. When it comes to other features, you can come across some really good ones like vignette adding, blurring, cropping, adding texts, removing the red eyes effects, rotation, sharpness, etc. (do remember that most features are only available in the Pro version). In simple words, Fotor is a golden means between the complexity that comes with top-notch restoration apps and the simplicity of specialized photo editors, as even amateurs can use this app to perform decent restorations.

Price – Free version is available, and the Pro version is available for $4.99 - $8.99 per month or $19.99 - $39.99 per month.

12. SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher

SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher is one of those specialized apps that are created with the main focus on digital restorations and touch-ups, and also comes with the latest tech to help you do your tasks with a lot of ease as well. SoftOrbits uses an algorithm known as "Smart Fill" that itself uses AI to erase any scratches, white spots, or torn edges from old photos, in order to restore them. Through its intelligent tech, the app automatically analyzes and recognizes the quintessential defects in old photographs, and fixes them without leaving behind any signs of editing. That is some amazing stuff right there, folks.

Other Features – SoftOrbits makes photo restoration quite an easy task, even though it is not so, because it comes with the right tools. It automatically detects cracks, tear marks, dust, torn edges, etc., and employs the AI to patch up all the defects with data collected from the surrounding areas of the particular defect. Thus, what you'll have in your hand is a perfectly restored photo without any trace of editing. It is also quite easy to use, even though it is mainly for professionals.

Despite photo restoration being its strong suit, SoftOrbits isn't just meant for that. Another great capability it possesses is to touch up digital images beautifully. Its vast toolset can help you enhance pictures, and not just photographs, but even your selfies and groupies! From removing unwanted objects, lines, shadows, shades, etc. from photographs, to adjusting skin tones and perfecting them in your selfies, this app can do it all!

Price – SoftOrbits Photo Retoucher comes with a variety of plans, varying from $11.99 to $49.99, depending upon your needs.

13. Image Mender

Image Mender is again one of those digital photo repair software that is highly preferred by amateurs and novices because it comes with an easy learning curve and the simplest of tools to get the job done. Image Mender is just another computer app for repairing and retouching photos to get them back to their former glory, but what makes this app quite the contender is the ease of usage and the efficiency with which it performs. A very simple app with a highly intuitive interface, Image Mender offers all the basic tools you'll require to perform restorations, and removes stains, dust, scratches, facial imperfections, and even undesired obstructions from the background, all this while maintaining the clarity of the original photo itself. You won't even have to customize any layers, cloning settings, masks, or anything. All you have to do is let the app do its work of automatically fixing the errors! Just open the "problem" photo, select the particular area of the photo that needs fixing, and run the restoration procedure with just a mouse click. That's it!

Other Features – Other than just repairing old photos, Image Mender does a lot of other things too. For example, digital cosmetology of new photos, as a lot of us often don't like how pictures or selfies turn out, and we hesitate from sharing them. Image Mender solves this by retouching and adjusting imperfections to get that perfect Instagram post. Other than this, you can also remove any unwanted larger objects from the background (the app automatically picks up textures from around the selected portion and fills in the selected area organically). The app also helps in revitalizing over-compressed JPEG photos as well as performs super-fast rendering. All these features make this app a great option for artists and editors who have very little time on their hands and want to get their work done quickly.

Price - $24.95

14. Photoscape

The most common conflict that people face when choosing digital photo restoring photos is their price tags, and very often, they're a little bit too much. This is why people, especially beginners or any random user who just wants to retouch or restore a photo, prefer apps or software that comes in both free as well as paid versions, as that is much more convenient. Photoscape is one such app that comes in both variants and also has quite a reputation in the digital community, as it is considered the universal photo restoration software. Developed by MOOII Tech, a Korean company, Photoscape was created with a sole purpose in mind: to provide people the maximum possible ease in editing photos and not just editing them but also retouching as well as restoring them. Photoscape is a recommendation mainly for amateurs, because it has a smooth interface that is quite easy to pick up within a few hours of usage, and it also contains most of the basic tools for photo repairing. Reliability is one of the strongest suits of this app, which is why it is definitely a try to restore the old pictures.

Other Features – Photoscape is bundled with several other features, including a built-in capture tool, image viewer, batch editing functions, and a wide array of effects and filters. Other than these, another great thing about this app is its smooth optimization, even for weaker PCs, which also makes it a great app to use for a variety of users. Even though photo restoration isn't one of its strongest suits, Photoscape is rightfully one of the best apps available for photo color correction and editing faded colors. Cons – Despite the many features Photoscape possesses, it does have a couple of drawbacks. One is the fact that it has a weaker photo retouching output compared to its many counterparts. Secondly, the photo quality after the editing process appears to be quite low, as reported by many Photoscape users.

Price – Photoscape is available for free or for $39.99 for the Pro version.

15. Phowd.com

If you're looking for an alternative to digital apps and software to restore old photos, a great option is online apps that can get the job done as well. Very often, people opt for online apps because they require lesser time and effort when it comes to downloading, installing, and also paying for a particular app or software. For online apps, all you have to do is go to its website, and that's it. These websites usually have the options for uploading, scanning, as well as restoring photographs. Thus, the effort on your part is minimized by a lot, and you don't have to dish out money as well! If you're looking for such an app, Phowd is one such app that does photo restorations completely online through its seamless, user-friendly website.

How it Works – Using Phowd is quite the easy task, no matter if you’re a novice or a professional in the task of restoring photos digitally. In order to use Phowd for restoring or even retouching photos for correction, just follow the following easy steps: -

• Firstly, you can visit the website and start uploading the picture that you need to work on from the “Upload Photos Now” tab. Then, the most important step is to create good quality, a high-resolution digital copy of the photo, and it is recommended to make two copies, just in case something goes wrong with the first one. This can be in two ways – either by making a scanned copy or by making a high-resolution RAW photo.

• Secondly, just choose the fixes you want, such as removing tear marks, stains, dust, etc. and that’s it. With a few clicks, you can easily restore any old photo to its former glory within a few minutes.

If you want to correct the colors, shades, or skin tones of a picture, you can also use the "Find Retouchers" tab to do that.

Price – Phowd is a free to use online app.

16. Movavi Photo Editor

Movavi Photo Editor is yet another app that is great for digital photo editing and is widely used by editors as it's quite easy to find and convenient to use as well. Available in both Windows and Apple Stores (for Windows and Mac), Movavi is a great app, more of a digital program that takes pride in photo editing, but that is not all that it does, because repairing old photos is also one of its strong suits. The program is quite easy to use as it comes with a beautiful, user-friendly interface that also has tips for beginners who are new to photo restorations. Not only that, but the program also offers effective background and object removal, image restorations with neural networks, as well as automatic photo enhancement with just a click. What else would you need?

How to Use Movavi – In order to use Movavi, just follow these easy steps to get your job done: -

• Firstly, you have to download the Movavi app and launch the installer on your Mac or PC. You will instantly get a set of instructions on the screen to follow.

• Secondly, you have to add the digital picture to the Editor by clicking on the "Browse for Images" tab, or just by simply dragging and dropping the particular photo, into the working area of the Photo Editor.

• On the top panel, click on the “Restore” tab to restore the photo. If you want to adjust the contrast and brightness in the photo automatically, all you have to do is choose the 'Enhance Photo" option. Then, click on the restore button to start processing the photograph. Note: After the restoration, the photo will automatically be transformed into a black and white photo.

• If the photo is heavily damaged, some marks might still be visible after the automatic repair. In that case, click on the "Object Removal" tab in order to remove any unwanted objects. There are a range of tools to choose from, in order to mark the areas of the image that require fixing – Selection Brush for marking any portion, Magic Wand for marking portions of similar color, Lasso to mark the outline of a particular figure with any rough edges, Eraser tool to remove unwanted markings, and Stamp tool for getting rid of any minor imperfections.

• After scanning, a photo often appears to be grainy. In this case, you can use the "Denoise" option to make the image clearer and smoother by seeing the list of noise reduction presets. You can choose from a wide range of presets, from the default one to making your very own preset. Then, you can also click on the "cogwheel" icon, in which you can adjust color noise, light noise, intensity, radiance, as well as sharpness manually, using the particular sliders. If you want to use your particular preset in the future, just click on "Save Preset."

• If you want to edit your photo, even more, to make it look more vibrant, you can do so automatically with the "Magic Enhance" tab, or manually through the various tools in the "Adjust" tab. You may want to compare the photo after it's edited, with the original one, and for that, the "Before/After" button is available as well. "Revert Changes" tab is present as well if you want to cancel the changes.

• After all this, just click on the “Save” button to save your edited and restored photograph.

Thus, as you can see, Movavi doesn't back down when it comes to offering tons of features and power-packed performance. Rather, it ups the game by providing maximum convenience to the user, providing tons of features, tools, and abilities to the user for editing a photo, both manually as well as automatically. Be it adding effects and filters, crops, straightening, flips, changing backgrounds, removing unwanted objects, or improving the overall quality, Movavi has got you covered, worry not. Many professionals consider this as one of the best overall apps for digital restorations and editing, thanks to its array of features and efficiency.

Price – Movavi is available on the App Store and Windows Store for $25.

17. Hornil StylePix

A lot of times we look for apps that are much more interactive, where they don't just offer to complete our tasks, but also much more than just that. Hornil's StylePix is one such online app that is mainly meant for photo editing but consists of a lot more than what people perceive when they first hear about or see this app. Let's get the basics covered, this is an app created for editing, retouching, and restoring old pictures, and if you want something that won't hog up a lot of your PC's space, StylePix is the one. A lightweight digital app, it is quite powerful and comes packed with tons of features that are more than enough to edit photos amazingly. It's loaded with features and tools and also gives users the option to run the app from a removable storage device, like a flash drive, instead of the traditional download option. Basically, an image editor, StylePix, consists of all the features of a raster graphics editor that has a user-friendly UI, as well as tons of built-in features that you will enjoy a lot. Let's read about them.

Features – StylePix is feature-rich, to put in simple words. It has everything – Restore tools, enhance tools, Measure tools. Crop tool, Practical filters, Layer styles, a Dynamic brush, a built-in image viewer, a wide array of selection tools, an effective interface, several drawing tools, text tools, and a lot more! Let's dive into everything this app offers: -

• Restoring and Enhancing Tools – StylePix has amazing tools that help in edit old photo easily and quickly. Enhance tool, restore tool, and brush tool are some of the restoring tools that can help in removing scratches, marks, stains, etc. The Enhance tool also consists of smudge, saturate, sharpen, blur, desaturate, burn, and dodge tools as well, giving you, even more, control over fixing the photographs.

• Text Tool – If you want to edit texts directly on the canvas or type on it, StylePix also has a text tool that will help you do that. You can also decorate the particular text using width rate, size, kerning, leading, tracking, align, italic, bold, size, and whatnot! It also supports a variety of modern fonts that will amp up the style for sure.

• Several Selection Tools – StylePix also comes with a wide array of selection tools such as color range, rectangular region, color range, circular region, polygonal region, lasso region, layer selection, quick mask, and channel selection. In addition to all this, you can also select the specific area of the photo using these tools with a number of combinations such as add, subtract, new, or intersect.

• Dynamic Brush – If you're looking to retouch some photos, StylePix comes with a great dynamic brush that is powerful and also, you can create your own brushes as well, to add more uniqueness to the edit, or to the photo itself. With various options such as color effects, scaling, scattering, and rotation, your own brushes can be even more powerful. Moreover, you can save your presets to use in the future as well.

• A Built-In Image Viewer – Forget about the hassles of having a separate image viewer. With StylePix, you can get a built-in image viewer that supports all the major file formats, favorites, and system cache as well. You can easily navigate, edit, as well as manage all your images much smoother and more efficiently with this handy tool. As soon as you launch the app, this built-in image viewer will pop up on the front where you can select photos, view histograms, and edit rotations with transform tools immediately.

• Effective Design and UI – Lastly, it’s time to talk about the overall look and feel of the app, which is often a determining factor. StylePix comes with a very lightweight design and supports all modern features, running on low-resource environments such as virtual machines, or laptops. It also has a highly user-friendly UI which is also effective as it helps in saving time and effort.

As you can already see, Hornil’s StylePix is arguably one of the best photo restoration software out there that also handles photo restorations quite easily, thanks to the many features it has and the extensive toolset it possesses.

Price - $29.99

18. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is yet another online program for photo restoration if you're looking for online alternatives of apps or software for restorations. You might be thinking, why this app when there are so many other options out there. Well, PicMonkey is a great online program that comes with a much more affordable price tag than most other programs that offer so many features. Not only that, but you will also get a free 7-day trial to try out the application and see if it suits your needs. Isn't that amazing?

PicMonkey is a champion when it comes to photo editing, from offering a wide range of filters and effects, to adding and modifying texts, and masking images and layers. But, other than that, it also offers designing tasks such as designing business cards, invites, postcards, logos, advertisements, and offering tons of design assets and templates. If you're looking to restore photos through touch-ups, this app is excellent, especially for restoring pictures of people as it comes with more than a dozen enhancement tools, through which you can remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, change hair color, eye color, and do a lot more! If all this wasn't enough already, this program also has its own cloud storage, hence, one less worry for you. For beginners, PicMonkey also comes with a number of tutorials to help them out in learning how it works, but what's more amazing is the Resource Center, where you can gain all the knowledge you'll ever need about PicMonkey and photo editing. Quite impressive!

How it Works -You can use PicMonkey to edit and restore photos in the following ways easily: -

• To get started, scan the photos which you need to restore. Remember to convert into a JPEG if it’s a PDF file. After this, drag the photo onto PicMonkey’s home page to open it in the Editor.

• If the photo is torn or looks to be frayed, don’t worry, PicMonkey has you covered. Just open the image in the Editor and then open it again as a graphic. Here, you can stretch the graphic until it is the same size as the original photo and then flip it around so that the portion which is frayed, is covered up by the portion which is not. Then, simply erase what you don't require.

• PicMonkey has a nifty little feature called “Clone”, which is basically everything when it comes to restorations. This tool can help you remove a scratch easily by painting over it with pixels from an undamaged portion of the photo. Clone is dynamic in nature, which means that as you move the cursor, the area being copied moves with it as well.

• If you have a photo or selfie where your skin tone doesn't look too good, or the color looks faded, just use the TouchUp tool to add the spark and beautify the image. Tools like Eye Brighten, Spray Tan, etc. are available to help you add color and intensity to the photo and make it a super perfect post for the 'Gram!

• If you have vintage photos and you'd like to add a nice touch to them as well, this program also has special effects in the "Effects" tab where you can apply either a single effect or multiple effects, and even play around with the Fade slider until the effect looks absolutely perfect.

• For color correction, the Curves tool is there through which you can subtly pull up highlights, pull down shadows, and just correct the overall exposure of the photo.

Price – The Basic version is available for $7.99 a month, the Pro version is for $12.99 per month, and the Team version for $33.99 per month.

MavenArt – Get Exclusive Hand-Made Portraits and
Sketches

We've been talking about photo restorations and edits, but there's also another way to rekindle the spark of an old photo that you have – hand-painted sketches and portraits. Yes, if you have old photos that you want as new, hand-painted pieces of art are a great option as those photos will get a new identity, and you'll have something new to put up on your wall as well! Just imagine, having an old family photo up on your wall in a completely new avatar, now that is something that will definitely spruce up the home décor of your house.

If you're wondering how this will be possible, worry not. We at MavenArt are there to help you out in making beautiful hand-made sketches and paintings of your photos, which is one of the best ways to give a new life to the old, worn, and torn photos that definitely deserve some love and attention. All you have to do is head onto www.mavenart.com and look through our website to see all that we offer. From people paintings, pet paintings, to landscape paintings and photo restorations (yes, we do that too!), we've got everything for you.

At MavenArt, we have our in-house experts who use top-of-the-line materials and tools to make sure you receive the exact product that you had envisioned. We understand that products like these often have emotions attached to them, as they're cherished memories of loved ones. Hence, we put in all our effort to ensure our consumers receive beautiful portraits that they can see and experience those cherished memories every time.

If you're wondering about the entire procedure, don't worry as it's quite easy. All you have to do is visit the website, no matter if you're in an office or you're sitting in the comfort of your home. Simply visit our website, choose the service you want (we offer both fine brushwork as well as thick brushwork) and upload the photos that you want the sketches of. We keep offering discounts, so keep an eye out for them, and the shipping fees are free as well! So, what are you waiting for?