Questions and answers

Privacy

Is my photo uploaded to Old Photo Studio?

No. Old Photo Studio restores your photo on your own device, inside your browser. The photo is never sent to us or anyone else, and we never see it. The only things your browser downloads from us are the web page, the restoration models and the software that runs them. Like any website, our host handles basic details of each visit, such as your IP address, as our privacy policy explains.

Does Old Photo Studio keep a copy of my photo?

No. Old Photo Studio never receives your photo, so there is nothing to keep. It doesn’t store your photo in your browser either. When you close the tab, the photo and the result are gone, unless you saved the result.

Do I need to sign up or log in to use Old Photo Studio?

No. Old Photo Studio has no sign-up, no login and no account.

Cost

Is Old Photo Studio really free?

Yes. Restoring, colorizing and saving photos with Old Photo Studio is free, with no sign-up. The site has no ads yet. We plan to show ads in the future to pay for the site.

Does Old Photo Studio add a watermark?

No. The photo you save from Old Photo Studio has no watermark.

Phone or computer

Does Old Photo Studio work on a phone?

We haven’t tested Old Photo Studio on phones yet. So far we have tested it only in Google Chrome on a Mac computer. It is built to run in up-to-date browsers, so it may work on your phone, but we can’t promise that yet. If it doesn’t, try it on a computer.

Which browser should I use for Old Photo Studio?

So far we have tested Old Photo Studio only in an up-to-date Google Chrome on a Mac computer. We haven’t tested Safari, Firefox or Edge yet, or Chrome on Windows. Browsers that support WebGPU restore photos faster, because they can use your device’s graphics chip.

How long does it take to restore a photo with Old Photo Studio?

It depends on your device and the size of the photo. The first photo takes longer, because your browser downloads the restoration models first. After that, your browser keeps a copy of them.

Files

Which files can I restore with Old Photo Studio?

JPEG, PNG and WebP files. If your photo is in another format, such as HEIC or TIFF, open it in your computer’s photo app and save a copy as JPEG first.

Is there a size limit for photos in Old Photo Studio?

No. Old Photo Studio makes very large photos smaller before it restores them, so your device can handle them.

What file does Old Photo Studio give me back?

A new PNG file, 4 times wider and 4 times taller than the copy of the photo that Old Photo Studio worked on. It is named after your photo, with “-restored” added. Your original file is not changed.

Why is the restored photo file so big?

The restored PNG has 16 times as many pixels as the copy Old Photo Studio worked on (4 times wider × 4 times taller), and PNG files are not compressed the way JPEG files are. In one test, a 31 KB JPEG became a 5.7 MB PNG.

Results

Why didn’t my photo look better after restoring?

A few common reasons:

• The photo was already sharp. If it has little grain or blur, there isn’t much to clean up.
• The photo is very small or very blurry. If a face is only a few blurry dots, there is no detail left to work from. If you can, scan the print at 300 dpi or more.
• It’s a photo of a screen, or it has glare. Glare and screen patterns hide the picture underneath. Scan the print, or photograph it again in even light.
• Some scratches weren’t marked. The automatic marks miss some dust and fine scratches, and they leave faces out. Paint over the damage before you choose “Fill in and restore”. If you have already filled it in, start again with the same photo.
• The damage is a stain or a big tear. Old Photo Studio repaints scratches and specks, but it doesn’t remove stains or rebuild large missing pieces.

Can Old Photo Studio remove scratches and dust?

Yes. Old Photo Studio marks scratches, dust and specks in red. Check the marks, paint over damage it missed and erase marks that aren’t damage, then choose “Fill in and restore”. Only the marked parts are repainted. The automatic marks miss some dust and fine scratches, and they leave faces out, because the tool mistakes the light in people’s eyes for specks. You can mark a scratch on a face yourself.

Can Old Photo Studio add color to a black-and-white photo?

Yes. Old Photo Studio has a color model that suggests colors for black-and-white and sepia photos. Color is on by default for those photos and off for photos that already have color. The “Color strength” slider makes the colors more muted or more vivid, and you can switch color off.

Are the colors Old Photo Studio adds the real ones?

No. The added colors are the color model’s guess, based on the photos it learned from. A dress, a car or a wall may have been a different color. If you know the real colors, the result may not match them.

Why does the restored photo look lighter or darker than the original?

Old Photo Studio evens out faded tones before it sharpens the photo. It stretches them so the darkest parts are dark and the lightest parts are light, so a faded photo can come out with more contrast than the print. This step doesn’t change the color tint. A sepia or brown-toned photo keeps its tone only if you switch color off: color is on by default for black-and-white and sepia photos, and the color step replaces the tint with suggested colors.

Why do faces look smoother after restoring?

When Old Photo Studio enlarges a photo, it estimates fine detail such as skin texture. Sometimes faces come out a little smoother than they were. Compare the result with your original before you print it.

Should I keep my original photo after restoring it?

Yes. Keep your original print and your first scan, and save the restored copy as a separate file. The National Archives advises keeping originals after you digitize them.

Sources: National Archives, “Digitizing Family Papers and Photographs”. https://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/digitizing.html (read November 4, 2026). The 300 dpi figure: Library of Congress, “Scanning Your Personal Collections”. https://www.digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/documents/PA_scanning.pdf (read November 4, 2026)