# AI Photo Restoration > AI photo restoration repairs old, faded, scratched or blurry photos automatically. On Kenerate AI you scan the print, upload it and run Phota Enhance: in about 40 seconds it removes scratches, cracks, stains and fading, sharpens faces and outputs up to 4K. New accounts get 25 free credits, and there is no watermark. It does not colourise black-and-white photos. URL: https://kenerateai.com/photo-restoration Publisher: Kenerate AI (https://kenerateai.com) Last updated: 26 September 2026 ## Key facts - Fixes: Scratches, cracks, stains, fading, blur - Speed: About 40 seconds per photo - Output: Up to 4K, no watermark - Scan at: 600 DPI or more ## Steps 1. Scan or photograph the print — Scan at 600 DPI or more, or photograph it flat in soft daylight with no glare. Crop off the scanner bed. 2. Upload and choose Phota Enhance — Open the Kenerate upscaler — the restoration page opens it on Phota Enhance — and add the scan (JPG, PNG or WEBP up to 25 MB). 3. Restore — Press Upscale. In about 40 seconds Phota repairs scratches, cracks, stains and fading and rebuilds soft faces, up to 4K. 4. Compare, then download or enlarge — Check the result with the slider and download it with no watermark. For a big print, run the result through Image Upscaler to 8K. ## In depth ### What damages photographs Humidity, heat and light do most of the harm. The Northeast Document Conservation Center notes that high humidity drives fading, discoloration and silver mirroring, that chemical decay roughly doubles with every 10°F rise, and that most colour photos fade fairly quickly in light; very dry air makes prints curl and emulsion flake, and fingerprints can cause bleaching or mirroring [1]. The US National Archives recommends clean nitrile or cotton gloves, handling prints by the edges and labelling only the back edge with a soft pencil [2]. ### How to scan like an archive The Library of Congress's personal-archiving guide suggests 300 ppi for 4×6 and 5×7 prints, 400–600 dpi if you plan to enlarge them to 8×10 or larger, and keeping at least two copies in different places [3]. Federal FADGI guidelines for cultural-heritage prints go further: 400–600 ppi, 16-bit masters, and no dust removal or colour restoration on the master file — corrections belong on a separate copy [4]. ### Where AI restoration fits That last rule is the right way to use AI too: keep the untouched scan as your master and restore a copy. Demand for this is huge — MyHeritage's Photo Enhancer processed a million photos in about ten days after it launched in June 2020 [5]. Modern restorers rebuild faces from a learned “face prior”, as research models like GFPGAN do [6], which is why a restored face should always be compared with the original. References: [1] NEDCC — Care of photographs: https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/5.-photographs/5.3-care-of-photographs [2] US National Archives — Photographs: holdings maintenance: https://www.archives.gov/preservation/holdings-maintenance/photographs [3] Library of Congress — Personal archiving: scanning (PDF): https://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/documents/PA_scanning.pdf [4] FADGI — Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials, 3rd ed. (2023): https://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/FADGI%20Technical%20Guidelines%20for%20Digitizing%20Cultural%20Heritage%20Materials_3rd%20Edition_05092023.pdf [5] MyHeritage blog — Photo Enhancer: one million photos enhanced (2020): https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/06/myheritage-photo-enhancer-goes-viral-one-million-photos-already-enhanced/ [6] Wang et al. — GFPGAN (CVPR 2021): https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.04061 ## FAQ Q: How do I restore an old photo with AI? A: Scan or photograph the print, upload it to Kenerate and run Phota Enhance. It repairs scratches, cracks, stains and fading and sharpens faces in about 40 seconds. New accounts get 25 free credits, and bigger jobs use one-time credit packs that never expire. Q: Can AI restore a torn or scratched photo? A: Yes, for scratches, creases, cracks, dust and small tears. Phota Enhance fills them in from the surrounding picture. If a large part is missing — half a face, a whole corner — the AI has to invent it, so check the result carefully. Q: Does it colourise black-and-white photos? A: No. Phota Enhance repairs and sharpens but keeps a black-and-white or sepia photo in black-and-white. Colourising is a separate job. Q: How do I restore old photos for free? A: The 25 free sign-up credits let you test Kenerate, and bigger jobs use one-time credit packs that never expire. For free DIY, GIMP (free) has a Heal tool for spot repairs, but fixing faces and fading by hand takes hours. Q: What resolution should I scan old photos at? A: 600 DPI for normal prints and 1200 DPI for small ones such as wallet photos. Save a TIFF or PNG master and restore a copy. Q: Will the restored photo still look like the person? A: Phota Enhance is designed to keep faces recognisable. With very small or very blurred faces any AI has to guess, so compare with the original before you share or print. Q: Can I print the restored photo large? A: Phota outputs up to 4K. For a bigger print, run the restored photo through Image Upscaler (8K) or Kenerate Upscale (up to 128 MP). Q: Is it safe to upload family photos? A: Your uploads and results are saved to your own private history so you can download them again. ## Related pages - AI image upscaler: https://kenerateai.com/ai-image-upscaler - Upscale image: https://kenerateai.com/upscale-image - AI image enhancer: https://kenerateai.com/ai-image-enhancer - Upscale image to 4K: https://kenerateai.com/upscale-image-to-4k - Increase image resolution: https://kenerateai.com/increase-image-resolution - HD photo converter: https://kenerateai.com/hd-photo-converter - Unblur image: https://kenerateai.com/unblur-image - Sharpen image: https://kenerateai.com/sharpen-image - Unpixelate image: https://kenerateai.com/unpixelate-image - Uncensored image enhancer: https://kenerateai.com/enhance-ai - Enhance AI art: https://kenerateai.com/enhance-ai-art - Anime upscaler: https://kenerateai.com/anime-upscaler - Bulk image upscaler: https://kenerateai.com/bulk-image-upscaler - Remove glare from photo: https://kenerateai.com/remove-glare-from-photo - Restore old photos: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-restore-old-photos - Best photo restoration software: https://kenerateai.com/best-photo-restoration-software - Denoise photos: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-denoise-photos - Increase image resolution: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-increase-resolution-of-an-image - Sharpen an image in Photoshop: https://kenerateai.com/how-to-sharpen-an-image-in-photoshop - All upscaler alternatives: https://kenerateai.com/image-upscaler-alternatives - Remini alternative: https://kenerateai.com/remini-alternative - Let's Enhance alternative: https://kenerateai.com/lets-enhance-alternative - upscale.media alternative: https://kenerateai.com/upscale-media-alternative - Upscayl online: https://kenerateai.com/upscayl-online - Bigjpg alternative: https://kenerateai.com/bigjpg-alternative - VanceAI alternative: https://kenerateai.com/vanceai-alternative - waifu2x alternative: https://kenerateai.com/waifu2x-alternative - Magnific AI alternative: https://kenerateai.com/magnific-ai-alternative - Topaz Labs alternative: https://kenerateai.com/alternatives/topazlabs-alternative ## Sources - Library of Congress — Caring for your photographs: https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/photo.html - Conservation and restoration of photographs — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_and_restoration_of_photographs