How to Repair Scratches
and Tears in Old Photos

Vintage photographs are made of paper fibers, gelatin, and silver. Exposure to air, moisture, and rough handling causes specific types of physical deterioration over decades.

Scratches occur on the surface emulsion; folds and creases break the paper backing and create thick white lines; water stains warp the gelatin layer; and tape or mold leaves chemical stains that obscure details.

In traditional editing, fixing a crease line required tedious cloning and healing, brush-stroke by brush-stroke, often resulting in muddy patches.

Modern restoration uses AI image inpainting. The model detects lines and scratches, segments them, and reconstructs the missing pixel areas by analyzing the surrounding textures and content, making the repair look perfectly integrated and invisible.

To get the best result when restoring physically damaged images, follow these scanning tips:

• Do not try to flatten cracked or rolled photos forcefully, as the emulsion may flake off. Keep them weighted under flat books first.
• Clean the scanner bed frequently. Dust on the glass will look like scratches to the AI model.
• If the photo has a matte or textured surface, scan it in two different orientations and combine them to cancel out texture shadows.

Whether it is a minor scratch on a portrait or a major tear down the center of a family photo, FixMyPhoto's algorithms are built to handle a wide range of paper damages.

Get started by uploading your scanned photo, and let our restoration neural network clean up the scratches and creases in seconds.