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Old Photo Crease and Crack Repair (AI LaMa)

On a scan of a family photo, paint over a crease, crack, or paper tear and the LaMa neural network will blend the texture. This is not colorization or upscaling.

Crease and crack restoration
Preset

Guide the mask in a thin strip exactly along the white/dark crease line.

Drag a scan of an old photo here

Paint over the crease, crack, or tear along the damage line and click Restore.

Ready - open a scan with damage

Instructions

  • Upload a scan or photo of a paper print with a crease or crack.
  • Choose a scenario: crease, crack, or tear.
  • Zoom in on the damage and brush along the line (not across the whole face).
  • Click "Restore" and LaMa will blend the texture from both sides of the mask.
  • Repeat for other damage. Do colorization and upscaling with separate services.

Повний опис

Damage repair, not colorization or upscaling

Family archives often come with white creases, a "spiderweb" of emulsion cracks, and torn corners. This service addresses exactly that: inpainting along damage lines with the LaMa neural network. It deliberately does not handle colorization of black-and-white photos and does not upscale resolution; separate tools for those are already available on the site.

What we restore

  • Paper creases and folds with a white or dark line.
  • Emulsion cracks on old prints.
  • Small tears and missing edges (when there is enough surrounding texture).

What to expect realistically

LaMa blends backgrounds and clothing well along a thin line. A large hole on a face missing half its features will not "invent" a perfect portrait from nothing; that calls for manual retouching or a professional restorer. Work along the damage, not with a mask covering half the frame.

Recommended archive pipeline

  1. Scan the photo straight, with margin around the edges.
  2. Remove creases and cracks with this service.
  3. If needed, remove dust separately (dust-scratch-remover).
  4. Do colorization or upscaling as the next step with other tools.

Frequently asked questions

Is this colorization of a black and white photo?
No. The service only fills in damaged areas (creases, cracks, small tears). It does not change the color of a black and white image. For colorization, use the separate tool on the site.
Is this upscaling?
No. The frame size stays within the working canvas of the editor. For upscaling there is a separate service. The logical pipeline is: first restoration of damage, then upscaling if needed.
A large piece of the photo is missing. Can LaMa handle it?
The model needs context around the hole. Very large losses (half a face with no features) may look blurry or made up, and in that case professional manual restoration is needed. Work along the line of damage, not with a mask over half the frame.
The crease runs across the face
Draw a thin mask exactly along the white or dark line of the crease. Do not cover the eyes and mouth just in case, since an extra mask makes the features worse. If the result is not perfect the first time, refine the mask while zoomed in and repeat with a short pass.
In what order should I retouch an archival scan?
First the large tears, then the cracks and creases, then the dust and specks with a separate service. After each type of damage, check while zoomed in. If the result is not perfect the first time, refine the mask while zoomed in and repeat with a short pass.
Which image formats are supported?
PNG, JPEG, WebP and other formats that the browser can open are accepted as input (usually BMP and GIF as well). The result is always saved as PNG to avoid repeated JPEG compression after retouching and to preserve the edges after inpainting without extra compression artifacts.
Where is my image processed and is it stored?
You draw the mask locally in the browser. Inpainting (the LaMa neural network or classic OpenCV) runs on the filltools.com server only to process your request. The file is not published in the gallery and is not intended to be shown to other users after the session ends. Do not upload unnecessary personal data without need.
Can I undo a mistaken step?
Yes. The Undo and Redo buttons keep a history of the mask and results (roughly up to 20 steps in the current browser session). Reset mask clears only the red markings on the canvas. Reset fully returns the tool to the state with no image loaded.

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