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Old Photo Stain Removal (AI LaMa)

Remove water marks, mold spots, and dark halos from paper prints. Paint over the stain and the LaMa neural network will restore the paper or emulsion texture around it.

Stain removal for old photos
Preset

Cover the tide mark completely plus 1-2 mm of clean emulsion around it; LaMa will match the paper tone.

Drag a scan of an old photo here

Zoom in on the stain, paint over it with a small margin of clean texture, and click "Remove stain".

Ready - open a scan with stains

Instructions

  • Upload a scan of a paper photo with moisture stains, mold, or smudges.
  • Choose a scenario: moisture, mold, or large stain.
  • Zoom in and paint over the stain with a small margin of clean texture.
  • Click "Remove stain" and LaMa will restore the background under the mask.
  • For multiple stains, repeat the passes; restore creases and cracks with a separate service.

Повний опис

Stains on paper are a separate restoration case

Moisture, mold in the album, and yellow halos damage family archives differently than dust or creases: they are blurry, irregularly shaped spots on the emulsion. Removing stains from old photos on filltools.com is tailored specifically to this defect. Brush presets and hints guide you to targeted inpainting with the LaMa neural network, not a global "whitening" of the entire frame.

What we remove

  • Smudges and wavy moisture traces on the print.
  • Dark specks and coatings resembling mold in album corners.
  • Large colored or gray spots on the background or clothing (in segments).

What this is not

The service does not colorize black and white photos, does not upscale resolution, and does not replace a full studio restoration of a face with half its features lost. For creases and cracks, use photo-damage-restorer; for dust, use dust-scratch-remover.

How to get a natural paper tone

Always leave some "healthy" texture around the stain in the mask. LaMa takes color and grain from it. On faces, work in small areas and check at zoom after each pass. Keep the LaMa method as default; OpenCV is only suitable for a tiny speck on a solid-color field.

Frequently asked questions

Which spots are the easiest to remove?
Local moisture marks, mold spots, dark halos on paper when there is enough clean texture nearby. You cannot bleach an entire evenly yellowed print with this tool, that is already tonal correction.
A spot on a portrait's face
Work with small masks and zoom. Several micro passes are better than one large spot over an eye or mouth. If the emulsion itself is damaged with loss of features, expectations should be realistic.
How is it different from dust-scratch-remover?
Dust/scratch is for pinpoint dots and thin scratches. This service is for wider marks and spots on paper/emulsion. The brush presets and hints are tailored to area defects. If the result is not perfect on the first try, refine the mask at zoom and repeat with a short pass.
How is LaMa different from blurring or the eraser?
Blurring and pixelation only hide the area with a gray or pixelated patch. LaMa (Large Mask Inpainting) analyzes neighboring pixels and synthesizes a plausible background, such as sky, wall, fabric, paper, so that the edge looks more natural. For small edits, the fast OpenCV Telea or Navier-Stokes in the method list is sometimes enough.
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 re-compressing with JPEG after retouching and to preserve edges after inpainting without additional 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.
How should I draw the mask so the result is cleaner?
Cover the target completely, with a small margin along the edge (1 to 3 pixels), especially if there is a semi-transparent halo. Several precise passes are better than one huge mask. Be sure to use zoom for small details; the Hand tool (H) pans the frame, and the B/E keys switch between brush and eraser. Cover the spot completely, including the semi-transparent edge of the moisture blur.
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 marking on the canvas; Reset fully returns the tool to the state with no image loaded.

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