How to Restore Old Photos for Free without Photoshop
Everyone has the flashes of the past saved in the form of album with hundreds of photos. However, as time goes by, these photos might have been faded, folded, stained or damaged. What a pity! Luckily, with the help of digital technology, like Online Photo maker and editing tools, we can repair and store them as lifetime memories. Don’t worry. You don’t need to spend months learning how to use Adobe Photoshop before giving up. In this tutorial, we’re going to introduce how to restore old photos easily and repair old photos accordingly with the minimal cost effectiveness.
Note: If you need to recover the old deleted photos from computer or any other external storage before you can make the repair, you can try a Free Photo Recovery Software.
Is It Hard to Restore Old Photos?
Worried about getting the old photos in shape of digital will be a hassle? The hardest step is actually properly scanning your old photos, which can be processed with mobile apps, like PhotoScan. Once you have taken a picture for the original old photo, the rest repair work can be easily done with photo editors.
With the tools and software, old photo restoration can be easy for anyone with a few simple steps. Those software tools are available in the form of free and paid versions. There must have a reason that paid software charge people, but some free repair tools can fulfill the need of most people.
Option 1. Restore Old Photos for Free with Web App – Pixlr
Pixlr is a cloud-based set of image tools and utilities, including a number of photo editors, a screen recorder browser extension, and a photo sharing service. It is actually easier to understand when you only need to restore old photos.
Features:
- Similar edit panel to Photoshop. Less functions actually, but enough for restoring old photos.
- Adjusted for web. For example, when you want to move forward after distorting the image, it will warn you to apply the change in case you forget to save while with no local cache.
- Easy access to free fonts and free graphics.
- As powerful as desktop software. Allow users to see real time effect before applying.
- Require basic editing knowledge.
- Adobe Flash Player must be properly installed and updated.
Pixlr Editor is good enough for both novice and advanced users to repair old photos. If you prefer a more automatic old photo restoration, you may try another web app Fotoflexer. In case there is no internet access when you want to restore old photos, the following free desktop software is an awesome choice.
Option 2. Restore Old Photos for Free with Desktop App – GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It provides many advanced editing options, but not as sophisticated as Photoshop. However, the most important point is that it is totally free to use.
Features:
- Open source and totally free.
- Similar functionality to Photoshop but with different user interface.
- Smaller in size comparing with other professional image editing tools.
- Cost a little longer time to get familiar with the operation.
- Not especially for old photo restoration, thus a little difficult to use for novice.
Many excellent developers have distributed to GIMP. It has also helped a lot of people complete various works, including video game designing. Anyway, GIMP is a great free old photo restoration app.
With the combination of Pixlr and GIMP, we should be satisfied to repair old photos for free. Nevertheless, if you are willing to invest in commercial software to gain better experience, here are two paid apps that suit for old photo restoration.
Option 3. Best Paid Old Photo Restoration Apps
Retouch Pilot
Retouch Pilot is designed for removing imperfections from a photo. It works as a normal program and a plug-in of Photoshop. With the functionaries, you can fix the best of the needs like the contrast, spots, scratches, and pixel setting with the look of the professional. It is equipped with smart tools to remove or patch bad sectors efficiently. The free trial version will save the image as a special format which cannot be used normally.
AKVIS Retoucher
From the name, it reflects the functionalities of the retouch and getting the most of the photos in the best and desired shape. It’s better to start with the tutorial and turn your learning results into the next generation photo reshaping.
Bottom Line
In this article, we have reviewed four tools for old photo restoration which are easy to use and suitable for most users. Of course, if you are a big fan of Adobe, Photoshop Element is always a good choice if you can ignore the price. Editing photos are highly rewarding and, while challenging, can be a lot of fun. Get the best of the needs of restoring old photos and repairing old photos easy here with the help of the tools. Don’t hesitate to share your experience and favorite options with us in the comment section below.