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Open-Source Photo Restoration Tools (2027): 8 Free Ways to Restore Old, Scratched, Blurry and Faded Photos, From Upscayl to GIMP

Open-Source Photo Restoration Tools: Free Ways to Restore Old, Scratched, Blurry and Faded Photos

Old family prints, scanned slides, a blurry founder portrait, a faded product shot from your first market stall: most photos that need restoring are personal, and many online photo restorers ask you to upload them to someone else's server and pay per image. Open-source tools do the same jobs on your own computer, for free: AI upscaling for blurry and low-resolution photos, face restoration, healing scratches and tears, and fixing faded colour. We checked every tool below on its official website and code repository in November 2026: the exact licence, the latest release, how you run it and what it really fixes. Projects that are archived or not really open source are listed separately.
Quick answer: to sharpen and enlarge a blurry or low-resolution photo, install Upscayl. To restore faces in old photos with AI models such as GFPGAN, use chaiNNer. For scratches, tears and stains, use GIMP with the Resynthesizer plug-in or G'MIC, and for faded colour and haze, darktable. Want a free photo restorer online? G'MIC Online runs open-source filters in your browser. The 2025 version of this article compared tools with a product called PhotoMender Restorer: we could not find an official website for it, so this guide focuses on the open-source tools themselves.
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Open-Source Photo Restoration Tools Compared

ToolBest forLicenceHow you run itLatest activity
UpscaylAI upscaling of blurry, low-resolution photosAGPL-3.0Desktop app: Windows, macOS, LinuxRelease 2.15.1 (December 2024), code updated March 2026
chaiNNerAI face restoration, denoising, upscaling pipelinesGPL-3.0Desktop node editor: Windows, macOS, LinuxAlpha v0.26.1, October 2026
Final2xSimple AI upscalingBSD-3-ClauseDesktop app: Windows, macOS, Linuxv4.1.0, September 2026
UpscalerAI upscaling on LinuxGPL-3.0Flatpak from Flathub1.6.5, September 2026
GIMP + ResynthesizerScratches, tears, stains, missing cornersGPL-3.0Desktop editor plus plug-inGIMP 3.2.6, September 2026
G'MICRepair and denoise filters, also onlineCeCILLPlug-in for GIMP, Krita, digiKam; command line; G'MIC Online4.0.7, October 2026
darktableFaded colour, haze, blur, dust spotsGPL-3.0Desktop app: Windows, macOS, Linux5.6.2, October 2026
digiKamFilm grain, scratches, dust on many scansGPLDesktop app with batch processing9.1.0, June 2026
Sources: each project's official website and GitHub or GitLab repository (licence file, releases, commits), checked 3 November 2026. All tools are free; AI tools run fastest with a supported graphics card.

The Best Open-Source Photo Restoration Tools in 2027

1. Upscayl: free AI upscaling for blurry, low-resolution photos

Upscayl is the easiest open-source way to make a small or soft photo bigger and sharper. You open an image, pick a model and Upscayl enlarges it with AI; its website promises up to 16x higher resolution. According to the Upscayl repository, it is licensed under AGPL-3.0, runs on Windows 10 and later, macOS 12 and later and Linux, and builds on Real-ESRGAN through its upscayl-ncnn backend. It needs a Vulkan-compatible graphics card, and the README warns that many integrated GPUs do not work. The latest desktop release is 2.15.1 from December 2024, and the code was last updated in March 2026. The team also runs Upscayl Cloud, a separate paid online service with a free trial of 10 credits on its pricing page. Upscayl sharpens and enlarges; it does not remove scratches, so pair it with GIMP or G'MIC for damaged prints.

2. chaiNNer: AI face restoration and repair pipelines

chaiNNer is a free, node-based editor for image processing: you drag nodes onto a canvas, connect them and press run, so one pipeline can denoise, restore faces and upscale a whole folder of scans. Its "Upscale Face" node supports the GFPGAN, RestoreFormer and CodeFormer face models, and model support comes from the MIT-licensed Spandrel library, which also covers LaMa inpainting and denoising models such as SCUNet, NAFNet, DnCNN and DRUNet. The chaiNNer repository is GPL-3.0, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, supports PyTorch, NCNN, ONNX and TensorRT, and falls back to the CPU if you have no supported GPU. Alpha v0.26.1 came out in October 2026. One licence trap: the CodeFormer model is for non-commercial use only, so choose GFPGAN or RestoreFormer for client or business work.

3. Final2x: a simple upscaler with your own models

Final2x is a cross-platform image super-resolution app for Windows, macOS and Linux. You use its built-in models or load your own, and its backend, cccv, is described as an image restoration and super-resolution backend. It is licensed under BSD-3-Clause, installs on Windows through winget or Scoop as well as from the releases page, and version 4.1.0 came out in September 2026. The README does not list a face restoration model, so use it to enlarge photos and chaiNNer for faces.

4. Upscaler: AI upscaling for Linux desktops

Upscaler is a small GNOME app that upscales and enhances an image in a few clicks. It is a front end for Upscayl-NCNN, a fork of Real-ESRGAN ncnn Vulkan, it is GPL-3.0, and it is distributed only as a Flatpak on Flathub. Version 1.6.5 was tagged in September 2026. Choose it on Linux if you want Upscayl's results in a simpler interface.
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5. GIMP with Resynthesizer: heal scratches, tears and stains

GIMP is the free, open-source image editor for Linux, macOS and Windows, and the place for manual restoration: its heal and clone tools fix dust and small scratches, and layers let you rebuild a torn corner from another part of the photo. GIMP 3.2.6 was released in September 2026. The GPL-3.0 Resynthesizer plug-ins add inpainting: select a scratch, crease or stain and they fill it with texture from the surrounding image. Resynthesizer 3.0.1 works with GIMP 3.0 or later and installs as a Flatpak on Linux or on macOS; the README says a Windows build is not tested and not in the repository. Want a different editor for the rest of your image work? See our open-source GIMP alternatives and free GIMP alternatives.

6. G'MIC: repair filters as a plug-in or in your browser

G'MIC is an open-source image processing framework under the CeCILL free software licences. Its G'MIC-Qt plug-in adds more than 640 filters to GIMP, Krita, digiKam, Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Paint.NET and other editors, including a Repair category; according to G'MIC tutorials, its patch-based inpainting filter fills scratches and holes from the surrounding texture. The latest stable version, 4.0.7, came out on 28 October 2026. If you are looking for a free photo restorer online, G'MIC Online applies the same open-source filters in your browser without installing anything.

7. darktable: fix faded colour, haze and blur

darktable is an open-source photo workflow app for Windows, macOS and Linux, best known for raw files, but its modules also work on scanned prints. The darktable manual describes a retouch module that removes spots by cloning, healing, filling and blurring; a diffuse or sharpen module that can inpaint damaged parts and remove blur with blind deconvolution; haze removal; profiled denoising; and color calibration for colour casts. That makes it the right tool for a yellowed or washed-out photo. darktable is GPL-3.0, and version 5.6.2 was released in October 2026. For a Lightroom-style setup, see our open-source Photoshop alternatives.

8. digiKam: restore a whole box of scanned photos

digiKam is an open-source photo manager and editor, which helps when you digitise hundreds of family or archive photos. According to the digiKam manual, its Restoration tool is meant for images with Gaussian noise, film grain, scratches or compression artifacts, its Noise Reduction tool removes specks caused by dust or hair and Moire patterns on scanned printed material, and a Healing Clone tool fixes spots. Its batch queue applies the same fixes to many files. digiKam 9.1.0 was released in June 2026, and the G'MIC-Qt plug-in also works inside it. These are classic filters, not AI models.

A Simple Restoration Workflow

Most old photos need more than one tool. Work on a copy of the scan, fix the colour first, repair the damage, restore faces, and upscale last, because upscaling also enlarges every scratch you have not removed.

Photo Restoration Projects That Are Archived, Changed or Not Open Source

Many lists of AI photo restoration tools still recommend research projects that are no longer maintained. Here is their status in November 2026:
  • GFPGAN: Tencent's face restoration model, released under Apache 2.0, with V1.4 as its newest model. Its code has not changed since July 2024, and the official GFPGAN demo on Hugging Face showed a runtime error when we checked. The model still works inside chaiNNer.
  • Real-ESRGAN: the BSD-3-Clause upscaling model behind Upscayl and Upscaler. Its own repository has not changed since August 2024, so use it through those apps.
  • Bringing Old Photos Back to Life: Microsoft's MIT-licensed research code for scratch detection and face enhancement is archived and read-only, and its README describes it as research code. The 2025 version of this article linked it under the name GFP-GAN by mistake.
  • DeOldify: the MIT-licensed colorisation project was archived in October 2024. Its README says the author has moved on and that the most advanced version is now inside MyHeritage In Color, a commercial service.
  • IOPaint (formerly Lama Cleaner): an Apache-2.0 inpainting app for removing objects and scratches, now archived; its last release is from November 2024.
  • CodeFormer: a popular face restoration model, but its S-Lab License 1.0 allows non-commercial use only, so it is not open source. Do not use it for client work.
  • DnCNN, DeblurGAN and DCSC: research models rather than apps. DnCNN-type denoisers can be run in chaiNNer through Spandrel.
  • Removed from the old list: Pinta, Krita, MyPaint, RawTherapee and ImageJ are open-source editors, painting, raw or scientific tools rather than photo restorers, and Photopea is free but not open source. See our open-source Krita alternatives and free Photoshop alternatives for those.

Which Open-Source Photo Restoration Tool Should You Choose?

  • Your photo is blurry or too small: Upscayl, or Final2x if your graphics card is not supported; Upscaler on Linux.
  • Faces in an old photo are soft or damaged: chaiNNer with GFPGAN or RestoreFormer.
  • The print is scratched, torn or stained: GIMP with Resynthesizer, or G'MIC's repair filters.
  • The colours are faded, yellow or hazy: darktable.
  • You are digitising a whole family or company archive: digiKam for batch fixes, then the AI tools for the best photos.
  • You want a free photo restorer online: G'MIC Online, keeping in mind that you upload your photo to it.
Using Affinity Photo for retouching today? Compare our open-source Affinity Photo alternatives, and for quick browser edits, the Pixlr alternatives.

How Founders Use Photo Restoration Tools

Restored photos are useful well beyond family albums. A founder with a heritage brand can restore archive photos for an About page or a pitch deck, a photographer or print shop can offer restoration as a service, and a small team can sharpen low-resolution product photos and old headshots before a launch without paying per image. Keep originals, note which AI model you used, and choose openly licensed models for anything you sell: a model's licence matters as much as the app's. For marketing visuals, combine these tools with the free Canva Pro alternatives, open-source Canva AI alternatives and open-source StockAI alternatives for stock images, or create new pictures with the free AI image generator.
If you want to build your own restoration workflow with AI assistants, our open-source ChatGPT alternatives cover models you can run locally. And when your restoration service is ready, write about it with the F/MS AI SEO Tool so customers find you in Google and AI search.
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FAQ About Open-Source Photo Restoration Tools

What is the best open-source photo restoration tool?

There is no single one. Upscayl is the easiest for blurry or low-resolution photos, chaiNNer for AI face restoration, GIMP with Resynthesizer or G'MIC for scratches and tears, and darktable for faded colour.

Is there a free photo restorer online?

G'MIC Online runs open-source G'MIC filters in your browser. Most other online photo restorers are closed services that upload your photo and charge per image after a trial; Upscayl Cloud, for example, offers a free trial of 10 credits.

What are the best AI photo restoration tools that are open source?

Upscayl, Final2x and Upscaler for AI upscaling, and chaiNNer for AI face restoration and denoising with models such as GFPGAN and RestoreFormer.

Is GFPGAN still maintained?

Not actively. The code has not changed since July 2024 and its official Hugging Face demo showed a runtime error when we checked in November 2026, but the model still works inside chaiNNer.

Is CodeFormer open source?

No. Its code is public, but the S-Lab License 1.0 allows non-commercial use only, which does not meet the open-source definition.

Is DeOldify still available?

The code is still on GitHub under the MIT licence, but the repository was archived in October 2024 and is no longer maintained.

Can I remove scratches from an old photo for free?

Yes. GIMP's heal tool with the Resynthesizer plug-in, G'MIC's repair filters, darktable's retouch module and digiKam's Restoration tool all remove scratches for free.

Do I need a graphics card for AI photo restoration?

Upscayl needs a Vulkan-compatible GPU, and many integrated GPUs do not work. chaiNNer can fall back to your CPU, which is slower but works.

What happened to PhotoMender Restorer?

We could not find an official website or product page for PhotoMender Restorer in November 2026, so we compare open-source tools on their own merits instead.

Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?

You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
2026-11-03 01:49 Top Alternatives