Scratch & Spot Remover

Brush away thin scratches, dust specks and age stains from old photographs with smart local smoothing — free, private, and right in your browser.

Private by design — your photo is processed locally and never uploaded.

Drop a photo here, or click to browse

Supported formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP

Before After

Drag to compare

Tip: upload the largest scan you have — bigger input gives better results.

How It Works

Most old prints carry small enemies: a hair dragged across the scanner glass, dust that baked onto the emulsion, a thin crack in the negative, foxing stains in the paper. A global blur would erase these marks — but also every eyelash and pore. The Scratch & Spot Remover instead asks one question of every pixel: "are you suspicious compared to your local neighborhood?" If yes, it blends you toward the neighborhood median; if no, it leaves you completely alone. Everything runs locally in your browser, so the photo never leaves your device.

The two controls:

Repair radius

The size of the neighborhood inspected around each pixel. Radius 1 handles hairline scratches and dust dots; radius 2 covers wider specks and light stains, at the cost of slightly softer fine detail.

Sensitivity (threshold)

How different a pixel must look from its surroundings before it is treated as damage. Higher sensitivity removes more scratches, but also starts softening real texture; lower sensitivity is conservative and keeps faces intact.

Why median, not blur

A median filter takes the middle value of the neighborhood instead of the average. A single bright scratch line is the minority in every window it crosses, so it is voted out — while real edges, where half the pixels are dark and half light, survive the vote.

Selective blending

Only pixels that strongly disagree with the median are pulled toward it. Skin, walls and sky that look normal are never touched, which is why the result stays natural instead of going plastic.

An honest note: this tool is tuned for thin scratches, dust and small spots. It cannot fill a large torn-out area, inpaint around a big fold, or remove a heavy stain that covers a whole face — those need cropping or careful manual work. If a mark is wider than a few pixels, raise the repair radius and sensitivity gradually and check the before/after preview.

How to Use

Upload the damaged scanDrop in the photo with visible scratches or dust. A clean flatbed scan at 300+ DPI gives the algorithm clear signal to work with.
Click "Auto Smooth"The default radius 1 and sensitivity 50 remove most hairline scratches and dust specks while keeping faces natural.
Raise sensitivity for bad scansIf visible scratches survive, nudge "Sensitivity" up in steps of 10 until they fade — stop before skin texture starts to soften.
Widen the radius for big spotsFor larger dust blobs or light stains, switch "Repair radius" to 2; keep an eye on eyelashes and fine lines.
Download the cleaned photoExport PNG for your archive, JPG for sharing, WebP for the smallest size.

FAQ

Is my photo uploaded to a server?

No. The scratch-smoothing runs entirely in your browser with the Canvas API. Your photo never leaves your device, and the page keeps working after you disconnect from the internet.

Can it remove big tears or missing areas?

No — and honestly, no simple local tool can. This algorithm blends small damaged pixels toward their neighborhood; a torn-out area has no good neighborhood to borrow from. Crop around big damage or plan a careful manual touch-up after using this tool for the small marks.

Some thin scratches are still visible. What now?

Raise the "Sensitivity" slider. It controls how strongly a pixel must disagree with its surroundings before it is treated as a scratch. Increase it in steps of 10 and watch the preview — too high and flat skin areas start to soften.

Why does the photo look soft after processing?

Either the repair radius is 2 on a detailed portrait, or sensitivity is too high. Drop sensitivity back toward 40–50; the tool only softens pixels it believes are damaged, so a more conservative setting protects fine detail.

Is it free?

Yes — free, unlimited, no watermark. We support the site with ads and an optional Pro tier later.