will do - and in case you feel nostalgic about old storage media types, a printer with photo paper will complement the task. So let’s say, you have the photos, you have the technology… What next? How do you proceed, quickly and efficiently enough to restore any kind of printed images? Are there some tricks you should have in mind, which can heImagine one evening while you try to put order in the old attic, amidst the dark and the dust gathered by the years, you discover an old photo album, last century’s early version of a home multimedia database…A photo album, containing mostly black & white photos of family elders –occasions like weddings, gatherings, celebrations, trips around the world, full on sentimental value, and even – why not – historical value. After all, at day end, everyone’s own history is a part of the world’s history – seeing it from a philosophical point of view.

But unfortunately -as it happens with old technology storage media - time leaves its trace on the photos. For instance visible marks on the surface, dust and scratches and discolouring and fading are constantly populating the surface of each of your valuable photos: humid, photo-hungry germs are feeding their appetite starting from each photos edges, slowly but steadily progressing towards an irreversible victory, turning history into oblivion.

Unless… Oh, yes, using magic technology, a perceptive eye and a steady hand can reinstate the photo-historical status-quo, eliminate or correct any side-effects, any signs or scars this battle of time has left-over. And the good thing is that there is no need for expensive technology, nor rocket science is needed: Any good old image editing application with a scanner will do - and in case you feel nostalgic about old storage media types, a printer with photo paper will complement the task. So let’s say, you have the photos, you have the technology… What next? How do you proceed, quickly and efficiently enough to restore any kind of printed images? Are there some tricks you should have in mind, which can hel

the world, full on sentimental value, and even – why not – historical value. After all, at day end, everyone’s own history is a part of the world’s history – seeing it from a philosophical point of view.

But unfortunately -as it happens with old technology storage media - time leaves its trace on the photos. For instance visible marks on the surface, dust and scratches and discolouring and fading are constantly populating the surface of each of your valuable photos: humid, photo-hungry germs are feeding their appetite starting from each photos edges, slowly but steadily progressing towards an irreversible victory, turning history into oblivion.

Unless… Oh, yes, using magic technology, a perceptive eye and a steady hand can reinstate the photo-historical status-quo, eliminate or correct any side-effects, any signs or scars this battle of time has left-over. And the good thing is that there is no need for expensive technology, nor rocket science is needed: Any good old image editing application with a scanner will do - and in case you feel nostalgic about old storage media types, a printer with photo paper will complement the task. So let’s say, you have the photos, you have the technology… What next? How do you proceed, quickly and efficiently enough to restore any kind of printed images? Are there some tricks you should have in mind, which can he

the surface, dust and scratches and discolouring and fading are constantly populating the surface of each of your valuable photos: humid, photo-hungry germs are feeding their appetite starting from each photos edges, slowly but steadily progressing towards an irreversible victory, turning history into oblivion.

Unless… Oh, yes, using magic technology, a perceptive eye and a steady hand can reinstate the photo-historical status-quo, eliminate or correct any side-effects, any signs or scars this battle of time has left-over. And the good thing is that there is no need for expensive technology, nor rocket science is needed: Any good old image editing application with a scanner will do - and in case you feel nostalgic about old storage media types, a printer with photo paper will complement the task. So let’s say, you have the photos, you have the technology… What next? How do you proceed, quickly and efficiently enough to restore any kind of printed images? Are there some tricks you should have in mind, which can he

gic technology, a perceptive eye and a steady hand can reinstate the photo-historical status-quo, eliminate or correct any side-effects, any signs or scars this battle of time has left-over. And the good thing is that there is no need for expensive technology, nor rocket science is needed: Any good old image editing application with a scanner will do - and in case you feel nostalgic about old storage media types, a printer with photo paper will complement the task. So let’s say, you have the photos, you have the technology… What next? How do you proceed, quickly and efficiently enough to restore any kind of printed images? Are there some tricks you should have in mind, which can hewill do - and in case you feel nostalgic about old storage media types, a printer with photo paper will complement the task. So let’s say, you have the photos, you have the technology… What next? How do you proceed, quickly and efficiently enough to restore any kind of printed images? Are there some tricks you should have in mind, which can help towards this goal?

Well, the answer is yes and no. Despite the power tools we have these days even in our home computers (with Adobe Photoshop on Windows and Mac, as well as Gimp on Linux as primary examples) capable of easily performing a huge number of impressive digital photo tasks, restoration of old photos is still closely related to a users aptitude and artistic eye, as much as in his good knowledge and effective use of the application tools.

For example, in Photoshop there are embedded filters, which automatically remove small dust and scratches: some clever image recognition algorithm works there, that recognises unwanted elements by identifying irregular fluctuations in the bitmap’s pixel colour depth mapping. But this works only relatively well, as the underlying algorithm is not lossless: the more strongly the filter is applied, the more the loss of the image quality in terms of sharpness and details. Furthermore, it is strongly dependent on the image contents. Dust, scratches and other elements are more easily removed from the photo’s uniform shaded areas, i.e. when photos are picturing elements like walls, surfaces, sky, clouds etc. than from, say, a landscape with lots of details, a patterned canvas or a photos that contains a number of people.

As for the use of tools like the powerful Adobe Photoshop’s Clone Stamp, or the n