Restore Old Photos in GIMP

You have old family prints that are fading, scratched, torn, or creased, and you want to save them before they get worse. This shows you how, working entirely in GIMP, at no cost. You start by scanning each photograph properly: the resolution that keeps a full-size print sharp, the much higher resolution a small print or negative actually needs, and why an untouched master file matters before you change anything. From there you work through the repairs a real restoration needs: healing and cloning out scratches and spots, clearing dust and grain, and correcting the color cast and fading that come with age. You learn to handle a black-and-white portrait on its own terms, including the difference between a single sepia-style tint and hand-coloring different areas with their own colors. For a torn or creased snapshot, you rebuild the damaged area by working across layers and masks, so the fix stays reversible. Every photograph gets finished properly too: sharpened at the right stage, sized correctly for a print, and exported as a master file alongside a copy for sharing. Two optional plugins get a look for readers who want to go further, with their real platform limits stated plainly. Throughout, the goal is repair, not invention: your photographs keep only what is actually there, and an unedited original of every scan stays safe the whole time.