For Archives & Heritage

Preserve what time tried to take

Every scratch, tear, and water stain on a family photo or historical image is a piece of history fading. Peelaway's AI reverses the damage — restoring faces, scenes, and moments that decades of wear nearly erased.

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Undo decades of damage

From individual family photos to large-scale archive digitization — every type of physical photo damage, handled.

Scratch & crease repair

Decades of handling leave marks. The AI traces each scratch and crease and reconstructs the image underneath — restoring faces, clothing, and backgrounds naturally.

Tear & physical damage restoration

Torn edges, missing corners, and fold damage. The AI fills damaged areas using the context of the surrounding image, not generic texture patterns.

Water & stain damage repair

Water rings, mold stains, coffee marks, and chemical damage. The AI understands what the undamaged image should look like and works to recover it.

Dust & foxing removal

Scanning captures every dust particle and age spot. The AI removes them across the entire frame while preserving the original photo grain and tone.

Faded area recovery

Sun-bleached sections, chemical fading, and uneven aging. The AI restores tone and detail to faded regions, guided by the surrounding intact areas.

Batch digitization support

Archives processing hundreds of scans can use the API for automated restoration. Submit, poll, download — the same quality at any scale.

Restoration that respects the original

Most AI 'restoration' tools run the entire image through a generative model, subtly changing faces, adding modern-looking details, and losing the authentic character of the original photograph.

Peelaway uses instruction-based editing that only touches damaged areas. The AI understands what a scratch is versus what a facial feature is, what water damage looks like versus what the photo's natural grain looks like. The result is a restored photo that's still authentically that photo — just without the damage.

Restoration, not recreation

The AI treats damaged photos as degraded originals and works to undo the degradation. It doesn't invent new content — it recovers what was there.

Face & detail preservation

Instruction-based editing keeps faces, handwriting, and fine details intact. The AI only modifies areas with actual damage.

Full scan resolution

Process high-resolution scans (600+ DPI) at native resolution. No downscaling, no quality compromise.

EXIF & metadata preservation

Original file metadata is carried through to the output. Your archive catalog stays organized.

Frequently asked questions

How does the AI know what the damaged areas should look like?
The instruction-based editing model treats the damaged photo as a degraded version of the original. It uses the surrounding intact areas — skin tones, clothing patterns, background textures — as context to reconstruct the damaged regions. It's restoring, not guessing.
Will it change the historical character of old photos?
No. The AI preserves the original photo's grain, tone, and aesthetic. It removes damage (scratches, tears, stains) without modernizing the image. An 1890s portrait will still look like an 1890s portrait — just without the scratches.
What scanning resolution should we use?
Scan at the highest resolution practical — 600 DPI or higher. Peelaway processes at full native resolution, so more detail in the scan means better restoration results. For small prints (3×5, 4×6), 1200 DPI captures the most restorable detail.
Can it restore photos where faces are partially damaged?
Yes, if the face is partially visible. The AI uses the intact portions of the face and surrounding context to reconstruct damaged areas. A scratch across a cheek is repaired naturally. A face that's entirely obscured or missing has less context to work with.
Is this suitable for archival/museum digitization projects?
Yes. The API supports batch processing for large-scale digitization. Each image is processed independently, and the serverless backend scales with your volume. Full resolution and metadata preservation meet archival standards.

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