Local Photo Restore

Features

Everything the app does, and exactly how.

Local Photo Restore has two tools, Enhance and Restore Color, plus a careful way to compare and save. That’s the whole app. Here’s what each part does and where its limits are.

Download on theApp Store$3.99 once · version 1.0.4

Enhance

Clearer detail, up to four times larger.

Enhance runs an AI super-resolution model (a Real-ESRGAN ×4 model converted for Core ML) directly on your iPhone or iPad. It enlarges the photo up to 4x and sharpens edges and texture along the way. A 512-pixel scan becomes a 2048-pixel image.

  • Runs on device. The model ships inside the app; the photo isn’t sent anywhere.
  • Large photos are handled in tiles so memory stays in check. The enlarged result is capped near 17 megapixels (for example 4728 × 3544).
  • Already-large photos gain less. If a scan is already high resolution, the app tells you and suggests cropping first.

Worth knowing: super-resolution predicts plausible detail. It can make fine texture, hair, or lettering look crisper than the original ever recorded. Compare faces closely and keep your original.

Enhanced and before comparison of a sepia family photo with a Pinch to inspect details hint
Compare the enhanced result
An enhanced 1970s birthday photo showing 4728 by 3544 pixels and 16.8 megapixels
Output size shown after enhancing

Restore Color

Lift the yellow. Bring back the depth.

Aging color prints drift warm and flat. Restore Color gives you two plain-language controls with a live preview:

  • Remove Yellow Tint neutralizes the yellow cast measured in your photo.
  • Restore Contrast recovers faded tonal range so existing colors and shadows read again.
  • Auto Fix is a conservative one-tap starting point that adapts to the cast and tonal range it measures in each photo. You can adjust it afterward.

These are deterministic image adjustments, not generative AI, so they don’t add anything to the picture. They also don’t colorize: a black-and-white photo stays black and white.

How to judge the right amount of correction →

A restored 1970s sprinkler photo with Remove Yellow Tint at 75 percent and Restore Contrast at 55 percent
Auto Fix on a faded snapshot
A black-and-white family photo with contrast restored, still in black and white
Black-and-white stays black-and-white

Compare & save

Check every face before you keep it.

  • Before/after divider

    Drag across the photo to see exactly what changed, side by side on the same image.

  • Pinch to inspect

    Zoom into eyes, hands, and lettering, where enhancement is most likely to over-interpret.

  • Saves a new copy

    The result is added to Photos as a separate image. Your original is never overwritten.

  • Scan a printed photo

    Photograph a print with the camera from inside the app. For best results, avoid glare and keep the phone parallel.

Details

Specifications

Devices
iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 18.2 or later
Price
$3.99 one-time in the U.S. App Store. No subscription, credits, or in-app purchases
Processing
On device. No account, no photo uploads
Enlargement
Up to 4x; output capped near 17 megapixels
Color tools
Remove Yellow Tint, Restore Contrast, Auto Fix
Output
New copy saved to Photos; original untouched
Doesn’t do
Scratch, tear, stain, or glare repair; colorization; face reconstruction; cropping or perspective correction (crop in Photos first)
Current version
1.0.4, checked on the App Store September 25, 2026

Two tools, done carefully.

Enhance and Restore Color handle the most common problems in old family photos: softness, low resolution, yellowing, and fading.

Download on theApp StoreSee examples