ON1 are really going out of their way to set expectations about ON1 Restore (to be released late April 2026), which is a good thing really as too many companies hype the heck out of AI related apps, with outlandish claims. Visit https://www.on1.com/blog/restore-ai-great-or-grotesque-real-photo-restoration-results/ for their commentary.
Meanwhile here’s our short summary of what they have to say. Just a pity the ‘snake oil’ companies are not as equally forthcoming.
Restore AI photo restoration is powerful but has limitations. It excels at fixing faded prints, scratches, and color shifts – work that once took hours – but struggles when original details are missing. In such cases, the software estimates missing information based on learned patterns, which can lead to imperfect results.
Examples illustrate this balance:
- A 1950s portrait gained striking detail and colorization, but the AI incorrectly guessed brown eyes instead of blue (easily corrected with a prompt).
- A severely blurry image with tiny faces showed significant improvement, but the results weren’t print-ready due to insufficient source data.
The key takeaway is managing expectations.
Restore AI provides a fast, powerful starting point, but manual refinement may be needed for forensic accuracy or severely damaged photos. It’s best viewed as a workflow accelerator – handling the heavy lifting so users can focus on final creative adjustments. The technology is rapidly improving, offering a practical way to preserve fading memories.