Sepia photo: restore it, then choose colour or sepia

A sepia photo is treated as a photo with no real colour: contrast recovered, twice the resolution, faces rebuilt, and colourised if you want it. To keep the period feel, turn colour off at upload or pick the sepia look for your print.

The Minibon team · Updated on 27 October 2026 · Translation to review

free preview, HD from €1.99

Scanning a sepia photo well

• Mounted prints: keep them flat

  Old prints glued to card often curl. Lay them on the scanner glass without pressing hard, or hold them under a clean sheet of glass with your fingers out of shot.

• Send the original tone

  Do not convert the photo to black and white or adjust its tint first: the tool spots sepia on its own, and a phone filter can flatten details it would have recovered.

• Scan the back too

  A name, a place or a date pencilled on the back is useful for a caption, or to help you date the photo.

How it works

1. 1. Digitise Scan the photo (300 dpi is usually enough for a standard-size print), or photograph it flat in daylight, without flash.
2. 2. Choose "Auto colour" colourises a sepia photo; "Keep B&W" restores it without colour. Then upload the file (JPG, PNG or WebP, 25 MB max).
3. 3. Compare Drag the before/after slider on the free preview. Prefer the other version? Rerun it for free from the photo's page.
4. 4. Keep it HD without watermark for €1.99, or a print with the Studio's "Sepia" look to bring back the warm tone.

What the tool does well, and what it misses

• Good: spotting sepia In auto mode, a sepia photo, or one faded to a single tint, is treated as colourless and colourised.
• Good: contrast on faded prints Depth comes back on brightness only, before the ×2 enlargement cleans up the grain.
• Worth knowing: the colours are imagined The original holds no colour information, so the colours you see are plausible, not recovered.
• Not yet: stains and missing corners A large stain, a sharp crease or a torn-off corner will still show.