Restore old yearbook photos with AI instantly.

Individual yearbook portraits. The small headshot on the class page. This is the most common yearbook restoration. The AI sharpens the face and removes the yellow paper cast. You will go from "I think that might be Anna" to "that is definitely Anna." Do not expect the same quality as a full-size studio portrait since the source is very small, but the improvement is dramatic and faces become clearly recognizable.

Full class pages with dozens of portraits. You can upload the entire class page and the AI restores all the faces at once. This is useful for reunion slideshows where you want to project the whole page. For individual portraits (gifts, memorials, "then and now" posts), crop each face individually and upload separately for the sharpest result per person.

Club photos, team photos, and activity pages. Group shots from yearbook activity pages (sports teams, drama club, student council) are usually larger than individual portraits, so they restore well. The AI handles multiple faces and improves group shot clarity significantly.

Black-and-white yearbook photos from the 1950s and 1960s. Older yearbooks used black-and-white printing on better paper. These actually scan very well and the AI sharpens them to excellent quality. You can also colorize them afterwards by running "Colorize B&W" on the restored version.

Yearbook pages that are yellowed, spotted, or damaged. Brown foxing spots, water stains, and heavy yellowing are common in old yearbooks. The AI treats paper degradation separately from the photo content and removes it. Even heavily yellowed pages produce recognizable restored portraits.

Open the yearbook and find the page you want. If the spine is stiff, press the page flat with your hand or place something heavy on the opposite page to hold the book open. Pages near the spine curve inward, which creates shadows and distortion. The flatter the page, the cleaner the result.

Photograph the page with your phone. Hold your phone directly above the page in natural window light. Avoid ceiling lights because they create glare on the glossy yearbook paper and add a warm color cast. Make sure no shadow from your hand or phone falls across the faces. If you have a flatbed scanner, lay the yearbook face-down on the glass for an even sharper capture.

Try the bulk restore tool

Upload the photo to restorephotosapp.com/restore. You can upload the full page or crop to an individual portrait first. For the best result on a single person, crop just their portrait and upload it alone since the AI focuses all its processing on that one face. For a full class page (reunion slideshow), upload the whole page and the AI restores all faces at once.

Check the before/after slider. Zoom in on the faces. You will see sharpened eyes, clearer skin, and corrected color where the original showed only a yellow blob. For most yearbook photos, a single pass is all you need. If the page was extremely yellowed or stained, a second pass can clean up any remaining color issues.

For a reunion project, divide the work. Each classmate photographs their own yearbook page and uploads their own portrait. Or one person with the best-condition yearbook photographs all the pages. The Family plan ($19.99 for 150 restorations) covers an entire graduating class with room to spare. Download everything and arrange it into a slideshow, a poster, or a social media post series.