How we restore a public-domain scan for printing
TL;DR — Restoration turns a raw library scan into a clean, print-ready file. We straighten and crop the page, remove scan dust and stains, correct faded or shifted colour back toward the original, and prepare the image at three sizes. We restore what time and scanning damaged — we do not repaint the artwork or invent missing detail. This piece explains the process and its limits.
By The Day Press · Published August 2026
What a raw scan looks like
A library scan is made for reference and preservation, not for printing, and it usually shows it. A raw scan often arrives crooked, with the gutter or the edge of the page visible; speckled with dust, foxing (the brown spots of age), and stains; its paper yellowed; and its colour faded or shifted after a century of light and air. Printed as-is, it looks like exactly what it is: a scan of an old, worn page.
Turning that into something worth framing is the work of restoration.
What we change
We straighten the image and crop cleanly to the artwork. We remove dust, foxing, and stains, and even out the aged, yellowed paper tone. We correct the colour back toward what the print would have looked like when new, judging by the printing conventions of the period and what the image itself implies. Then we sharpen carefully and export the file at 8×10, 11×14, and 16×20 inches at 300 dpi, so it stays crisp at every size.
The aim throughout is the artwork as it was meant to look, recovered from a century of wear.
What we don’t change
There is a firm line we do not cross. We do not repaint figures, invent detail that has been lost, ‘improve’ the original composition, or add anything that was not there. Where an original is genuinely damaged beyond honest repair, we would rather not sell it than fabricate the missing part. Restoration recovers what exists; it does not invent what doesn’t.
This is the same distinction a good conservator draws between cleaning a painting and forging one.
Restoration, not fabrication
The guiding principle is faithfulness. A restored file should be the real, historic image — the same composition, the same content, the same date — simply cleaned of damage and prepared to print. That fidelity is what keeps a restored print an authentic artefact rather than a new picture wearing an old date.
Every print in our archive is restored to be faithful to its original, each dated as precisely as the source allows. Shop the restored prints →
Frequently asked questions
Do you change the artwork?
No. We clean, straighten, and colour-correct, but we don’t repaint or invent detail. The image stays faithful to the original.
Why not just sell the raw scan?
Raw scans print poorly — crooked, dusty, yellowed, and faded. Restoration is most of the value.
Will the colour be accurate?
We correct toward the original’s likely appearance when new, within what the scan allows; we never invent colours that weren’t there.
What if an original is badly damaged?
We would rather not sell it than fabricate missing detail. Restoration recovers what exists; it doesn’t invent what’s lost.
Further reading
- How to print and frame
- Browse magazine cover art
- Bamber Gascoigne, How to Identify Prints (Thames & Hudson, 1986).
- Peter C. Marzio, The Democratic Art: Chromolithography 1840–1900 (David R. Godine, 1979).
The Day Press curates, restores, and reformats public-domain American printed images from 1885 to 1928 for archival-quality home printing. Browse the archive · Browse by theme, month, decade.
