ABSTRACT
This chapter reports the most important algorithms to digitally detect and restore typical damages that photographs suffer such as foxing, water blotches, fading, and glass cracks; also, defects that books suffer such as yellowing and foxing. It deals with the detection of foxing and of water blotches on photographic prints or antique books, then with cracks on printed photographs, and with the case of glass fragmentation in the oldest photographs. Antique photographs and paper documents constitute an immense patrimony that is distributed among thousands of private and public libraries, museums, and archives all over the world. Despite care in their conservation, they are based on fragile materials, and hence they are easily affected by environmental agents. Digital reproductions of paper documents are a powerful tool to share the patrimony and to preserve the original materials. Large intellectual and financial resources have already been devoted to this purpose.
