Codeformer
App in the BluixApps catalog
What it is
CodeFormer is robust blind face restoration via codebook lookup (NeurIPS 2022) — more aggressive recovery than GFPGAN, designed for severely degraded faces. Handles AI-generated artifacts, very old photos, and other tough cases that GFPGAN struggles with.
The alternative to GFPGAN when GFPGAN isn't enough — pick by photo, try both.
What it's for
- Severely degraded face restoration — beyond GFPGAN capability
- Color photo restoration from B&W
- AI-generated image face fix — SD/Flux face artifact compensation
- Document face cleanup — passport, ID photos
- Historical photo restoration
Who it's for
- Photo restoration professionals (commercial / archival)
- Document AI teams with degraded inputs
- AI art studios fixing generation artifacts
- Historical research teams restoring archival photos
- Family genealogy services restoring old photos
Why teams pick CodeFormer over alternatives
- S-Lab License — academic + commercial OK with attribution
- More aggressive than GFPGAN — recovers from worse degradation
- Fidelity slider — control quality vs identity preservation tradeoff
- Robust to AI artifacts — fixes SD face issues better than GFPGAN
- NeurIPS 2022 publication — peer-reviewed quality
- Active maintenance + community
Integrations
- Gradio web UI (BluixApps custom)
- CLI mode for batch
- A1111 Extras — alternative to GFPGAN
- ComfyUI nodes — community wrappers
- Pair with: Real-ESRGAN (background) + CodeFormer (faces)
- Try both GFPGAN + CodeFormer: results vary per photo
Notable users & community
- 17k+ GitHub stars
- Nanyang Technological University (S-Lab) research backing
- Featured in photo restoration tooling
- Active community + tutorials
- Multiple commercial restoration workflows use it
Tips & operations
- Fidelity slider:
- 0.0: best quality (may change identity)
- 0.5: balanced
- 0.7: balanced default (recommended)
- 1.0: preserve identity (less restoration)
- Background + face upsample: enable for full enhancement
- VRAM: 4 GB minimum
- Speed: 1-3 sec per photo
- Best inputs: severely degraded (blur + noise + low-res combined)
- CodeFormer vs GFPGAN:
- CodeFormer: more aggressive, handles severe degradation
- GFPGAN: gentler, preserves character better
- Try both per photo, pick result
- Production batch: CLI mode for archive workflows
What we ship in BluixApps
- Cloned
sczhou/CodeFormerrepo - pytorch CUDA 12.4 base + opencv
- Custom Gradio UI with fidelity slider + upsample toggles
- Persistent volumes: repo, weights (~600 MB), input, output
- Port 7877 mapped
- Install report at
/root/bluixapps/codeformer.txt - Fidelity guidance + use cases
- CodeFormer vs GFPGAN comparison
- CLI batch examples
- Pairing suggestions (Real-ESRGAN combo for full restoration)
- GPU pre-flight check via
bluixapps_ensure_nvidia_runtime - Backup hook covers weights + outputs
Get this app — pick a BluixApps plan
Same catalog. Scaling tenant isolation, white-label and support tier.
| Tier | Tenants | Catalog | Support | White-label | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stacks | 1 | 19 curated stacks | Standard | — | $19/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Starter | 10 | Full catalog | Standard | +$15–25/mo | $49/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Pro | 25 | Full catalog | Priority bugfix | +$15–25/mo | $149/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Growth | 100 | Full catalog | Priority bugfix | +$15–25/mo | $349/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Scale | 500 | Full catalog | 7-day window | +$15–25/mo | $799/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Enterprise | Unlimited | Full catalog | Priority 7-day | Bundled | $1,499/mo | DetailDeploy |