Colorize black-and-white photos — upload and see it in colour
The AI works out skin tones, clothing and background on its own, and brings the colour back in under a minute
Tap to pick from your library — results in under a minute
The hard part of colorizing is not adding colour but adding the right colour: whether that 1970s shirt was pale blue or off-white, what skin tone suits someone of that age, whether the wall behind is grey brick or red. Get one wrong and the whole photo looks subtly fake. So this is not a filter laid over a greyscale image — the AI first works out what is in the frame, roughly which era it comes from and where the light falls, then colours accordingly.
How the AI decides which colours to use
A greyscale image carries more information than it appears to. Cotton and leather reflect light quite differently even at the same mid-grey; within a face, lips sit a step darker than cheeks and the whites of the eyes two steps lighter than skin. Those relationships survive in a black-and-white photo, and the job is to turn them back into colour rather than to paint by position.
- Segment first: find the people, clothing, skin, sky, plants and buildings — colorizing begins with understanding the photo
- Then set the era: clothing, hairstyles, architecture and objects place it roughly in time, and the palette of the seventies is not that of the nineties
- Then colour: consistent within a region, plausibly contrasting between regions, never half a face warm and half cool
- Then check: skin is where it goes wrong most visibly, so it gets a second pass — better understated than lurid
What it can and cannot do
Worth saying plainly: colorizing plausibly supplies the colours of the day; it does not recover them. That information was never on the negative. Keeping the distinction in mind makes it much easier to judge a result.
| It can | It cannot |
|---|---|
| Skin, sky, foliage, wood, brick and stone — usually right first time | Know the exact pattern of your family bedspread; with no clue in frame it can only guess plausibly |
| Keep the whole image consistent in tone and tonal relationships, so it reads as a real colour photo | Reconstruct historical truth — the negative does not hold that information |
| Leave features, expression and composition alone and touch only colour | Make a blurry photo sharp — that is a separate pass you can tick alongside |
| Correct a specific colour from one line of your notes ("the uniform was grass green") | Guess a fact you did not mention |
Four steps to colorize a photo
- 1
Photograph or scan the original well
If the photo is still in an album, take it out, lay it flat and shoot it in daylight (no flash — it leaves a hotspot), filling the frame and square-on rather than at an angle. This step sets the ceiling: a skewed copy leaves every later step fighting perspective distortion.
- 2
Upload, and write down what you know
Add any colour you are sure of to the notes: "the uniform was grass green", "her jumper was burgundy". It runs fine without, but it is far more accurate with — the facts in your head are the one thing the AI has no access to.
- 3
Wait under a minute, then compare
Processing usually finishes within a minute and you can close the page meanwhile; the result waits under "My restorations". Then work through the drag-to-compare slider: face first, then clothing, then background.
- 4
Re-run if needed, print when happy
Add a note and run again for anything the colours got wrong (there is a daily free allowance, shown on the page). When it looks right, download the full-resolution file or order a 6- or 8-inch print from the result page. A photo on a hard drive and a photo on a desk are not the same thing.
After colorizing
Most people colorize a photo to show it to family, so the result page offers two routes besides downloading. One is a framed print on genuine inks and professional photo paper, which holds its colour in normal storage. The other is a short before-and-after video — those few seconds of grey turning to colour make a stronger impression in a family chat than a still image. Both are on the result page; you do not have to go looking.
Common questions
Is colorizing automatic, or do I have to adjust it myself?
Automatic. You do not have to pick anything — the AI decides the colours. You can also add a note such as "the jacket was olive green" or "the wall is red brick" and it will follow it. That one line often helps more than any setting, because facts you know are exactly what the AI cannot guess.
Will colorizing change the face?
No. Colorizing only adds colour; features, expression and composition stay untouched. A drag-to-compare slider lets you check pixel by pixel afterwards — if something did change, that is not what colorizing should do, so just run it again.
How accurate are the colours?
It depends what. Skin, sky, foliage and common building materials are usually right first time. Whether a particular jacket was navy or dark green, or an enamel mug red or blue, is not something the image contains any clue about — there the AI can only make a plausible guess. Those are the places where a note from you fixes it instantly.
Can a very old, blurry black-and-white photo be colorized?
Colour can be added, but sharpness is a separate matter — colorizing will not make a photo clearer. Tick "sharper" as well for a blurry original. If the face genuinely cannot be made out, the AI will say so honestly rather than invent one.
Are colorizing and restoring two different things?
Two different things, done in one pass. Colorizing addresses the absence of colour; restoration addresses damage — yellowing, scratches, creases and blur each need different handling. A photo from the bottom of a box usually needs both, so tick them together and it runs once.
How many times can I colorize one photo?
You can re-run it, and each run differs slightly — though there is a daily free allowance, and the page shows how many you have left today. So rather than running the same thing repeatedly, add a line to the notes first: for a given photo that usually gets it right in one.
Can I print the colorized photo?
Yes, and printing is our main business. You can order straight from the result page at 6 or 8 inch, on genuine inks and professional photo paper. Note that the on-screen preview is a downscaled copy — printing uses the unlocked full-resolution file, so the print is sharper than the preview, not softer.
Will my photo be used for anything else?
No. Uploaded photos are used only for your own restoration — not for training, never made public. Results are visible only to you unless you deliberately share one with a code.