How to colorize black and white photos

Start with the best scan you can get

Colorization works on the detail that exists in the image, so the scan matters more than the colour step. If you have the physical print, scan it on a flatbed scanner rather than photographing it at an angle. Clean the glass, lay the print flat and scan at a generous resolution; a small wallet print benefits from a higher setting than a large one.

If a scanner is not available, photograph the print in soft, even daylight near a window, with the phone held parallel to the photo to avoid keystone distortion and glare. Turn off the flash.

Many “black-and-white” photos are actually sepia or yellowed with age. That warm tint is not real colour information; it is toning or fading. AI colorization treats the image as tones of light and dark, so a heavily tinted print can still be colorized, but if you are editing by hand first, converting to neutral greyscale and gently restoring contrast gives a cleaner starting point.

Why AI colours are educated guesses

A black-and-white photo records how bright each part of the scene was, not what hue it was. A red dress and a green dress of similar brightness can produce exactly the same grey. No software can recover the original colour from that grey, because the information was never captured.

What an AI colorizer does is predict plausible colours from context: skin usually looks like skin, sky is usually blue, grass is usually green. That is why results can look very natural for faces and landscapes but uncertain for clothing, cars, wallpaper, painted doors or anything that could have been many colours.

Colorize an old photo step by step

1. Scan or photograph the original

   Make a sharp, evenly lit, straight copy of the print and keep this file untouched as your master copy.

2. Crop and tidy the image

   Crop away borders, album pages and background. Leave the photo's natural edges if they matter to you.

3. Open the colorize tool and upload

   In Old photo restore & colorize, sign in and upload a JPG, PNG or WebP that is at least 128 px on each side. Larger photos are resized to at most 1600 px before upload.

4. Check the price and run it

   You see the exact credit price before running. Failed generations aren't charged — held credits come back automatically. A run usually takes 10 to 40 seconds, and your result is kept for 24 hours to download.

5. Compare before and after

   The tool repairs scratches and fading and adds colour in one step. Drag the slider to compare with the original and look closely at faces, hands and clothing.

6. Save and label the result

   Save the colorized version, which keeps your photo's proportions at up to 2048 px on the long side, and name the file so it is clearly marked as colorized.

Check the colours you can actually verify

Once you have a result, go through it with what you know rather than what looks pleasant.

• Skin tones: compare with other photos of the same person and with relatives. Faces that look too orange, grey or uniform are a common sign the guess went wrong.
• Uniforms, flags and insignia: military, school, police and sports uniforms often had documented colours. Look them up in a museum or archive source before trusting the AI.
• Signage and vehicles: shop signs, buses, trams and phone boxes in a given town often had known liveries. A local history group can often confirm them.
• Ask relatives: an aunt may remember that the front door was blue or that a wedding dress was ivory, not white. Write those memories down while you can.
• Fix or flag: if you know a colour is wrong, correct it in a photo editor with a colour layer on a selection, or simply note in the caption that some colours are uncertain.

What AI colorization cannot do

It cannot know the real colours. Clothing, backgrounds, cars and interiors may differ from reality, sometimes in ways that matter to the family story. It also cannot invent detail that was never in the photo: a tiny, very blurred face will stay soft, and heavy damage may only be partly repaired. Generated results can change small details, so compare with the original before replacing anything.

If the damage is the main problem, you may prefer to keep the image black-and-white. Photo restore repairs damage without adding colour, and our guide on how to restore old photos covers that route in detail. For soft or out-of-focus prints, see how to fix a blurry photo or try photo deblur.

Share it responsibly

• Always keep the original scan. The colorized file is an addition, not a replacement.
• Label shared images as “colorized” in the caption or file name, especially in family archives and online groups.
• Do not present a colorized image as an original colour photograph, and do not submit one to an archive or museum as a primary source.
• Be careful with historical events and people who suffered: colour can make a scene feel more immediate, and it should be done with respect and clear labelling.
• Once you are happy with a still, you can bring it gently to life with photo to video; our guide to turning a photo into a video explains how.

Frequently asked questions