The fastest way to colorize black and white photos is an AI colorizer: upload a scan and download a color copy. Below are the steps for AI colorizers in a browser or an app, for an iPhone and a Samsung phone, and for coloring by hand in free software with no AI, plus how to choose colors that hold up when a relative looks closely.
5 ways to colorize black and white photos
Prices and requirements as of September 2026:
| Method | Works on | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| MyHeritage In Color | Web browser, MyHeritage app, Reimagine app | Limited free use, then Reimagine at $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year | Family photos you keep with a family tree |
| Gemini app | Web, Android and iPhone, signed in, age 18 or older for editing | No plan needed, with 1K downloads unless you have a Google AI plan | A quick colorized copy from a typed request |
| Photoshop Colorize neural filter | Photoshop on a computer | From US$19.99 a month (Photography plan, annual, billed monthly) | Adjusting colors area by area |
| GIMP by hand | Windows, macOS and Linux | Free, open source | Full control, no AI |
| Image Colorizer in Toybox AI | A browser on a phone or computer | 75 credits per photo, currently | Colorizing with a note about colors you know |
How to colorize black and white photos with AI
An AI colorizer fills in colors that fit what it sees in the scan. MyHeritage describes its own colorizer as a model trained on millions of sample photos that gives its best guess at the original colors. You get a new file, and the black and white original stays as it was. MyHeritage In Color is a good example of the usual steps:
- Open the MyHeritage In Color page in a browser and tap Upload photo, or drag the scan into the frame.
- Create a free MyHeritage account when it asks, or log in.
- Wait while it colorizes, which MyHeritage says typically takes a few seconds. The colorized copy has the same resolution as your upload.
- Drag the slider to compare the color and black and white versions.
- Tap Download and choose the colorized photo.
Each colorized copy gets a small palette symbol in its lower left corner, so viewers can tell it from a photo that was shot in color. A limited number of photo improvements are free, and more need a subscription such as the Reimagine plan. The MyHeritage photo enhancer alternatives compare it with other colorizing and repair tools.
Two other AI routes work well for a one-off photo. In the Gemini app, upload the photo and ask for the change in words, such as "colorize this photo with natural, muted 1950s colors". Google says editing images needs a signed-in user aged 18 or older, and downloads are 1K without a Google AI plan or 2K with one. In Photoshop, Adobe's steps are to duplicate the layer first, then choose Neural Filters from the Filter menu and pick Colorize to turn the gray scan into a color one. Focus points let you add color to specific areas, and Undo takes you back to the black and white version. Neural filters are downloaded from the cloud, and Photoshop plans come with a 7-day free trial.
How to colorize black and white photos on iPhone
Apple's iPhone User Guide covers three AI editing tools in Photos: Clean Up, Extend and Reframe. They remove objects, widen the frame or shift the perspective, and none of them adds color, so you'll need an app or a browser tool.
- Scan the print. PhotoScan by Google Photos is free on iOS 15 or later and removes glare as it scans, or use the scanner in the MyHeritage app.
- To colorize in an app, install the free MyHeritage app, open the Photos section, and colorize a photo with one tap. Use the options menu to save the colorized copy to your photo library.
- To colorize in Safari, open a web colorizer and upload the scan from your library.
- If a web tool rejects the file, it's probably a HEIC photo. Choosing Most Compatible under Formats in the Camera settings makes new photos JPEGs, and on a Mac, Photos or Preview can export a HEIF photo as JPEG or PNG.
How to colorize black and white photos on a Samsung phone
On a Samsung Galaxy, clean up the scan first, then colorize it in an app or in Chrome. Samsung's Galaxy Enhance-X app comes from the Galaxy Store and needs Android 14 with One UI 6.0 or above, and its options include Restore picture, Sharpen and Brighten. Then open the scan in the MyHeritage app from Google Play, or upload it to a browser colorizer. The same steps work on any Android phone apart from Enhance-X.
How to colorize black and white photos without AI
Hand colorizing means painting color onto layers that keep the photo's own light and shadow. GIMP is a free, open source image editor that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and it does this with a layer mode. Version 3.2.6 is the current stable release as of September 2026.
- Open the scan in GIMP and make a copy of the file to work on.
- Choose Image, then Mode, then RGB. A grayscale image has a single channel of grays, so it can't hold color until you convert it.
- Choose Layer, then New Layer. Name it for one area, such as "skin", and set "Fill with" to Transparency.
- In the same dialog, open the Mode drop-down and choose HSL Color. That mode takes the hue and saturation from your painted layer and the lightness from the photo underneath, so the shading stays intact.
- Paint over the skin with a soft brush in a muted peach or tan. Lower the layer's opacity if the color looks too strong.
- Repeat with one layer each for hair, clothing, sky and background, so you can adjust each color on its own.
- Export a new PNG or JPG, and keep the original scan unchanged.
Start with muted colors and raise them slowly. Bright, saturated colors are what make a hand-colored photo look painted.
Picking colors that look believable
Colors in a colorized photo are chosen, never recovered. A black and white print records how light or dark each thing was, and a red dress and a green dress can print as the same gray. MyHeritage's help center calls its own results a simulation and a best guess, and warns that the model sometimes can't know what color a particular piece of clothing was.
- Ask before you guess. A parent or aunt may remember hair color, eye color, a favorite coat or the color of the house.
- Read the back of the print. Studio stamps, handwritten dates and places narrow down clothing, cars and building colors.
- Check records you have. A wedding announcement, a military record or a letter might name a color.
- Tell the colorizer what you know. A colorizer with a note or request box can use it, and hand colorizing lets you pick every color yourself.
- Label the copy. Put "colorized" in the file name or caption, as MyHeritage does with its palette symbol, so nobody mistakes it for an original color photo years later.
Tips for a clean result
- Start from a clean scan. A colorizer colors scratches and dust along with everything else. Fix damage first with the steps in how to restore faded and torn photos.
- Scan at 600 ppi for small prints. A 2.5 x 3.5 inch wallet print scanned at 600 ppi is 1500 x 2100 px, enough to zoom in and check the color of an eye or a lip.
- Work area by area by hand. In GIMP, one layer per color makes it easy to fix a wrong shade later without repainting everything.
- Skin needs more than one tone. Cheeks, lips and hands are warmer than foreheads and necks, and a single flat tone looks like a mask.
- Keep the grain. Don't blur or smooth the photo to make coloring easier, because the grain is part of what makes it look real.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| GIMP won't paint in color | The image is still in Grayscale mode | Choose Image, then Mode, then RGB |
| Painted color covers the shading | The layer is set to Normal | Set the layer's Mode to HSL Color |
| Color spills past an edge | The brush was too big | Undo, zoom in and use a smaller brush near edges |
| Everything looks brown or sepia | The scan is sepia-toned, or the note named no colors | Name the colors you know in the note and run it again |
| A dress or uniform has the wrong color | The colorizer guessed | Tell it the color, or repaint that area by hand |
| Scratches turned into colored lines | The photo was colorized before it was repaired | Repair the scan first, then colorize the clean copy |
| Colors look too bright for the era | Saturation is too high | Lower the layer's opacity, or ask for muted period colors |
| The upload is rejected | The file is HEIC or over the tool's size limit | Export a JPG or PNG copy |
Add color to a scan in Image Colorizer
Image Colorizer in Toybox adds color to black and white, grayscale or faded photos, and you can guide it with a short note. It works on the Free plan and currently costs 75 credits per photo.
- Open Image Colorizer and upload the scan under "Your photo" (a JPG or PNG of 10 MB at most).
- Open "More options" and write what you know in "Notes", up to 500 characters. The examples below show the kind of detail that helps.
- Tap "Colorize photo". The page shows "Usually about 30 seconds" while it works.
- Zoom in on faces and clothing and compare them with what you know. To change a color, edit the note and run it again, which costs another 75 credits.
- Save it to your gallery, or download it as a PNG. Toybox keeps unsaved results for 24 hours.
Studio portrait from the 1940s. Dark auburn hair, green eyes, light warm skin, a navy blue dress with a white lace collar. Keep the soft studio lighting and the grain.Small-town main street in the 1950s. Red brick storefronts, a pale blue sky, gray pavement and a mint green car at the curb. Use muted period colors rather than bright ones.Family picnic by a lake in summer. Green grass, blue water, a red and white checked tablecloth, tanned skin, children in pastel shirts. Leave the shadows and the people's faces as they are.Image Colorizer adds color only. It won't repair scratches, tears or stains, so fix those first, as the page on restoring old photos with AI explains step by step. For more notes and instructions by photo type, see the photo restoration prompts. One colorized photo needs more than the 20 credits a new account starts with, and 500 credits for $4.99 pay for six of them (current prices).