Are the colours historically accurate?

No. This tool creates a controlled two-tone treatment and does not guess original object colours.

Yes. Choose dark brown shadows and warm cream highlights.

Why does every object use the same colour range?

The mapping is based on luminance, not object recognition. Pixels with similar brightness receive similar colours regardless of whether they represent skin, sky, clothing or background.

Is the photo uploaded?

No. Color mapping runs locally.

Image Tools

Photo Colorizer

Add a customizable luminance-preserving two-tone palette to black-and-white photos.

Free browser toolRuns in your browserNo sign-up

Creative duotone

Build a controlled two-colour treatment

Map shadows and highlights to a chosen palette for posters, archival styling and brand treatments.

Browser processingNo source upload

Drop a black-and-white photo

Apply a controlled two-tone palette without uploading the image.

This is controlled duotone colorization, not a claim to reconstruct historically accurate object colours.

Important: This is deterministic duotone mapping, not AI restoration and not a reconstruction of historically accurate object colours.

About the Photo Colorizer

Photo Colorizer maps every pixel's perceived brightness between selected shadow and highlight colours, preserving the original photograph's light and dark structure.

Use Archive for warm heritage styling, Ocean for cool graphics, Poster for bold promotional treatment or Mono for a clean neutral remap. Custom colours can match a brand palette.

It provides intentional artistic duotone colorization rather than pretending to infer historically accurate colours that are not present in the source.

Key features

Four curated duotone palettes
Custom shadow and highlight colours
Side-by-side original and result
Luminance-preserving mapping
PNG, JPG and WebP exports

How to use

1Upload a black-and-white or low-saturation photo.
2Start with a palette or choose custom shadow and highlight colours.
3Compare the result with the source and confirm it is an artistic treatment.
4Choose an output format and download.

Examples

Create a warm archival look

Input: Black-and-white portrait

Output: Brown and cream duotone PNG

Adjust both swatches to match the intended visual style.

Frequently asked questions

Are the colours historically accurate?: No. This tool creates a controlled two-tone treatment and does not guess original object colours.
Can I create sepia?: Yes. Choose dark brown shadows and warm cream highlights.
Why does every object use the same colour range?: The mapping is based on luminance, not object recognition. Pixels with similar brightness receive similar colours regardless of whether they represent skin, sky, clothing or background.
Is the photo uploaded?: No. Color mapping runs locally.

Open a related tool to prepare your files or refine the finished result.