AKVIS Coloriage

Introduction

Coloriage is a plug in to color black and white portraits, photos and for changing the colors in colored images.

Coloriage is from AKVIS, a company based in Russia that specializes in graphics programs and scientific research. Apart from Coloriage, AKVIS also creates other Photoshop compatible programs like retoucher, Chameleon, Stamp and Enhancer.

You can download a free 10 day trial version of Coloriage from the AKVIS site.

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How To Use

Here’s how you can use Coloriage to color a black and white image:

1. Open any black and white image in an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop.
   
   
2. In Photoshop, choose Filter | Akvis | Coloriage - this will open the Coloriage interface that you can see in the screenshot below. As you can see, Coloriage shows the black and white image in the Before tab, which has yet to be colored.
   
   
   
   
3. On the right side of the window you will see the Navigator, Color Library and Colors palette. The Color Library contains readymade color shades for several common features like eyes, hairs and lips.
   
   
4. The Coloriage interface also sports a toolbar on the top that contains tools for selections and editing such as pencil, eraser etc.
   
   
5. You need to use the pencil - and then select appropriate colors from the Color Library or Color Palette. Thereafter. Create outlines around recognizable areas you want to color. The screenshot below shows colors chosen for isolated areas like the coat, hair, face, cap, etc.
   
   
   
   
6. After the outlines have been created, you need to click the Run icon (see screenshot).
   
   
   
   Akvis Coloriage works for a while and creates a color version of the original black and white image. If you are not too happy with the result, you can again fine-tune the selections and outlines as required. You can preview the colorized portrait in the After tab.
   
   
   
   
7. Once you’re done with the colorization, apply the result to the image by pressing the Apply icon (see screenshot) to return to Photoshop.
   
   

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Specifications

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