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Colorize Black and White Photos in Natural Color

See your family’s old black-and-white photos the way they looked in life. Scratches and tears are repaired first, then natural color goes on, sharp enough to print and frame.

$1.99 a photo · no account, no app · about 20 seconds

A scratched 1954 black-and-white photo of a smiling woman beside two small children asleep on a blanket in the grass, restored and colorizedA scratched 1954 black-and-white photo of a smiling woman beside two small children asleep on a blanket in the grass, before restorationBeforeAfter
A scratched 1954 black-and-white negative, restored and colorized by Resly. Photo: Fortepan / Ludovika archive, CC BY-SA 3.0; the colorized version is shared under the same licence.

Colorize a photo

Photograph the print straight on so it fills the picture, or upload a scan.

Drop images, or click to browse

JPG, PNG, HEIC, WEBP (up to 50MB each) · up to 5 at once

From $1.99 · no account

Each extra image $1.99 $0.99 · up to 5 per order

Black and White to Color: Real Results

Drag across each photo to compare. Every one is exactly what Resly returned, untouched.

An 1870s family portrait of five women and a man, with flaking damage across three faces, restored and colorizedAn 1870s family portrait of five women and a man, with flaking damage across three faces, before restorationBeforeAfter
An 1870s family portrait with flaking emulsion across three faces, restored and colorized by Resly. Public domain.
A torn 1945 black-and-white snapshot of a young woman on a lake dock, restored and colorizedA torn 1945 black-and-white snapshot of a young woman on a lake dock, before restorationBeforeAfter
The torn 1945 snapshot, restored and colorized by Resly. Photo: Infrogmation family collection, CC BY-SA 2.0; the colorized version is shared under the same licence.
A 19th-century sepia portrait of a bearded man with a crack across his face, restored and colorizedA 19th-century sepia portrait of a bearded man with a crack across his face, before restorationBeforeAfter
A 234 × 340 pixel copy of a cracked 1880s portrait, restored and colorized by Resly. Photo: Eugène Pirou, public domain.

A Photo Colorizer That Repairs First

Most colorizers paint straight over the damage, so the scratches and creases come out in color too, at a size made for a phone screen. Resly restores the photo first, then colors it, then hands it back at a size you can print and hang.

Want to keep the original black and white? Restore it without color.

  • Natural skin tones, hair, clothing and skies, not painted or oversaturated
  • Scratches, tears, spots and fading repaired before coloring
  • Faces kept as they are: same features, same expression
  • Works on black-and-white and sepia prints, slides and scans
  • Sharp enough to print at 8×10, 16×20 or any size you choose
  • Not happy with the color? Restore the same photo in black and white instead

Colorizing Questions

How does photo colorization work?

An AI model that has learned what the world looks like in color predicts the most likely color for every part of a black-and-white photo: skin, hair, fabric, foliage, sky. It's an informed guess rather than a record. The original colors of a dress or a car were never captured on black-and-white film, so they can't be recovered, only made believable.

Will the colors be accurate?

Skin, sky, grass and wood come out close to life because they're predictable. Clothing, cars and painted walls could have been any color, so the model picks a plausible one. If you know grandma's dress was blue and it came out green, that's the limit of colorizing from black and white, by any tool or artist.

Does it fix damage too?

Yes. Every photo is restored first: tears, cracks, scratches, dust, stains and fading are repaired, then the color goes on. Free colorizers usually color the scratches along with everything else.

Will the people still look like themselves?

That's the first thing we check. Colorizing changes a face more than restoring alone, so if a face doesn't look right in color, restore the same photo in black and white instead. Where a face was badly damaged in the original, any restoration has to guess at it.

Is there a free way to colorize a photo?

Several free apps colorize at screen size, often with a watermark, and without repairing damage. They're fine for a quick look. Resly is for the photos you want to keep, share or frame: repaired, colored and sized for printing, for one small price per photo with no account or subscription.

How do I get an old print onto my computer?

Lay it flat near a window, hold your phone straight above it so the photo fills the screen, and take the picture. A flatbed scanner at 600 DPI is better if you have one.

More on bringing old photos back: how to restore old photos.