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Change the colour of anything in a photo

Tap a colour in your photo, choose a new one and see it change instantly — a shirt, a car, a wall, a sofa. Folds, shadows and texture stay natural, and you save the result at the photo's full size. Everything happens on your device; your photo is never uploaded.

  • Free
  • No sign-up
  • Private — runs in your browser

How to change the colour of an image

  1. 1Choose a photo (JPG, PNG or WebP).
  2. 2Tap the colour you want to change. On a phone, slide your finger to aim with the magnifier, then lift.
  3. 3Pick the new colour from the presets, the colour picker or a hex code. Move "Similar shades" until the whole object changes, and choose "Only the area I tapped" or "Everywhere".
  4. 4Fix any edges with the Refine brush, compare before and after, then save as PNG, JPG or WebP at full size.

How the colour change keeps shading natural

  1. 01Each pixel → OKLab (L = lightness, a and b = colour), via linear sRGB
  2. 02Match = OKLab distance to the picked colour shaded to the pixel's own lightness (light and shadow scale L, a and b together), with lightness counting less
  3. 03Strength = 1 inside the tolerance, fading smoothly to 0 at its edge
  4. 04New lightness = picked → new lightness, keeping each pixel's difference from it; new chroma = new chroma × (pixel chroma ÷ picked chroma)

A photo stores colours as red, green and blue, but those numbers don't match how we see colour. This tool turns every pixel into OKLab, a colour space designed so that equal steps look equally different, and in which lightness, colourfulness (chroma) and hue are separate. That is what lets it change a colour without flattening the picture.

When you tap the photo, it reads the colour there (averaged over a few pixels). Every pixel is then compared with it. Light and shadow change all three OKLab numbers together, so for a colourful pick each pixel is compared with your colour shaded to that pixel's brightness: the same red in deep shadow, in bright sun or under a soft sheen is still caught, while a dull brown or an orange next to it is not. A white, grey or black pick has no real hue, so there brightness counts fully. The "Similar shades" slider sets how far a colour may be from your pick; pixels near the limit are changed only partly, so edges and hair blend instead of showing a hard line. "Only the area I tapped" keeps just the connected part you tapped (a flood fill), and the Refine brush adds or removes areas by hand.

The change itself is relative, not a flat paint fill: your picked colour becomes exactly the new colour, and every other selected pixel keeps how much lighter, darker, more or less saturated it was than your pick. That is why folds, shadows, reflections and texture stay. Lightness is moved without ever going past pure black or white, and a colour the screen can't show is brought into range by lowering its chroma rather than clipping, so it doesn't turn blotchy.

Honest limits: it changes colours, it doesn't understand objects. If the background is the same colour as the object, use "Only the area I tapped" or the brush. Turning very dark things very light (a black car to white) is the hardest change for any tool, because a dark photo holds little detail in the shadows. The preview runs at screen size; the download is made again from your original pixels at full size in a background worker.

Good to know

  • Tap the main, mid-tone part of the object — not a bright reflection or the darkest shadow — for the most even result.
  • Start with "Similar shades" around 30–40, turn on "Show what's selected", and raise it until the whole object is pink but the background isn't.
  • Use several colour changes for one object in two colours (for example a striped shirt), or to change two things at once.
  • Save as PNG for the best quality or for a picture with a transparent background; choose JPG for a small file to share.

Changing colours in photos — common questions

How do I change the colour of something in a photo?

Choose the photo, tap the thing you want to change, and pick the new colour. Raise "Similar shades" until all of it changes, keep "Only the area I tapped" so the same colour elsewhere stays, then save. The shading of the original stays, so it looks natural.

Can I change a shirt, dress or car colour in a picture?

Yes. Clothes, cars, walls, furniture, phone cases and logos all work well when they are mostly one colour. Patterned fabric works too — add one colour change per colour in the pattern.

Will the result look natural?

It keeps each pixel's own lightness and saturation relative to the colour you picked, so folds, shadows and texture stay. Edges fade smoothly. Very big jumps — black to white — are the hardest and may look flat in the darkest areas.

Can I change white or black to a colour?

Yes. White, grey and black have no hue, so the tool matches them by brightness instead and gives darker parts a deeper, less saturated version of the new colour — like real paint in shade.

Does it lower the quality or size of my photo?

No. The download is made from your original at full size (up to the browser's limit); only the changed pixels differ. PNG loses nothing at all; JPG and WebP are saved at high quality.

Is my photo uploaded?

No. The photo is opened, changed and saved only in your browser, in a background worker on your device. Nothing is sent to a server or stored.

Sources

Formulas last reviewed: September 30, 2026 ·How we check our formulas

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