New Palette V2 is here, in early access
Moments,
in color
Colorization for photo platforms, archives and productions, proven on 54 million photographs.
Already at work for
- BBC
- History Channel
- SPIEGEL TV
- Colorizing since
- Since2017
- Families served
- 6.6Mfamilies
- Photographs colorized
- 54Mphotographs colorized
Only the color changes
General image models regenerate the picture.
Palette keeps the one you have and adds the color.
Colors tailored to your product
An archive wants the record, a family app wants warmth. Five looks cover the range, and one of your own sets you apart.
Or try it on another photograph
Real family albums, in color
Pick a look and every album follows it. Best of gives each photograph the one that suits it.
0 photographs in 0 albums · showing Best of, each photograph in its chosen look
What happens next
It takes a couple of weeks from the first call to going live, and you deal with the same person the whole way.
- 1
First, a conversation
Half an hour with Emil, to understand what your product does today and where you would like it to go.
- 2
Then your photographs
Send over a few tricky ones. A couple of days later you get them back in color, and we can talk about what you see.
- 3
A pilot on your terms
Thirty days on our API with your own test set, judged against pass criteria we agree on before it begins.
- 4
And then you are live
One endpoint, or a container you run yourself, with your signature looks built in from the first day.
If you would rather not send photographs at all, take an API key and run them yourself. Nothing is kept.
Organization license
One fee,and no meter
A flat annual fee covers your whole organization, every app and every environment, and nothing is metered.
Organization license
Hosted by us or on your own hardware, in any of the three tiers.
As many as you like
On any hardware, and the back catalog is included.
Sell it your way
Offer it in plans, as credits or as an add-on. The fee is the same whichever you choose.
Your signature look
Designed with you, and shipped by nobody else.
Nothing changes under you
Versions are pinned, updates arrive on your schedule, and the price is fixed for the term.
The license covers your own products. It does not cover reselling colorization on its own.
Run it your way
Where your photos go, how long your users wait, how exact the colors are.
Instant
Reads the pixels alone and colors them in one pass.
- Latency
- Under a second
- Privacy
- Never leaves your hardware
- Looks
- One look
- Quality
- Good
- Price
- Included, no meter
Nothing leaves and nobody waits. Similar photos can come back in different colors.
On-box caption
A local model describes your photo, then colors it.
- Latency
- Four to ten seconds
- Privacy
- Never leaves your hardware
- Looks
- Five looks, or your own
- Quality
- Better
- Price
- Included, no meter
Nothing leaves. You trade a longer wait for colors that stay consistent.
External caption
A frontier model describes your photo, then colors it.
- Latency
- About five seconds
- Privacy
- Leaves for the caption only
- Looks
- Five looks, or your own
- Quality
- Best
- Price
- Extra, roughly $1 per 1,000 images
Only the caption goes out. A short wait, and the most consistent colors of the three.
We can also host the models for you, for an extra charge.
FAQ
Good questions.
Here are the answers to the things people ask us most.
Who is this for?
Photo platforms, digitization services, archives and productions with real volume to get through. If you have a few hundred photographs, the app will serve you better.
Which tier should we run?
There are three, and you choose per call. Instant colors from the pixels alone, on your own hardware, in under a second and in one look. The on-box caption first has a local model describe the photograph, then colors it from that description, still on your hardware, in four to ten seconds. The external caption has a frontier model write the description, in about five seconds; it knows the most, and the photograph leaves for that one step. Quality rises in that order.
Are photos stored?
No. Instant and the on-box caption run on your own hardware, so nothing leaves your network. With the external caption, the photograph goes out for the description only: it is processed in memory, handed straight back, and nothing is kept. The same holds when we host the models for you.
Do you train on our photos?
No, never.
What are the limitations?
Color is inferred, so some of it is a guess, and we would rather you hear where it misses from us. Color can bleed across fine detail, such as patterned clothing or lace, and across the cracks and stains of a badly damaged scan. Small objects sometimes come back in the wrong hue: a cup, a badge, a sign in the distance. When the caption misreads a scene, the colors follow the wrong description. Very dark or faded scans get flatter color. Palette never redraws, so a miss is a wrong shade, never a wrong picture. When one bothers you, pin a look for that photograph, run it again with a caption, or send it to us.
How fast does it work?
Under a second a photograph with Instant, four to ten seconds with the on-box caption, and about five with the external caption. Up to fifty photographs go in a single call.
Can we have our own look?
Yes. We design it with you, name it after you, and it belongs to you alone.
Who owns the outputs?
You do, and that includes commercial use.
Will results change under us?
Not unless you decide to upgrade. Versions are pinned.
Does it handle large scans?
Yes. Renders come back at the resolution you sent.
How is it billed?
One annual license with no meter covers Instant and the on-box caption. The external caption is the one extra, at roughly a dollar per thousand photographs.
Do you sign a data processing agreement?
Yes, whenever you ask.
Who do we deal with?
Emil, directly. There is no ticket queue.
Does it do video?
Not yet.
About Emil Wallner
I colorized this, you can read about it in Wired, Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post
When I started working on colorization nine years ago, I got hooked.
What started as a hobby project was featured by Google, who then hired me.
One of my favorite projects at Google was the Klimt Project, where I worked closely with the Belvedere Museum to reconstruct the colors of Gustav Klimt’s three Faculty Paintings. They were lost in the Second World War, and only black and white photos remain.
I eventually left Google to start my own colorization studio, Palette, which has colorized photos for more than 6.6 million families so far, including Wired founder Kevin Kelly, who found it “remarkably accurate.”
An original photo is sacrosanct. Color enhances the story that’s already there.
Color makes the light come alive, the time of day, the mood. It brings back skin, sky and cloth. It sets the scene. And where the record ends, it fills the gaps with the colors of the era. When it’s all in place, a distant memory feels present, a calm, then a rush of emotion as the colors close the distance in time.
All my work has led to my latest creation, Palette V2, a new colorization algorithm that brings families even closer to their past.
Emil Wallner
Founder of Palette
Old photos.New life.
It starts with a thirty-minute call to get to know each other: what you’re building, and whether I can help.