Colorize-rating

Black and white photos coloring is not as popular with developers as other areas and our rating is short this time. Only three programs fall into the category.
Below the rating you will find examples and comments.

Program Characteristic	Black Magic	Recolored	Coloriage
Price	$39-199	$29	$97
Trial	30day	21 day	10 day
Color library
Tools
Edge
Colorizing
Transition
Additional features
Speed
Interface
Manual and tutorials
Support
Installation
Myphotosoft recomendation

The three programs have a wide span of prices – starting from $29 for Recolored and finshing with $199 for the professional edition of Black Magic. The more sense to make an overview of the quality provided by each of the programs.
Color Libraries
The lowest rating went to Black Magic and the highest to Coloriage (4-10 colors for each of the objects versus tens of them with adjustable saturation in Coloriage). The ease of use can also affect the workflow: thus the folder tree used in Coloriage and Recolored are more convenient than the plain list in Black Magic where only the drop down menu has some structure. As a result, with more a less the same time taken by the colorizing process in each of the programs, the colors are not equally natural.

Black Magic

Recolored

Coloriage

Colorizing algorithms
All the three programs take into account the luminance structure of the image to colorize it. In effect we should have a natural look and not an image out of a coloring book. Here the results are quite close. The Black Magic though has somewhat unnaturally looking hair in the shadows and Coloriage has overlighted parts on the face. With Black Magic I also got a strange effect on the color in the darkest parts. The fabric of the dress intended to be red-brown (with the appropriate color chosen) turned out to be the dark emerald

Black Magic

Recolored

Coloriage

Keeping to the edge.
In Black Magic everything is in the user’s hands and is a result of neat mouse manipulations. Recolored and Coloriage use automatic edge detection algorithms and succeed but for occasional color leaks cured by more precise strokes. The algorithms also provide soft color transitions that are missing in Black Magic even with the overlay function – this causes the hair ends look very unnatural betraying the coloring.

Black Magic

Recolored

Coloriage

Recolorize and partial saturation functions unified in the Additional features rating are a natural extension of coloring techniques and are present as an option in each of the program. In Black magic you can do recoloring by using overlay mode and painting the desired area with the chosen color but cannot desaturate. Recolored and Coloriage both use the same algorithm for recoloring, desaturation and colorizing but the workflow is just slightly different with a little more ease and unity in Coloriage process.
The rest of the characteristics are conventional: Speed is all about how quickly you can color your black and white image with each of the programs; in the Interface we looked upon the convenience with which the instruments and other controls and parts of the workspace are organized; Support was judged upon their promptness in answering their clients questions and providing help; Installation reflects the easy and smooth installation process. The final MyPhotoSoft recommendation rating is naturally the sum of all the above mentioned.