colorised

Colorised, spelled colourised in British English, describes the process of adding color to monochrome imagery, including photographs, prints, film, and video. A colorised work may refer to the result of this process or to a version of the original that has been colorised.

Historically, colorisation began with manual methods such as hand tinting photographs and tinting prints in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In cinema, frame-by-frame coloring and stenciling were used to introduce color to silent films. With the advent of digital imaging in the late 20th century, colorisation moved to computer-based methods, enabling more consistent and scalable color application across many frames.

Modern colorisation often uses digital tools and algorithms. Techniques range from manual segmentation and painting of regions to automated or semi-automated approaches using machine learning to infer plausible colors from grayscale content and contextual cues. Color references, historical accuracy, and skin-tone modeling are common considerations. Some projects combine user input with reference palettes to improve realism.

Ethical and archival issues: colorisation can alter historical record by introducing color that did not exist, leading to debates about authenticity, preservation, and copyright. Some institutions discourage or restrict public release of colorised material as it may misrepresent original works, while others use colorisation to enhance accessibility and comprehension.

Impact and applications: colorised media is used in film restoration, documentary storytelling, education, and for enhancing archival footage. The term colorised encompasses both the technique and the resulting colored version, and the approach continues to evolve with advances in AI-driven colorization and mixed-media workflows.