JixiPix debuts Hand Tint photo-colorizing app for Mac
updated 09:50 pm EDT, Fri April 22, 2011
Creates vintage coloring using both tint and tone
Re-creating an art form popular in the early part of the 20th century, JixiPix's Hand Tint photo-colorizing app is a standalone program for hand-tinting and coloring photos either for artistic or vintage stylings. It can be used for simple touch-ups (like applying a little blush to a baby's cheek), historical re-creations or enhancing black-and-white images or adding "glow" to a photo via luminosity controls.
Users can choose to convert an image to straight black-and-white, vintage or luminosity modes. Photography filters such as un-toned or sepia base can be applied non-destructively thanks the use of layers. Users can brush color onto a specific part of the photos to draw attention to a particular element. Layers can be used to isolate each color category applied and turn them on or off to see what works best.
The Black & White mode supports 60 different texture or grain styles, multiple channel adjustments and "aging" and "softness" controls. The "Vintage" mode pre-selects textures, image fade, paper color and aging, while the Luminosity mode can be added on top of the Black & White pre-processing to give photos extra brightness in a "glowy" fashion that softens the light without reducing the sharpness elsewhere.
After the pre-processing, users can choose from three brushes: the Original brush, which returns color from the original photo (if it was in color to start with) selectively; the Regular brush which allows users to choose a color to paint on, and the Restore brush which acts like an undo brush, selectively returning areas to the way they were at the end of pre-processing. Users can work with colors, tones, tints, "soft paint" (a semi-color, semi-tint effect) and direct paint. Layers can be turned on or off, re-arranged or have their visibility and opacity adjusted for fine control. Users can also save custom preset effects as well as choose from a selection of supplied presets.
Hand Tint costs $20 and is available through the Mac App Store. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later. A demo version is available from the company's website.
