This update is a consolidation of several smaller updates released over the past few months, with a focus on improving the user experience and adding functionality based on user feedback.
This update brings the capability to add video previews and render clips within Color.io, supporting up to 4K resolution. This feature allows users to work with video content directly in the app, facilitating a seamless transition between image and video editing workflows. It's particularly useful for projects that require both photo and video content to be processed with consistent color grading and effects.
Recognizing the need for flexibility in how and where users work, Color.io now offers offline support. Once used online, the app caches necessary data, making it accessible even without an internet connection. This feature ensures that the workflow is not interrupted by connectivity issues, and is available across browsers and desktop installations, including when added to the Home Screen.
The new Border Tool enhances the app's editing capabilities, allowing users to easily add borders to images and videos. Users can control the dimensions, roundness, smoothness, and color of the border. This tool is accessible through the "Edit" option in the image workspace, and it's particularly useful for creating visually distinct content or framing content for social media and other platforms.
With this update, Crop, Rotate, and the newly added Border Tools are now applicable to both images and videos. This expansion provides a consistent and fluid editing experience across different media types, making it easier for users to apply their desired adjustments without switching between different toolsets.
A new quick-action menu has been introduced to streamline the editing process. By right-clicking on a media thumbnail in the media gallery, users can quickly access options to open the media in a duplicate or blank scene, or reset edits. This feature is designed to speed up the workflow by providing quick access to common actions, making it easier to experiment with different looks or reset adjustments as needed.
For users of compatible DJI cameras, this update includes support for the DJI D-LOG M input color space. This addition ensures that aerial footage captured with DJI cameras can be accurately graded in Color.io, offering filmmakers and drone enthusiasts more control over their color grading process.
Ten new classic film emulation presets (VC-100 - VC-X00) have been added, expanding the creative options available to users. These presets are designed to mimic the look of classic overexposed film stocks, providing an easy way to apply nostalgic or specific filmic looks to digital content.
Recognizing the importance of high-resolution outputs for professional and print uses, Color.io now supports exporting images at 300dpi. This feature ensures that users can achieve the highest quality prints and is a significant enhancement for those looking to use their digital creations in printed form.
With the growing adoption of the AVIF image format for its efficiency and quality benefits, Color.io has added support for importing AVIF files. This update allows users to work with images in this modern format, ensuring the app remains compatible with current and future image standards.
The Preset Remix feature introduces a new level of creative exploration within Color.io. Users can generate variations of any preset by clicking "Remix," which opens the Spectra AI workspace. This feature encourages experimentation and allows users to discover new looks by iterating on the generated variations.
The crop tool interface has been updated to provide a clearer view during adjustments. Now, only the rule of thirds markers are shown, and the grid displayed during rotation includes more lines for precise alignment. This enhancement makes it easier to achieve the desired composition and alignment in images.
Every update of Color.io is a step forward in our shared mission to empower creatives with cutting-edge tools that push the boundaries of what's possible in film emulation and look creation. The journey of Color.io is shaped by your invaluable feedback and support. These updates are for you – the creators, the visionaries, the innovators. I'm excited to see how these new features inspire and assist in bringing your creative visions to life.
Thank you for being an integral part of this journey. Here's to many more milestones together!
Jonathan, Creator of Color.io
This June update packs new tools and hands-on improvements to Color.io, designed with your input and user experience in mind. As always, a huge thank you for your continued feedback and suggestions which make updates like these possible! Let's dive in and see what's new.
First up, the new Color Range and Tone Compression tool. This tool gives you the reins to define and fine-tune color range masks based on hue, chroma, and luminance values in your images. Why is this useful? Precision and control like never before! Now, you have the power to protect skin tones or other highly specific color ranges from being affected by your overall color grade. Learn how it works.
Isolating color ranges is not all – the tool also provides a tone compression feature that unifies all colors inside of the color range to a color of your choosing. This is an absolute game-changer for skin tone and memory color fine-tuning!
This tool has been enabled for a few users for a little over a month for beta testing. This update now enables the tool for all users. Thank you for your feedback!
Next in line, I'm excited to introduce the newly-minted Crop and Rotate tool, complete with common aspect ratios.
This might appear to be a simple addition, but it's these foundational tools that often have the most profound impact on your creative workflow. Now, you can seamlessly adjust your images' orientation and size without having to rely on third party tools. Access Crop & Rotation by clicking on "Edit" next to the image gallery at the bottom of the viewport. This will open the new Image Editor. This new image editing space will serve as the foundation to include more image-specific adjustments (as opposed to scene-wide color grades) in the future.
P3 color space conversions had previously been enabled for a few users for beta testing. This update now enables these new options for all users. Thank you for your feedback!
Rounding off these exciting new features, Color.io now has extended capabilities with new Color Space Conversion options, specifically designed for photography workflows. These options include new Input and Output Device Transforms (IDTs and ODTs) that allow for flawless round-tripping between applications in Display P3 workflows. Now, if you're working in P3 in Adobe Photoshop or other third party software, and you want that exact same image in Color.io, you're all covered! Just select the P3 profiles from the IDT and ODT dropdowns in the color space conversion category. While this may seem like a small addition, the required changes to how color management works under the hood will open up new opportunities for enhanced interoperability and workflow continuity across different platforms and software tools, paving the way for more robust and seamless color grading experiences in the future.
Following your feedback, I've made some under-the-hood adjustments to enhance the usability, performance and functionality of Color.io. As always, a huge thank you for your continued feedback and suggestions which make updates like these possible!
Jonathan | Creator of Color.io
In this April update, you'll discover exciting new features, numerous improvements, bug fixes, and more. I hope these changes will make Color.io even better for you. Thank you for all your feedback!
This latest update introduces the brand-new Material Panel, which contains new and improved image processing effects. Just like the color science in Color.io, the material effects are inspired by the appearance and development behavior of analog film, emulating some of its structural and optical properties. To demonstrate its effectiveness, let's play a little game. Below are three images based on the same photo taken by photographer Shihab Chowdhury on Cinestill 800T film. The first image has all film grain, color, softness, and halation removed. Either Image 2 or 3 is the original film photo; the other has been recreated from Image 1 entirely using Color.io. Can you tell which is which?
*Find the answer at the bottom of this post...
Grain is the foundation of the new film structure emulation in Color.io. Rather than overlaying grain textures like most other software, the new structure emulator deconstructs the image and rebuilds it pixel-by-pixel using synthetically generated granules. This results in an incredibly organic look because the underlying pixel structure of digital images is entirely reconstructed to match the grain distribution, density, rotation, size, and color gradation of real film.
Film softness introduces a new blur algorithm based on the size and variance of a film grain pattern. It simulates the absence of high-frequency detail in analog film and is driven by the volumetric distribution of the grain engine. Film Acutance is a novel approach to adding sharpness to images. Unlike traditional sharpening, the new acutance emulation rearranges the film granules so that they are more densely packed around high-contrast edges of an image. This enhances image sharpness in a very organic way because the edge enhancement consists of grains, which are always larger than digital pixels.
The film halation effect has been updated for more realistic glow behavior and improved highlight detail protection. You can now also control the brightness threshold at which halation occurs. Additionally, a new vignette control allows you to darken or brighten the edges of your images with a smooth falloff toward the center, regulated by the radius slider.
Sharing presets with others is now easier with the ability to generate a URL from the Export panel. You can toggle individual components on and off, making it possible to create preset URLs for an entire color grade, just the spectrum panel, or any combination of effect panels you need. When you click "Generate URL," Color.io will copy a special preset link to your clipboard. Pasting that link into the address bar of a web browser will apply your preset.
As many of you requested, the before/after behavior has been updated. When you reveal the original image by clicking and holding the mouse down or by toggling the new "Master Bypass" switch, the color grade and material effects are disabled, but the ACES IDT and ODT now remain intact.
Note that this new behavior applies to the Master Bypass, Master Mix, and Temporary Bypass (click and hold viewport for 1 second) but not to the Split Screen view. Split screen will always reveal the original, non-color-managed image.
A minor color science adjustment has been made to the luminance curve. Previously, the curve introduced excessive highlight bleaching due to too much crosstalk with the chrominance channels. This issue has been addressed, resulting in a curve that is now closer to a perceptually neutral contrast adjustment. To simulate the previous behavior, you can desaturate the highlights using the Density vs Luma curve in the Density panel above.
While this update covers various aspects of the app, a significant portion of the new features primarily benefit photographers. Therefore, the next update will be dedicated to enhancing the DCTL generator for colorists, with some exciting developments planned. Stay tuned, and as always, thank you so much for the incredible feedback and suggestions you have provided, making Color.io and this update possible!
Jonathan | Color.io
*The second image is the original film photo, and the third has been created from Image 1 using nothing but the film color and structure emulation tools in Color.io. I deliberately dialed up the smoothness a bit further than I would have done, had it not been my intention to mislead you 😈
