How to Change Image Colors Online with a New Palette

Updated on July 8, 2025

Finding a great color palette is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you recolor an image online and see your art transform. It can totally change the mood and style. This guide walks through a fast and powerful workflow to change image colors using our free tool.

My Go-To Workflow: From Inspiration to Final Art

My creative process isn't about just applying pre-made palettes; it's about discovering them. I usually start with an inspiration—a photo, a painting, any image with a vibe I want to capture. The goal is to borrow its soul, not just its colors. Here is my step-by-step method to recolor any image:

1. Find Your Inspiration: First, upload an image whose color scheme I love.
2. Extract the Palette: Use the 'Get Palette' button to create a clean, usable palette from the inspiration image.
3. Refine the Palette (Optional): The generated palette is a great start, but I often refine it by removing or adding colors to inject my own style.
4. Recolor Your Art: With the new palette ready, I load the image I want to recolor. One click on 'Apply Palette', and the transformation happens instantly.
5. Live Color Editing: I never stop at the first result. I play with the colors directly on the final image. If one color feels off, I can tweak its cluster in the palette in real-time until it's perfect.

This workflow gives incredible creative control, moving from a simple idea to a polished piece ready to be saved.

Fine-Tuning Your Recolor: Advanced Settings

Sometimes, "close enough" isn't good enough. For a professional finish, I dive into the advanced settings. These are the controls I use to go from a simple swap to a perfect transformation.

1. Choosing a Color Matching Method

This setting is all about *how* our tool decides to map your old colors to the new ones. Each method has its own strengths:

• Nearest Color (RGB): My go-to for speed and predictability, especially with pixel art. It's direct, but can sometimes feel clinical.
• LAB Color Space: I use this for about 90% of my work. The LAB color space is designed to mimic how our eyes see color, producing far more natural and pleasing results. It's the best way to change image colors on complex photos.
• HSV Color Space: My special-purpose tool. I use this when my main goal is to preserve the original image's brightness and saturation levels.

2. To Dither or Not to Dither?

I absolutely love dithering. When you're working with a limited palette, you can get flat, boring patches of color. Dithering breaks these up by creating a patterned texture of pixels, which tricks the eye into seeing more colors and smoother gradients. It’s a classic technique that gives my work a cool, retro feel.

3. Taking Control of Transparency (Alpha Channel)

Managing transparency is crucial for game assets. Here’s how I use the alpha controls:

• preserve_alpha: This is what I use most of the time. It applies the new colors but leaves the original transparency of every pixel completely untouched.
• quantize_alpha: A lifesaver for game engines that don't like partial transparency. It "crushes" the alpha levels down to a limited set (e.g., only fully opaque and fully transparent).

The best way to learn is by doing. I encourage you to open our tool and just play with these settings. You'll be surprised by the incredible results you can achieve when you recolor an image online.