8.55. Colorize

The Colorize filter renders the active layer or selection into a grayscale image as seen through a colored glass. You can use it to apply a “Sepia” effect to your image, for example.

	Tip
	This filter uses the HSL color model. Previous versions of GIMP included a similar filter, “Colorify”, which used the HSV model instead. That effect can still be reproduced using specific parameters (such as Saturation=1.0 and Lightness=-0.5), or by specifying Saturation=0.0 and applying the color tint as a separate step.

8.55.1. Activating the Command

You can access this command from the main menu through Colors → Colorize….

8.55.2. Options

Figure 16.223. Colorize filter dialog

Presets, Blending Options, Preview, Merge filter, Split view

	Note
	These options are described in Section 8.1.2, “Colors Common Features”.

Hue

Which tint to apply to the image. Note that while Hue is normally shown in degrees (from 0 to 360), here it is shown from 0.0 to 1.0. A Hue of 36° would be input as 0.1, for example.

Saturation

The intensity of the color tint, if any. This is also expressed in a range of 0.0 to 1.0, with 0.0 yielding a grayscale conversion only, and 1.0 applying a pure RGB color tint (of the selected Hue).

Lightness

The brightness of the result. This is expressed in HSL terms, along a range of -1.0 (black) to 0.0 (normal) to +1.0 (white).

Color

Using the color button (or the color picker) you can quickly select the color used to colorize your image: selecting a color here will adjust the sliders above to match.

	Note
	See HSL for more information about Hue, Saturation, and Lightness generally.