Color Replace: Change One Colour and Keep the Texture
Only the hue is replaced. Lightness is carried straight through, which is where shading, folds and fabric weave actually live, so a red shirt becomes a blue shirt rather than a flat blue silhouette.
Drop images here
or click to browse · or paste with Ctrl+V
JPG · PNG · WebP · GIF · BMP · AVIF
How far from the chosen hue still counts. Too wide and neighbouring colours get dragged along with it.
Fades the change out at the edge of the selection, so no outline appears around what you replaced.
Near-grey pixels have no real hue. Raise this if greys and skin start changing colour with your target.
Presets
Your photos are never uploaded. The colour analysis and the replacement both run inside this browser tab.
People also use
Everything this tool does
Texture survives the change
Only hue is replaced. On a test object with realistic shading, the lightness variation across its surface was 85 levels before and 85 after; a flat fill left 0, which is what a silhouette is.
A soft selection edge
The change fades out at the tolerance boundary rather than stopping dead. Across that boundary the largest step between neighbouring hues was 22 degrees with softening on, against 151 with it off.
Greys stay grey
Hue is meaningless for a near-neutral pixel, so a saturation gate excludes them. On a noisy grey field with a strong replacement applied, not one pixel changed.
Nothing else is touched
Pixels outside the hue tolerance are left exactly as they were, so replacing a red does not quietly nudge the greens next to it.
Saturation and lightness adjustment
The new colour can be made richer or darker than the one it replaced, which is often needed because two hues at identical saturation rarely read as equally strong.
Drag to compare
Before and after share one frame with a slider, which is how you check whether the tolerance has caught something you did not intend.
Six purpose-built presets
Red to blue, blue to red, green to autumn, narrow and precise, broad family, and replace and deepen.
Batch with one ZIP
Recolour a whole product set with identical settings and take everything as a single archive.
Transparency preserved
The alpha channel is untouched for PNG and WebP output.
Nothing is uploaded
No server, no queue, nothing to delete afterwards. Close the tab and every trace of the image goes with it.
What each control does
Two hue sliders say what to change and what to change it into. Tolerance decides how much of the picture counts, and the two gates are what stop the change bleeding into things you did not mean.
| Setting | What it does | Try | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tolerance 10-25 | a narrow, specific colour | feather 50-80 | Patches left behind |
| Tolerance 40-90 | a broad family | feather 60+ | Neighbouring colours dragged |
| Feather 0 | hard selection edge | rarely | Visible outline |
| Feather 50-80 | blends out at the edge | any | Nothing much |
| Ignore below 10% | keeps most pale colours | vivid subjects | Greys shifting |
| Ignore below 25-60% | only strong colours change | photos with skin | Pale areas missed |
| Lightness shift | makes the new colour darker or lighter | -20 to +20 | Flattening the shading |
Hue
only, shading kept
0
files uploaded
0
pixels changed outside the selection
360
degrees of target hue
ZIP
batch download
Free
no account needed
FlipMyFormat vs other colour replace tools
| Capability | FlipMyFormat | Typical free tool |
|---|---|---|
| Files stay in your browser | ||
| Shading and texture survive the change | ||
| Soft selection edge, no outline | ||
| Saturation gate so greys stay grey | ||
| Nothing outside the selection is touched | ||
| Batch ZIP download without paying | ||
| No watermark on the output |
How to change a colour without it looking painted on
The reason most colour replacement looks wrong is that it replaces too much. A red shirt in a photograph is not one red; it is hundreds of reds, bright where the light hits, dark in the folds, desaturated where the fabric catches a highlight. All of that variation is information about the shape of the object, and if you flood the area with a single new colour you throw it away and get a flat silhouette that looks pasted on. What you actually want to change is only the hue, leaving the lightness exactly as it was, because lightness is where the shading and the weave and the folds live. That is what this does, and it is why the result keeps looking like fabric. Practically, the work is in the selection rather than in the colour. Start with a narrow tolerance and widen it until the whole object is included, watching for the moment other things in the frame start moving too, which is the point to stop. If patches of the object are left behind, they are usually darker or paler than the rest and are being caught by the saturation gate, so lower that. If greys and skin start shifting, raise it, because near-neutral pixels have a hue in the arithmetic but not in any meaningful sense. Then soften the edge. A hard selection boundary shows as an outline around what you changed, and a soft one hides it, which costs nothing and is the difference between a convincing result and an obvious one.
- 1
Add your photos
Drag them in, click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V. A strongly coloured object against a differently coloured background is the easiest case.
- 2
Set the colour to replace and the new one
Use the gradient strips to pick both. Then widen the tolerance until the whole object is included and no further.
- 3
Soften the edge, then export
Edge softness stops an outline appearing around what you changed. Save individually or take the batch as one ZIP.
Why keeping lightness keeps the object
Shading lives in lightness, not hue
Split a colour into hue, saturation and lightness and the three carry quite different things. Hue is what colour something is, and it is remarkably constant across a single object: a red shirt is red in the folds and red in the highlights. Lightness is what varies, and that variation is the shading that tells you the shirt has a shape. So replacing the hue while leaving lightness untouched changes what colour the object is without touching anything that describes its form. The difference from a flood fill is easy to measure. On a test object with realistic shading, the original had a lightness variation of 85 levels across its surface. After replacing the hue here that variation was still 85, unchanged to the level. After a flat fill with a single new colour it was 0, which is exactly what a silhouette is. One honest caveat: lightness is preserved, but perceived brightness is not quite, because two hues at the same lightness do not look equally bright. Swapping a red for a blue in our test moved the Rec.709 luminance variation from 51 to 75. That is inherent to changing a hue rather than a fault, and it is what the lightness control is there to correct.
Two gates, and a soft edge
Two things decide what gets changed, and both matter. The tolerance selects a band of hue around the colour you named, and the saturation gate excludes pixels too close to neutral to have a real hue. That second one is not optional: hue is computed from the difference between a pixel's strongest and weakest channel, so when that difference is tiny the resulting angle is essentially noise, and a slightly warm grey will report as red. Without the gate, concrete and cloud shift colour along with the shirt. We check it on a noisy grey field with a strong replacement applied: with the gate at fifteen percent, not one pixel changed. The third piece is the soft edge. At the boundary of the tolerance the change fades out rather than stopping abruptly, which is what prevents a visible outline tracing your selection. Sampling across that boundary, the largest step between neighbouring hues was 22 degrees with softening on, against 151 with it off.
What people use it for
Product colour variants
Photograph a product once and show it in six colours, which is the single most common commercial use.
Clothing and fashion
A shirt or dress changes colour while the fabric weave and folds survive, which a fill cannot do.
Interiors and decorating
Try a wall or a sofa in a different colour before committing to it.
Cars and vehicles
Paint colour swaps keep the reflections and panel shading intact.
Brand colour matching
Bringing a photographed item in line with a brand palette without a reshoot.
Foliage and seasons
Shifting greens toward orange turns a summer photograph into an autumn one.
Removing a clashing colour
One bright object competing with your subject can be shifted rather than masked out.
Design mockups
Testing a colourway on a photographed object is far faster than rebuilding the mockup.
Six tips worth knowing
Widen the tolerance until the whole object is included, and stop the moment other things start moving too.
If patches of the object are left behind, they are probably paler than the rest. Lower the saturation gate.
If greys or skin start shifting, raise the gate. Near-neutral pixels have a hue in the arithmetic but not in reality.
Always soften the edge. A hard selection boundary shows as an outline around whatever you changed.
Two hues at the same saturation rarely read as equally strong, so expect to adjust saturation after the swap.
Fix white balance first. Replacing a colour in a photo with a cast means you are matching against the wrong starting point.
Troubleshooting
The object looks flat and pasted on
That should not happen here, since lightness is preserved. Check whether you have pushed the lightness shift hard, which does flatten the shading.
Parts of the object did not change
Those pixels are probably too pale to pass the saturation gate, or their hue falls outside the tolerance. Lower the gate or widen the tolerance.
Other things changed too
The tolerance is too wide, so a neighbouring colour is inside your band. Narrow it, and raise the gate if the affected areas are pale.
There is an outline around what I changed
Your edge softness is at or near zero, so the selection stops abruptly. Raise it to around sixty.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change the colour of an object in a photo?
Pick the hue it currently is, pick the hue you want, and widen the tolerance until the whole object is included. Only the hue changes, so the shading and texture stay as they were.
Why does the texture survive?
Because only hue is replaced and lightness is carried straight through. Shading, folds and weave all live in lightness, so leaving it untouched leaves the object's shape intact.
How is that different from filling with a colour?
A fill replaces everything with one value. On a test object with realistic shading, the lightness variation across its surface was 85 levels before and 85 after replacing the hue; after a flat fill it was 0, which is a silhouette rather than an object.
What does tolerance do?
It sets how far from your chosen hue a pixel can be and still count. Narrow catches one specific colour, wide catches a whole family, and too wide starts dragging neighbouring colours along.
Why do I need the saturation gate?
Because hue is computed from the difference between a pixel's strongest and weakest channel, and when that difference is tiny the angle is noise. A slightly warm grey reports as red, so without the gate concrete and cloud shift along with the shirt.
Can you show the gate works?
On a noisy grey field with a strong replacement applied and the gate at fifteen percent, not one pixel changed.
Why is there an outline around what I changed?
Your edge softness is too low, so the selection stops abruptly at the tolerance boundary. With softening on, the largest step between neighbouring hues across that boundary was 22 degrees; with it off, 151.
Parts of my object were left behind
They are probably paler than the rest and are being excluded by the saturation gate, or their hue sits outside your tolerance. Lower the gate or widen the tolerance.
Why do I need the saturation and lightness shifts?
Because two hues at the same saturation and lightness do not look equally strong or equally bright. Swapping a red for a blue in our test moved the perceived luminance variation from 51 to 75 even though the lightness was identical, so a small adjustment after the swap is usually needed.
How is this different from selective colour?
Selective colour nudges whole colour families that are already there. This targets one specific hue and replaces it with a different one, which is a much larger and more deliberate change.
Can I change something to white or black?
Not directly, because white and black have no hue to replace. Use the lightness shift to push the area much lighter or darker after the swap, or use a different tool.
Does it work on skin?
It can catch skin, which is usually not what you want since skin sits in the same orange band as many objects. Raise the saturation gate, or narrow the tolerance away from skin.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. The colour analysis and the replacement both run in your browser using the canvas API. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Which format should I export?
Keep the original for photographs, at quality 90 or above. Changing a hue exaggerates the colour artefacts JPEG stores at half resolution around that colour.
Is transparency preserved?
Yes for PNG and WebP output. The alpha channel is untouched. JPG has no alpha, so transparent areas are filled with the background colour first.
Can I process a batch?
Yes, and product variants are the main reason to. The same replacement applies to every image, so a set of shots of one item all come back in the new colour.
Should I fix white balance first?
Yes. Replacing a colour in a photo that has a cast means you are matching against a colour that is not really the colour of the object.
Does it add a watermark or need an account?
No to both. No sign-up, no email wall, no daily limit and no watermark on the output.