Give a photo a colour tint
Wash a photo in one colour, from a hint of warmth to a strong blue. Choose the colour and the strength, then save the result on your device.
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Choose a photo to start. Text boxes and layers are drawn on your device.
How to tint an image
- Choose a photo. The page opens with a warm orange tint at 30 %.
- Click the Colour overlay swatch to pick another colour: blue for cold, green for a forest, red for a sunset.
- Drag Overlay opacity. Low values give a gentle wash, high values a strong colour cast.
- Press Save image to download the tinted photo as JPEG, PNG or WebP.
What 30 % orange does to my clay figure
The clay figure I photographed in Metelkova is mostly grey and brown, so a warm tint shows clearly. I wanted to know what the strength really means, because 30 % sounds like a lot and looks like very little.
I tinted the photo at four strengths, saved each as a PNG and read the average colour back from the saved pixels. The tool blends the tint straight into the picture, so the average colour should move a fixed fraction of the way towards the tint colour. It does.
The clay figure at four tint strengths
| Orange tint | Average colour (red, green, blue) | White caption, worst / average |
|---|---|---|
| 0 % | 126, 104, 78 | 1.0 / 4.4 |
| 15 % | 139, 110, 75 | 1.2 / 3.9 |
| 30 % | 154, 115, 72 | 1.4 / 3.5 |
| 50 % | 172, 123, 69 | 1.6 / 3.1 |
The red value rises from 126 to 172 and the blue value falls from 78 to 69, so the picture warms up without losing its shape. The last column shows the price: a light colour washes out white text a little more with every step, from 4.4 on average down to 3.1.
Tint strength and mood
Around 15 % reads as a slight warmth that most viewers do not notice as a filter. At 30 % the colour is plain but the picture still looks natural. By 50 % the tint dominates, which can suit a poster and rarely suits a documentary photo. Because the tint is one colour blended evenly, details and brightness differences stay where they were.
If you need a stronger cover that also darkens the picture, go to the colour overlay page and pick a dark colour. A tint in a light colour keeps the picture bright.
Tint and text
A tint helps the look and rarely helps the text. In the table the contrast of a white caption fell as the tint grew, because orange is lighter than the dark clay under it. For readable words on a tinted photo, add the gradient or the box behind the text after you have chosen the tint, and read the contrast line again.
Tips for tinting photos
- Pick a tint colour that already appears in the photo, such as the amber of a street lamp or the blue of a lake.
- Keep the strength at 30 % or less for natural-looking photos.
- Tint first, then add text, so the contrast line measures the final picture.
- Save a PNG if you plan to edit the photo again, and a JPEG for sharing.
Privacy
Your photo never leaves your device. Opening, drawing and saving all happen in your browser, and the fonts are served from this site. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.
Frequently asked questions
How do I tint an image online?
Choose the photo above and click the Colour overlay swatch to pick a tint colour. Drag Overlay opacity until the wash looks right, then press Save image to download the tinted file.
How do I change the colour of the tint?
Click the swatch and choose any colour in your browser’s picker. The preview updates while you move. Blue gives a cold look, orange a warm one, and the strength is set by the opacity slider.
Can I tint a photo blue or red?
Yes, any colour works. A blue tint at 30 % makes a photo cooler and a red one warmer. Stronger values start to hide the original colours, so I stay at 30 % or lower for photographs.
What does the tint do to the pixels?
It blends one colour into every pixel by the chosen percentage. On my clay figure photo, 30 % orange moved the average red value from 126 to 154 and the blue value from 78 to 72.
Is this the same as a CSS tint?
The effect is similar, but here the colour is saved inside the picture itself. It stays the same in an email, a slide or a social post, where a web page style would not apply.
Related tools and guides
- Add text to your photo and keep it readable: Put captions on a photo with a gradient, tint or box behind them and a live contrast check.
- Lay a transparent colour over your photo: Cover a photo with one transparent colour. Choose the colour and how strong it is, add text if you want, and save the result at its original size.
- Darken a photo or lighten it: Make a whole photo darker, or lighter, with one slider. Add a caption on top and see at once whether it has become readable.
- Image Resizer: Resize images by pixels, percentage or longest side.
- Image Cropper: Crop images to exact ratios or popular preset sizes.
- Put your photos together in one image: Join photos side by side, stacked or in a grid, with adjustable gaps and borders.
- Metelkova Ljubljana: My Photos and Complete Visitor Guide: Where I photographed the clay figure from the table.