Skip to content
/ Awesome-Image-Colorization Public

📚 A collection of Deep Learning based Image Colorization and Video Colorization papers.

1.1k stars 108 forks Branches Tags Activity
Star
Notifications You must be signed in to change notification settings

MarkMoHR/Awesome-Image-Colorization

BranchesTags

Folders and files

NameName
Last commit message
Last commit date

Latest commit

 

History

148 Commits
README.md
README.md
 
 
examples.png
examples.png
 
 

Repository files navigation

Awesome-Image-Colorization

Awesome

A collection of Deep Learning based Image Colorization papers and corresponding source code/demo program, including Automatic and User Guided (i.e. with User Interaction) colorization, as well as video colorization.

Feel free to create a PR or an issue. (Pull Request is preferred)

examples

Outline

1. Automatic Image Colorization

1.1 Software / Demo

Name Author/Owner Code/Project Link
DeOldify Jason Antic [link]
Palette.fm Emil Wallner [link]

1.2 Papers

  • Natural images
Paper Source Code/Project Link
Learning Large-Scale Automatic Image Colorization ICCV 2015 [project] [code]
Deep Colorization ICCV 2015
Learning Representations for Automatic Colorization ECCV 2016 [project] [code]
Colorful Image Colorization ECCV 2016 [project] [code]
Let there be Color!: Joint End-to-end Learning of Global and Local Image Priors for Automatic Image Colorization with Simultaneous Classification SIGGRAPH 2016 [project] [code]
Learning Diverse Image Colorization CVPR 2017 [code]
Structural Consistency and Controllability for Diverse Colorization ECCV 2018
Coloring With Limited Data: Few-Shot Colorization via Memory Augmented Networks CVPR 2019 [project]

Unofficial:
[code (PyTorch)]
ChromaGAN: Adversarial Picture Colorization with Semantic Class Distribution WACV 2020 [code]
Instance-aware Image Colorization CVPR 2020 [code] [project]
Pixelated Semantic Colorization IJCV 2020
Colorization Transformer ICLR 2021 [code]
Focusing on Persons: Colorizing Old Images Learning from Modern Historical Movies ACM MM 2021 [code]
Towards Vivid and Diverse Image Colorization with Generative Color Prior ICCV 2021 [code]
SCSNet: An Efficient Paradigm for Learning Simultaneously Image Colorization and Super-Resolution (also reference based) AAAI 2022
Bridging the Domain Gap towards Generalization in Automatic Colorization ECCV 2022 [code]
ColorFormer: Image Colorization via Color Memory assisted Hybrid-attention Transformer ECCV 2022 [code]
BigColor: Colorization using a Generative Color Prior for Natural Images ECCV 2022 [project] [code]
CT2: Colorization Transformer via Color Tokens ECCV 2022 [code]
Disentangled Image Colorization via Global Anchors SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 [code] [project]
UniColor: A Unified Framework for Multi-Modal Colorization with Transformer (also multi-modal) SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 [project]
Improved Diffusion-based Image Colorization via Piggybacked Models arxiv 23.04 [project]
DDColor: Towards Photo-Realistic and Semantic-Aware Image Colorization via Dual Decoders ICCV 2023 [code] [project]
Diffusing Colors: Image Colorization with Text Guided Diffusion (also text-based) SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 [project]
Automatic Controllable Colorization via Imagination CVPR 2024 [code] [project]
Control Color: Multimodal Diffusion-based Interactive Image Colorization arxiv 24.02 [code] [project]
MultiColor: Image Colorization by Learning from Multiple Color Spaces ACM MM 2024
  • Line arts
Paper Source Code/Project Link
Region Assisted Sketch Colorization TIP 2023

2. User Guided Image Colorization

2.1 Based on scribble

  • Software / Demo
Image Type Name Author/Owner Code/Project Link
Line art Petalica Paint (Old version: PaintsChainer) Preferred Networks, Inc. [Petalica Paint (Online service)] [PaintsChainer V1 code]
Line art Style2Paints (SEPA) Style2Paints Research [link]
  • Papers: Natural images
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Real-Time User-Guided Image Colorization with Learned Deep Priors SIGGRAPH 2017 [project] [code1] [code2]
Natural Gray-Scale iColoriT: Towards Propagating Local Hint to the Right Region in Interactive Colorization by Leveraging Vision Transformer WACV 2023 [project] [code]
  • Papers: Sketch / Line arts
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Manga Manga colorization SIGGRAPH 2006 [Project]
Line art / Sketch / Manga LazyBrush: Flexible Painting Tool for Hand-drawn Cartoons Eurographics 2009 [Project Home & Software]

Unofficial:
[code(Matlab)]
Line art / Sketch Outline Colorization through Tandem Adversarial Networks 1704.08834 [code]
Sketch Scribbler: Controlling Deep Image Synthesis with Sketch and Color CVPR 2017
Line art / Sketch Auto-painter: Cartoon Image Generation from Sketch by Using Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks Neurocomputing 2018 [code]
Line art User-Guided Deep Anime Line Art Colorization with Conditional Adversarial Networks ACM MM 2018 [code]
Line art Two-stage Sketch Colorization SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 [Project]
Line art User-Guided Line Art Flat Filling with Split Filling Mechanism CVPR 2021 [Project] [code]
Line art Dual Color Space Guided Sketch Colorization TIP 2021

2.2 Based on reference image

  • Natural images
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Deep Exemplar-based Colorization SIGGRAPH 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Example-Based Colourization Via Dense Encoding Pyramids (also palette based) Pacific Graphics 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale A Superpixel-based Variational Model for Image Colorization TVCG 2019
Natural Gray-Scale Automatic Example-based Image Colourisation using Location-Aware Cross-Scale Matching TIP 2019
Natural Gray-Scale Stylization-Based Architecture for Fast Deep Exemplar Colorization CVPR 2020 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Gray2ColorNet: Transfer More Colors from Reference Image ACM MM 2020
Natural Gray-Scale Globally and Locally Semantic Colorization via Exemplar-Based Broad-GAN TIP 2021
Natural Gray-Scale Yes, "Attention Is All You Need", for Exemplar based Colorization ACM MM 2021
Natural Gray-Scale SCSNet: An Efficient Paradigm for Learning Simultaneously Image Colorization and Super-Resolution (also automatic) AAAI 2022
Natural Gray-Scale Semantic-Sparse Colorization Network for Deep Exemplar-based Colorization ECCV 2022
Natural Gray-Scale Unsupervised Deep Exemplar Colorization via Pyramid Dual Non-local Attention TIP 2023 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Lightweight Deep Exemplar Colorization via Semantic Attention-Guided Laplacian Pyramid TVCG 2024
  • Sketch / Line arts
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Manga Comicolorization: Semi-Automatic Manga Colorization SIGGRAPH Asia 2017 Technical Briefs [code]
Sketch TextureGAN: Controlling Deep Image Synthesis with Texture Patches CVPR 2018 [code]
Line art / Sketch Adversarial Colorization Of Icons Based On Structure And Color Conditions ACM MM 2019 [Code]
Line art / Sketch Reference-Based Sketch Image Colorization using Augmented-Self Reference and Dense Semantic Correspondence CVPR 2020 [project]
Manga Manga Filling Style Conversion with Screentone Variational Autoencoder SIGGRAPH Asia 2020 [project]
Line art / Sketch Colorization of Line Drawings with Empty Pupils PG 2020
Line art / Sketch Active Colorization for Cartoon Line Drawings TVCG 2020
Line art / Sketch Line Art Correlation Matching Feature Transfer Network for Automatic Animation Colorization WACV 2021
Line art / Sketch Style-Structure Disentangled Features and Normalizing Flows for Diverse Icon Colorization CVPR 2022
Line art / Sketch Eliminating Gradient Conflict in Reference-based Line-Art Colorization ECCV 2022 [code]
Line art / Sketch Self-driven Dual-path Learning for Reference-based Line Art Colorization under Limited Data TCSVT 2023
Line art / Sketch FlexIcon: Flexible Icon Colorization via Guided Images and Palettes (also palette based) ACM MM 2023
Line art / Sketch AnimeDiffusion: Anime Face Line Drawing Colorization via Diffusion Models TVCG 2024 [code]
Manga ColorFlow: Retrieval-Augmented Image Sequence Colorization arxiv 24.12 [code] [webpage]
Line art / Sketch MangaNinja: Line Art Colorization with Precise Reference Following CVPR 2025 [code] [webpage]

2.3 Based on palette

  • Natural images
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Image Palette-based Photo Recoloring SIGGRAPH 2015 [project]
Natural Gray-Scale Coloring with Words: Guiding Image Colorization Through Text-based Palette Generation (also text based) ECCV 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Example-Based Colourization Via Dense Encoding Pyramids (also reference based) Pacific Graphics 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale PalGAN: Image Colorization with Palette Generative Adversarial Networks ECCV 2022 [code]
  • Sketch / Line arts
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Line art / Sketch FlexIcon: Flexible Icon Colorization via Guided Images and Palettes (also reference based) ACM MM 2023
Line art / Sketch SketchDeco: Decorating B&W Sketches with Colour arxiv 24.05 [code] [webpage]

2.4 Based on language or text

  • Natural images
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale / Sketch Language-Based Image Editing with Recurrent Attentive Models CVPR 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Coloring with Words: Guiding Image Colorization Through Text-based Palette Generation (also palette based) ECCV 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Learning to Color from Language NAACL 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale L-CoDe: Language-based Colorization using Color-object Decoupled Conditions AAAI 2022 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale L-CoDer: Language-based Colorization with Color-object Decoupling Transformer ECCV 2022 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale L-CoIns: Language-based Colorization with Instance Awareness CVPR 2023
Natural Gray-Scale L-CAD: Language-based Colorization with Any-level Descriptions NeurIPS 2023 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Diffusing Colors: Image Colorization with Text Guided Diffusion SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 [project]
Natural Gray-Scale COCO-LC: Colorfulness Controllable Language-based Colorization ACM MM 2024 [project] [code]
  • Sketch / Line arts
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Line art Tag2Pix: Line Art Colorization Using Text Tag With SECat and Changing Loss ICCV 2019 [code] [code2 (GUI)]
Scene Sketch Language-based Colorization of Scene Sketches SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 [code] [project]
Line art Line Art Colorization Based on Explicit Region Segmentation Pacific Graphics 2021 [code]
Sketch Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models ICCV 2023 [code]

2.5 Multi-modal

Image Type Paper Input Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Interactive Deep Colorization Using Simultaneous Global and Local Inputs stroke + palette ICASSP 2019
Natural Gray-Scale UniColor: A Unified Framework for Multi-Modal Colorization with Transformer stroke + exemplar + text SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 [project]
Line art Two-Step Training: Adjustable Sketch Colourization via Reference Image and Text Tag exemplar + text CGF 2023 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Control Color: Multimodal Diffusion-based Interactive Image Colorization text, stroke, exemplar arxiv 24.02 [code] [project]
Natural Gray-Scale Versatile Vision Foundation Model for Image and Video Colorization text, scribble, exemplar SIGGRAPH 2024

2.6 Interactive Colorization

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Line art Guiding Users to Where to Give Color Hints for Efficient Interactive Sketch Colorization via Unsupervised Region Prioritization WACV 2023

3. Techniques of Improving Image Colorization

Paper Source Code/Project Link
Deep Edge-Aware Interactive Colorization against Color-Bleeding Effects ICCV 2021 [project] [code(metric)]
Line Art Colorization Based on Explicit Region Segmentation Pacific Graphics 2021 [code]
FlatGAN: A Holistic Approach for Robust Flat-Coloring in High-Definition with Understanding Line Discontinuity ACM MM 2023 [code]

4. Video Colorization

4.0 Survey

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Video Colorization: A Survey JCST 2024

4.1 Automatically

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Fully Automatic Video Colorization with Self-Regularization and Diversity CVPR 2019 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale VCGAN: Video Colorization With Hybrid Generative Adversarial Network TMM 2022 [code]

4.2 Based on reference

  • Natural images
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Switchable Temporal Propagation Network ECCV 2018
Natural Gray-Scale Tracking Emerges by Colorizing Videos ECCV 2018 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale Deep Exemplar-based Video Colorization CVPR 2019 [code]
Natural Gray-Scale DeepRemaster: Temporal Source-Reference Attention Networks for Comprehensive Video Enhancement SIGGRAPH Asia 2019 [code] [project]
Natural Gray-Scale Reference-Based Video Colorization with Spatiotemporal Correspondence 2011.12528
Natural Gray-Scale BiSTNet: Semantic Image Prior Guided Bidirectional Temporal Feature Fusion for Deep Exemplar-based Video Colorization TPAMI 2024 [code] [project]
Natural Gray-Scale Exemplar-based Video Colorization with Long-term Spatiotemporal Dependency KBS 2024
Natural Gray-Scale ColorMNet: A Memory-based Deep Spatial-Temporal Feature Propagation Network for Video Colorization ECCV 2024 [code] [project]
  • Sketch / Line arts
Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Line art The Animation Transformer: Visual Correspondence via Segment Matching ICCV 2021 [App]
Line art Line Art Correlation Matching Feature Transfer Network for Automatic Animation Colorization WACV 2021
Line art Deep Sketch-guided Cartoon Video Inbetweening TVCG 2021 [code]
Line art Reference-Based Deep Line Art Video Colorization TVCG 2022
Line art Learning Inclusion Matching for Animation Paint Bucket Colorization CVPR 2024 [webpage] [code]
Line art Paint Bucket Colorization Using Anime Character Color Design Sheets arxiv 24.10 [code]
Line art ToonCrafter: Generative Cartoon Interpolation SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 [code] [webpage]
Line art LVCD: Reference-based Lineart Video Colorization with Diffusion Models SIGGRAPH Asia 2024 [webpage]
Line art AniDoc: Animation Creation Made Easier CVPR 2025 [webpage] [code]

4.3 Based on scribble

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale SVCNet: Scribble-based Video Colorization Network with Temporal Aggregation TIP 2023 [code]

4.4 Based on text

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Video Colorization with Pre-trained Text-to-Image Diffusion Models arxiv 23.06 [code] [project]
Natural Gray-Scale Towards Photorealistic Video Colorization via Gated Color-Guided Image Diffusion Models ACM MM 2024
Natural Gray-Scale L-C4: Language-Based Video Colorization for Creative and Consistent Color arxiv 24.10

4.5 Based on palette

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale Consistent Video Colorization via Palette Guidance arxiv 25.01

4.6 Multimodal

Image Type Paper Source Code/Project Link
Natural Gray-Scale VanGogh: A Unified Multimodal Diffusion-based Framework for Video Colorization arxiv 25.01 [code] [webpage]

About

📚 A collection of Deep Learning based Image Colorization and Video Colorization papers.

Topics

computer-vision deep-learning graphics color-palette image-colorization papers user-interaction colorization automatic-colorization color-transfer user-guided image-colorization-paper image-colorization-papers color-strokes

Resources

Readme
Activity

Stars

1.1k stars

Watchers

42 watching

Forks

108 forks
Report repository

Releases

No releases published

Packages

No packages published

Contributors 5