Getting started

1. Add your supplies on My collection: scan a photo, paste a list, or type them in.
2. Pick a coloring page on Color a page: upload your own line art or use a sample.
3. Follow the five steps to get a coloring plan with the exact codes to use, built only from supplies you own.

Just want to look around? On Home, click Try it with a demo set.

Adding your supplies

Everything happens on My collection. There are four ways, and you can mix them.

1. Photo of your case or tin (fastest for a full set)

1. In Scan a photo, choose 🧺 My set, pick the Type (markers, pencils, crayons...) and type the Brand. Scan one set at a time.
2. Choose your photo, then click ✨ Find colors & read labels. It finds each cap or pencil end, takes its color, and tries to read the code on it.
3. Check the list under the photo (see Checking codes), then click Save all to my collection.

2. Photo of a swatch chart (truest colors)

Colors from a chart you colored on your own paper match what your supplies really look like on paper. Caps and barrels are only close.

1. Choose 🎨 A swatch chart, type the brand, and choose the photo.
2. Click ⚪ Set white, then click a blank white spot on the paper. This corrects the photo's lighting.
3. Click ✨ Find colors & read labels. Or add the swatches yourself with Grid or Click each one, then click 🔤 Read text from photo.
4. Check the list, then save.

3. Paste a list

In Add a color, pick the Type, open Bulk paste a list. Put one color per line, like B02, Robin's Egg Blue, #74c7e3 or just R37 Carmine, then click Import list. A line with no color gets a color guessed from its name, marked ≈. Scanning that marker later replaces the guess.

4. One at a time

Pick the Type, fill in Brand, Code, Name and Color in Add a color, and click Add color. No code (common for crayons)? Just type the name.

Supplies & tips

Add any mix of supplies to your collection. Pick the Type when you add them, and every coloring plan gives tips for that supply. Blend families always stay within one supply, so a pencil is never blended into a marker.

Taking a good photo

• Use daylight or bright, even light. No flash, no glare on the caps.
• Hold the phone straight above, so your set or chart fills the frame.
• For a big set (100+ colors), take two close-up photos, half the case each. Codes read much better up close.
• On an iPhone, if a photo won't open: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible.

Scanner tools

Above the photo on My collection:

✨ Find colors & read labels

Finds every cap or swatch by itself, takes each color, then reads the codes. Works best when they stand out from the background.

👆 Click each one

Click the middle of each cap or swatch, in order. Each click adds a row to the list.

▦ Grid

For neat rows. Set how many rows and how many per row, then click the corner ones (first and last of the top row; with more rows, the last and then the first of the bottom row). It adds them all.

⚪ Set white

Click something white in the photo, like blank paper or a white cap, to correct warm or cool lighting.

🔲 Box a label

Draw a box around any code to read it, in any order. It fills in the nearest color or adds a new one. Full directions.

↶ Undo last · Clear list

Remove the last row you added, or start the list over.

Box a label

Draw a box around any code on your photo and the app reads it. Use it to fix a code the automatic reading missed or got wrong, or to add colors one label at a time.

1. Upload your photo, then click 🔲 Box a label above it.
2. On the photo, drag a box around a code: the code printed on a cap, or written next to a swatch. Leave a little space around it.
3. It reads the code and puts it on the nearest color in the list (circled in purple). No color there yet? It adds a new one, using the color of the cap or swatch around the box.
4. Box the next label. Any order works. Wrong one? Tap Undo on the message that pops up.
5. Want a label to go to one exact color? Click that color's number in the list first, then draw the box.

Checking codes before saving

Reading from a photo is never perfect, so look over the review list before you click Save all to my collection.

Yellow boxes

Codes and names read from the photo. Check them, and type over any that are wrong.

Label pictures

On charts, each row shows a picture of what's written next to that swatch, so you can compare without going back to the paper.

A pink "?" hint

The app wasn't sure, so it left the code blank and shows its best guess (like 174?). Type the right code.

Red rows

Two rows have the same code. Saving waits until you fix them, because two rows with the same code would be saved as one color.

Codes on the photo

Each code also shows under its dot on the photo. 🙈 Hide codes on photo turns that off.

Reading options

• Labels sit: where the codes are. Auto works for most photos. Pick "To the right" and so on if it keeps missing.
• Writing: Auto switches to the handwriting reader when a chart's labels look handwritten. The first time, it downloads about 70 MB, and your browser keeps it. Handwriting is still hit-and-miss, so expect to check about half the codes.
• Text direction: for codes printed sideways down a marker or pencil barrel.

Paste codes (and names) in order

The surest way for a handwritten chart. Open Paste codes (and names) in order under the review list and type one line per row, in the same order as the list: 58 Mint Green Light. For charts, that's the left column top to bottom, then the next column. Codes alone can go on one line: R1, R2, R3. Click Fill codes & names.

Coloring a page

On Color a page, five steps take you from line art to a coloring plan. Click any numbered dot to jump back to a step.

1. Page: drop in your line art, or click the box to browse. Clean black lines work best. If faint lines get missed, raise Line sensitivity.
2. Mood: pick a mood (vibrant, pastel, earthy...) and a color scheme. Optional: start from a color you love, and choose how many color families to use.
3. Supplies: tick which sets this page may use, like just your pencils or just one brand of markers. Only their codes appear in the plan.
4. Patterns: how much pattern (stripes, dots, blends), or slide to 0 for all solid.
5. Color it: see the page colored in, with your coloring recipe and tips for each supply: which codes to use, light to dark, for blending.

• ✨ New combo builds a different plan. ↻ Shuffle areas keeps the colors but moves them around.
• Click any area of the page to change its color or pattern.
• ♥ Save keeps the plan in Saved palettes. ⬇ Download PNG saves the picture.

Your collection & backups

• Search and sort your colors at the top of My collection.
• ≈ guessed means the color was guessed from the name. Scan a swatch chart, or add the hex color, to make it exact.
• 🗑 Erase… removes selected colors, a whole brand, or everything. You can undo right after.
• Back up saves your collection to a file. Restore loads it back, on this or another device. Back up now and then: clearing your browser's data erases the collection.
• Saved palettes: click Use on current page on any saved palette to color the page that's open now.

Free pages & plans

• Everyone can color 2 of their own pages free. The sample pages and the practice sheet are always free and don't count.
• Coloring the same page again, or trying new combos on it, doesn't use another page.
• Your collection, the scanner, saved palettes, downloads and tutorials are free on every plan.
• To color more of your own pages, choose a plan on Plans. The sidebar shows how many pages you have left.

Your pages & copyright

Coloring pages belong to the artists and publishers who made them. Buying a book doesn't always give permission to scan or copy its pages, so check the book's or artist's terms before uploading.

• Only upload pages you drew yourself, free pages the artist lets you use this way, or pages you otherwise have permission to use.
• This app works on your own device: your page is never uploaded, shared, or used to train anything.
• The colored previews and coloring plans are for your own coloring. They don't give you any right to share, print for others, or sell the artist's page.
• Keep the artist's name and copyright notice on anything you share of your finished, hand-colored page, and follow their rules for sharing.

Privacy

Your supplies, photos and coloring pages stay in this browser on this device. Nothing is uploaded. The photo reader and handwriting reader run on your own computer; they're downloaded once and kept by your browser.

Anonymous usage counts

To learn what's working, The Colorist’s Muse app counts a few simple things, like a visit, a coloring page added, the free pages running out, or a plan being picked. These counts have no names, emails, license keys, color codes, colors, photos or pages in them, and no cookies are used. They can't be traced back to you.