MyHeritage introduces feature to colour black-and-white photos automatically

Sunday 15 March 2020, 14:07 by Michelle Peeters | 5,677 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

MyHeritage In Color™ uses AI-based technology licensed from DeOldify to colour black-and-white photos within seconds, allowing everyone to view their historic family photos in a whole new light.

MyHeritage, a global service for discovering your past and strengthening your future, recently announced the release of MyHeritage In Color™, an innovative feature that automatically colours black-and-white photos and produces fun results.

Photos are coloured using advanced deep learning technology that is currently exclusive to MyHeritage.

MyHeritage In Color™ produces lifelike colour photos with exceptional attention to detail. The technology has been tested using millions of photos and has developed an understanding of our world and its colours.

The results are more realistic compared with those generated by other automatic colouring tools currently available. The black-and-white photos remain intact and are not changed by the colouring process, which produces new photos alongside the original photos.

The photo-colouring technology comes from DeOldify and is licensed by MyHeritage. It was created by software developers Jason Antic and Dana Kelley. The technology is based on Self-Attention Generative Adversarial Networks (SAGAN), introduced in May 2018.


An early version of DeOldify technology was contributed to the public domain by Antic and Kelley in November 2018. Antic and Kelley created an updated version in May 2019.

Since then, Antic and Kelley have continued to improve and refine the technology. The latest version produces colour photos of unprecedented quality and is currently only available on MyHeritage.

Personally, it was very emotional for me to see my black-and-white family photos in colour again for the first time. The reactions of my family members, young and old, with whom I shared them were priceless. Millions of people will now discover how cool family history really is, an enthusiastic user tweets.

Seamless integration with family trees

People around the world use MyHeritage to explore their family history, and to digitise, preserve and upload their old family photos to their online family trees.

MyHeritage users have already uploaded hundreds of millions of black-and-white photos to the platform, enhanced them with metadata and tagged the individuals who appear in the photos.

With MyHeritage In Color™, users can now colour their historic photos within seconds and experience a deep connection with their family history like never before.

Colouring is available in both MyHeritage's online photo albums and the free MyHeritage mobile app for iOS and Android, the perfect tool for scanning old photos in physical albums and turning them into digital media.

Coloured photos can easily be shared with family and friends on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

As part of MyHeritage's commitment to preserving the authenticity of historical documents, it distinguishes between coloured photos and photos that were originally taken in colour using a special embossed palette icon in the bottom left-hand corner of coloured photos.

Although highly realistic, automatically coloured photos have colours simulated by automatic algorithms, and these colours may not be identical to the real-life colours of the original image.

MyHeritage hopes that this responsible approach will be adopted by others who use the technology to colour photos.

MyHeritage In Color™ is a freemium feature on MyHeritage. Several photos can be coloured for free, after which a subscription is required for continued use of this feature.

About MyHeritage

MyHeritage is the world's leading discovery platform for exploring family history. With billions of historical records and family tree profiles, and advanced matching technologies for all its resources, MyHeritage allows users to discover their past and strengthen their future.

MyHeritage DNA was launched in 2016 and has grown into one of the world's largest consumer DNA databases, with more than 3.8 million people.

As the world's leading global service combining family history and DNA tests for genealogy and health, MyHeritage is uniquely positioned to offer users a meaningful experience that brings together discoveries about their past, present and future.

MyHeritage is available in 42 languages and is the most popular DNA testing and family history service in Europe.

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