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AKVIS Coloriage can work independently as a standalone program and as a plug-in to a photo editor.

Standalone is an independent program; you can open it by clicking on the program's icon.

To launch the standalone version, run the program directly:

On a Windows computer - select it from the Start menu or use the program's shortcut.

On a Mac computer - launch the app from the Application folder.

Plugin is an add-on for a photo editor, for example for Photoshop.

To call the plugin, select it from filters of your image editing program.

The AKVIS Coloriage program window looks like this:

Most of the AKVIS Coloriage window is taken by the Image Window with two tabs: Before and After. Under the Before tab you can see the original photo, to which you apply color strokes with the Pencil tool. The After tab shows the resulting image.

In the upper part of the program's window you can see the Control Panel with the following buttons:

• The button opens the home page of AKVIS Coloriage.
• The button (only in the standalone version) opens an image for processing. The hot-keys for the command are Ctrl+O on Windows, ⌘+O on Mac.
• The button (only in the standalone version) saves an image to the disk. The hot-keys are Ctrl+S on Windows, ⌘+S on Mac.
• The button (only in the standalone version) prints the image. The hot-keys are Ctrl+P on Windows, ⌘+P on Mac.
• The button lets posting pictures from the program to the social networks.
• The button opens files with the .strokes extention. These are the files where you save strokes drawn on an image.
• The button saves color strokes drawn on an image into a file with the .strokes extension. It is helpful when you want to edit the photo later, for example, if you have to interrupt your work before you have drawn the strokes for all objects.
• The button cancels the last operation. It is possible to cancel several operations in a row. The hotkey for the command is Ctrl+Z on Windows, ⌘+Z on Mac.
• The button returns the last cancelled operation. It is possible to return several operations in a row. The hotkey for the command is Ctrl+Y on Windows, ⌘+Y on Mac.
• The button / / helps to switch between view modes of the strokes.
  - this indicates that normal mode is active. All strokes are displayed in the chosen color, i.e. various tones of the same color will look the same.
  - this indicates that Brightness Preview mode is active. In this mode the strokes are displayed taking into account the brightness of pixels of the original image and the selected brightness range.
  - this indicates that the strokes are hidden.
• Press the button to start the colorization process. The shortcut to start the colorization from the keyboard is Ctrl+R on Windows, ⌘+R on Mac. The resulting image is shown in the After tab.
• The button (only in the plugin version) applies the result of the colorization. When you press the button, the changes are applied to the image and the AKVIS Coloriage window closes.
• The button shows information about the program.
• The button opens the help files of the program.
• The button calls the Preferences dialog box for changing the program's options.
• The button opens a window showing the latest news about Coloriage.

To the left of the Image Window there is a Toolbar which contains tools for drawing and editing strokes, as well as tools for fine-tuning the colorized image.

The settings of the active tool are shown in the floating window that appears when you right-click on any part of the Image Window. If you click outside of the floating window, it disappears.

Navigate and scale the image using the Navigator. In the Navigator you can see the reduced copy of the image. The frame shows the part of the image that is now visible in the Image Window; the areas outside the frame will be shaded. Drag the frame to make other parts of the image visible. To move the frame, bring the cursor inside the frame, press the left mouse button and, keeping it pressed, move the frame in the Navigator.

Navigator

Use the slider to scale the image in the Image Window. When you move the slider to the right, the image scale increases. When you move the slider to the left, the image scale decreases.

To scroll the image in the Image Window you can press the spacebar on the keyboard and drag the image with the left mouse button. Use the scroll wheel of the mouse to move the image up/down, by keeping the Ctrl key pressed (Mac: ⌘) – to the left/to the right, by keeping the Alt key pressed (Mac: Option) − scale the image. Right-click on the scroll bar to activate the quick navigation menu.

You can also change the image scale by entering a new coefficient into the scale field and pressing the button Enter (Return in Mac). The drop-down menu shows some frequently used coefficients.

You can use hot-keys to change the image scale + and Ctrl++ (⌘++ in Mac) to increase the image scale and - and Ctrl+- (⌘+- in Mac) to reduce the scale.

Under the Navigator you can see the color selection panel:

The Color Library contains gradations of colors that frequently appear on photos. For example, color patterns of skin, hair, lips, grass, trees, stones. It helps users to select a natural-looking color.

The Color History keeps the last used colors, so you can quickly back to one of the recently applied tints.

The Color palette allows choosing a color via a gradient or by entering numerical values for color components and their settings.

The Swatches palette contains a set of frequently used colors and allows you to choose a color simply by clicking on any of the colors in the palette.

The Multicolor palette allows one to work in Multicolor mode — to apply more than one color at once. This mode is only available for advanced licenses (Deluxe, Business).

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