ColorStrokes 2.4

Edit images on your Mac using a wide range of color-modifying tools. Select among multiple virtual brushes and customize them, adjust the brightness, contrast, blur, saturation, hue, and exposure levels, and apply various effects to enhance your images.

ColorStrokes is an image editing application with tools specialized for creating selective color images - images which are monotone except for an object in the image which is highlighted by retention of the original color. The application operates on the basis of the user "painting" in color with a virtual brush.

When a picture is first loaded into ColorStrokes, it is displayed in black and white - to ColorStrokes this blank slate of color serves as the background. It is a layer that can be manipulated independently, not just in various dimensions of color but also in blur and opacity strength relative to the foreground. The foreground of "native color" is painted on using a brush of adjustable diameter and softness, the idea being that the object to be colored in an otherwise monotone image is isolated by painting its original color into being. Saturation, hue, and exposure can be adjusted for this layer, in addition to the tweaks available for the background layer. Three image-wide effects are available that each enhance edges in different ways. Other features include the "ReColor" tool, which allows one to custom-paint the background layer, a comparison view which puts the original and edited images side by side, and sharing options that integrate various web services.

Sam's Protip: It's possible, albeit not very efficient, to execute a pixel-perfect selective recoloration by using the zoom and pan tools with a tiny brush.