ColorSmith.app
It's 10 PM somewhere. Do you know how many colors your image has?
Drop in an image and find out. Everything happens locally in your browser -- no image data leaves it.
Ever wanted to know if an image was likely to HueForge well?
Drop it in and find out. Everything happens locally in your browser -- no image data leaves it.
Too Many Colors
Drop an image to count how many distinct colors it contains.
ColorSmithing...
This is a demo -- your result stays right here on screen. No image data leaves your browser, and there's no download link.
No image loaded
Why does this matter?
Most images come back with a number in the hundreds of thousands.
- Most of them aren't doing anything you can see. They're noise, compression leftovers, tiny blends. The picture doesn't need them.
- Fewer real colors means an image you can control — print, embroider, palette work, production, whatever comes next. You're not fighting a random 400,000-color soup.
- When a few extra colors would show — skin, sky, an eye — you spend them there on purpose. You don't inflate the whole image to fix one spot.
Why does this matter for HueForge?
A HueForge image may only use a handful of filaments. The photo you started with can contain hundreds of thousands of colors. ColorSmith shows you what happens when that complexity is reduced before HueForge ever has to make those decisions.
- Color matching ~50 colors is much easier than 500,000.
- For the first time, the number of colors in the image can be close to the number of blend levels HueForge has to work with. That changes the problem from heavy compromise toward direct conversion.
- If an image still looks good at around 50 colors or fewer, it's probably a strong HueForge candidate.
Control the color budget. ColorSmith isn't trying to drive the number as low as it will go. It removes colors that aren't earning their place — and lets you put color back exactly where it visibly improves the result.
What is this going to cost me? Nothing. ColorSmith will be a free plugin for HueForge. Scroll on for more details.
Examples
Every example below ran through the same one-click automatic pass shown above — no manual touch-up tools, no cherry-picked settings.
A real photo — automatic result plus one optional Gradient Refine.
So what's the catch?
Some images really do need more colors.
Large smooth skies, fog, studio backgrounds, and long skin-tone gradients push hardest against any color count — aggressive automatic reduction can show up as visible banding across those smooth areas. That's exactly what one click can't always catch on its own.
Most tools' only answer is a bigger number. ColorSmith has a whole suite of tools for adjusting the automatic result — spending colors exactly where they matter.
When automatic isn't enough
Show error → fixWhen automatic isn't enough, that's where ColorSmith sets itself apart — here's what its manual tools do about it.
Swipe right to see the repairDrag the divider right to watch the repair happen
Fixed with Refine Gradient — banding on skin.
Swipe right to see the repairDrag the divider right to watch the repair happen
Fixed with Recover Color Range — muddy eyes → gold.
Swipe right to see the repairDrag the divider right to watch the repair happen
Fixed with Change Color + Preserve — skin tone + achromatic face.
Historic photos: Library of Congress, Free to Use and Reuse.
Built by the creator of HueForge.
ColorSmith is coming first to HueForge as a free plugin.
The free plugin includes ColorSmith's full suite of refinement tools — tweak, repair, and perfect the result inside HueForge. You're never limited to the automatic pass.
Coming soon
Follow the HueForge Devlog for news about ColorSmith releases.
Why is this useful for HueForge?
A HueForge image may only use a handful of filaments. The photo you started with can contain hundreds of thousands of colors. ColorSmith shows you what happens when that complexity is reduced before HueForge ever has to make those decisions.
- Color matching ~50 colors is much easier than 500,000.
- For the first time, the number of colors in the image can be close to the number of blend levels HueForge has to work with. That changes the problem from heavy compromise toward direct conversion.
- If an image still looks good at around 50 colors or fewer, it's probably a strong HueForge candidate.
What else is this good for?
Most images come back with a number in the hundreds of thousands.
- Most of them aren't doing anything you can see. They're noise, compression leftovers, tiny blends. The picture doesn't need them.
- Fewer real colors means an image you can control — print, embroider, palette work, production, whatever comes next. You're not fighting a random 400,000-color soup.
- When a few extra colors would show — skin, sky, an eye — you spend them there on purpose. You don't inflate the whole image to fix one spot.