Usually there are three or four people bidding on the same job, and when you walk in, you'd better have something different. Colorized photos allow you to show the customer the completed job. Given all these fabulous possibilities, a proliferation of colorizing programs and websites is flooding the market, ranging in price from free to hundreds of dollars. Trent noted that the latter is particularly useful for contractors specializing in commercial jobs - for instance, colorizing an industrial park or shopping center, which would be difficult to visualize from stock photos of a residential home. Some programs offer stock photos as well as the technology for colorizing digital or scanned-in photos.
All versions have their pros and cons, manufacturers and contractors surveyed said.
The programs are time-consuming, and often don't give a precise reading of colors. Then, when you go to print it out, you're dealing with inks, and inks aren't necessarily representative of paints. You're still only getting an idea. He shows clients a fan deck, along with the colorized photo, which he often displays on his laptop, thus eliminating the printer problem entirely. But you have to put in a little disclaimer and say, your colors might not be exactly like this.