Color by number: how it works, and who it's for

JCBy Julien CornilleCo-founder and publication director, Memory Pencil

The color by number from your childhood, but made from your own photos. How we split an image into numbered zones, who it speaks to, and what changes compared with the classic coloring book.

Color by number, you probably picture it already: a grid of zones, each marked with a number, and a legend that says which color goes in which number. You fill it in zone by zone and the image appears. What we do at Memory Pencil is exactly that, but from your family photos. Here is how we go from a photo to a numbered coloring page, and who this format suits best.

The idea: two pages per photo

Just like the coloring book, each photo becomes two pages. On the left, the model page: your photo simplified into flat color areas, each zone carrying its number. That's the guide, the one you look at to know which shade goes where. On the right, the page to color: the same zones, but empty and numbered, with a legend that matches each number to its color. You color by following the numbers, and the memory comes back.

How we split a photo into zones

This is the step that decides everything. We first redraw the photo as a flat-color illustration, then trace it in black line art: every closed shape in the drawing becomes a zone to color. Too many zones and the page becomes an unreadable puzzle. Too few and the image turns into blobs. The sweet spot is zones large enough for a marker, numerous enough to recognize the face. Each zone then takes the closest color from a fixed box of 24 pencils, the same for the whole book: a sky blue stays the same sky blue from one page to the next. The number sits where the zone is widest, and each page's legend lists only the colors it needs, numbered from 1 up, with no gaps.

What sets it apart from the classic coloring book

Both start from your photos, but the way you color changes. The coloring book gives you an outline page to fill freely, with whatever colors you like: total freedom, including the freedom to get it wrong. Color by number imposes a color code to follow, zone by zone. It's more structured, more reassuring, and the result really looks like the original photo. Neither is better, they just suit different moments.

Who it's for

• Children, from around 4 or 5: the numbers guide the hand, there's no fear of doing it wrong, and watching the image reveal itself is hugely satisfying.
• Adults who like stress-relief coloring: following a color code is restful, you let yourself be carried without deciding every shade.
• As a gift: you recognize the photo right away, and there's something to do with it, not just to look at.

Printed or digital, and what it costs

Same formats and same prices as the coloring book. As a bound book, free delivery: CA$49.99 for 6 photos, CA$74.99 for 12 photos, CA$107.99 for 24 photos. Every format and the order page are on personalized color by number. As a downloadable digital version, you get the same color-by-number book as a PDF from CA$11.99, to see how your photos turn out before ordering the book. And if the PDF wins you over, you have 30 days to have it printed as a real book.

Color by number is the same keepsake photo as the album, but with instructions: follow the numbers and the image comes back.