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My Polychrome print of The Great Wave in a black frame hanging on a wall

4 rolls. 9,000 colours.

Print your photos in colour on the printer you already own.

Buy PolychromeTry it free

$35 USD, once, for personal use. Free for 7 days, no card needed. Windows and Mac.

Works with any printer that changes filament mid-print: Bambu AMS or AMS lite, Prusa MMU, Creality CFS and more. Check your printer

See what it doesSee the interactive demo

Mix a few rolls into thousands of colours.

Other methods swap filament at set heights. Polychrome stacks your rolls in a different order at every spot.

No paint.

Every colour comes off the printer.

My Polychrome print of a cottage boathouse on a lake, framed on a shelf among the leaves of a houseplant

Each picture uses what it needs.

Four rolls can make about 9,000 colours. This Starry Night uses 3,563 you can tell apart.

The app's first-ranked prediction of The Starry Night using four rolls and 16 colour layers.
The app's prediction of The Starry Night, four rolls, 16 colour layers.
The colours my four rolls can print, arranged from lighter at the top to darker at the bottom, with a neutral strip on the left and hues across the rest. Chequered gaps are colours these rolls cannot reach.
  • Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400)
  • Bambu Lab Matte Ivory White (11100)
  • Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101)
  • Bambu Lab Translucent Blue (13611)
Every colour these four rolls can print

Your furry friend, in colour!

Pets, people, places. Your own photos print too.

My Polychrome print of a standing corgi puppy, lying on wet grass
Photo of my Polychrome print of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, fresh off the printer on its build plateBLACK BASETHE PICTUREASKS FORWHAT YOU SEEyellowyellowyellowyellowyellowblueredredspot on

Every spot gets its own stack.

A black base, and the picture asking for that gold

  1. PLA Translucent Red (13210), Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  2. PLA Translucent Red (13210), Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Ivory White (11100), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101)
  3. Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Ivory White (11100), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Matte Mandarin Orange (11300)
  4. Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Matte Mandarin Orange (11300), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  5. Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Ivory White (11100), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  6. Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Matte Mandarin Orange (11300), Bambu Lab Translucent Blue (13611), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  7. Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Bambu Lab Translucent Blue (13611), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  8. Bambu Green (10501), Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  9. Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Bambu Lab Basic Cyan (10603), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  10. Bambu Green (10501), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Matte Mandarin Orange (11300), Bambu Lab Basic Jade White (10100)
  11. Bambu Lab Matte Ivory White (11100), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Matte Mandarin Orange (11300), Bambu Lab Translucent Blue (13611)
  12. Bambu Lab Basic Yellow (10400), Bambu Lab Matte Ivory White (11100), Bambu Lab Matte Charcoal (11101), Bambu Lab Basic Cyan (10603)

Picks your best rolls.

Tell it which rolls you own. In a few seconds it ranks the best mixes for your picture.

The app's prediction of a fishing boat on a beach with cleanup off: grainy sand and a speckled hull.
Off
The same prediction cleaned up: smooth sand and hull, with the rope and the edge of the boat still sharp.
Cleaned up

Cleans up grainy photos.

It evens out grain and specks and keeps edges sharp.

Illustration of a finished plate file, with a cat prediction above thin coloured layers and a charcoal base

Exports everything you need.

A print file for any slicer, a ready-made Bambu Studio project, and a sheet that says which roll goes where.

Here's what it's like to use.

Real predictions from the app, with some of its options.

Picture

Tap the plate to zoom. Tap again to return.

Palette
Colour layers

627 colours in this example

Download Polychrome

Why Polychrome?

  • Works with your printer.

    Any printer that changes filament mid-print, from a Bambu A1 with AMS lite to a Prusa XL.

    A Bambu Lab X1 Carbon printer with an AMS holding four spools on top
    Bambu Lab X1 Carbon with AMSPrinters shown for illustration.

  • Check it layer by layer.

    Your slicer shows flat blocks of filament. Polychrome shows the colours you'll really get, and lets you peel layers off to see what's underneath before you print.

    Polychrome's prediction of a plate of The Jack Pine by Tom Thomson
    In Polychrome
    The app's prediction of The Jack Pine, four rolls, 8 colour layers.

  • Tuned to your rolls.

    Bambu rolls come measured. For anything else, print a card once and the app reads it from a photo.

  • Pay once. Yours to keep.

    You get a year of updates, and every version you got keeps working. Try it free for seven days first.

    Polychrome's studio with The Kiss by Gustav Klimt loaded, showing three ranked palettes and the best one's prediction

Durable art with depth.

Frame it, or use it every day.

My framed Polychrome print of Napoleon Crossing the Alps on my wall
  • A framed Girl with a Pearl Earring print on a tiled wall above a lit candle
  • Four of my Polychrome coasters of Tom Thomson autumn paintings on a bamboo table

    Coasters too

  • A framed print of a tall ship beside a model sailing ship on a shelf
  • My Polychrome bookmark of a trillium, lying in an open book
  • My framed Polychrome print of Napoleon Crossing the Alps beside a model biplane
  • Four of my Polychrome autumn bookmarks on a wooden table

    Bookmarks too

  • My Polychrome coaster of a Tom Thomson autumn lake on a wooden table
  • My Polychrome bookmark of a sumac leaf in an open book
  • My Polychrome bookmark of four autumn leaves in an open book
See more prints

Up close, unretouched.

  • An unretouched close-up of the wing on my scarlet macaw print, showing individual printed spots

    As fine as your printer.

    Every spot gets its own colour. Set the spot size to suit your nozzle, stock or not.

  • An unretouched close-up of my agate bookmark, showing fine bands of colour

    Thin layers.

    Use any layer height your printer can print. Thin layers blend into smooth shades.

  • An unretouched close-up of my coaster of a Tom Thomson birch painting

    Colour with depth.

    Light passes through the thin layers and mixes inside the print.

Print something colourful.

Licences from $35 USD. Seven days free to try.

Buy PolychromeTry it free

Before your first print

Will it run on my computer?

Apple silicon only: M1 or later, macOS 14 or later. There is no Intel build. On macOS 13, the previous version, 1.0.4, still runs, and it is on What's new.

On Windows, 10 and 11, 64-bit. Linux: Not released yet.

Do I need any special filaments?

No. The filaments you already have work. Translucent filaments give more detail and more colours.

How long do prints like these take?

Print times depend on the picture, the filaments and how much detail you want. Most prints here took between 4 and 14 hours.

Can I give away my files for free?

Yes. The files you make are yours to share.

Why not just use CMYK and white?

The surface colour of each layer counts for too much for CMYK and white to work properly. That's why Polychrome picks the best filaments for you.

Picture credits

  • The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai, about 1831, public domain. This is the colour-restored version I printed from, not the original woodblock print.

  • Napoleon Crossing the Alps, Jacques-Louis David, 1801, public domain. The same picture as the example plate in the app.

  • The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh, 1889, public domain. Source.

  • Corgi puppy photograph by Huoadg5888, CC0. Source.

  • Shiba Inu photograph by Roberto Vasarri, public domain, cropped. Shown in the simulator. Source.

  • Scarlet macaw photograph by Quartl, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped. My print of it, and these photos of the print, are shared under the same licence. Source.

  • Tabby cat photograph by AdinaVoicu via Pixabay, CC0 1.0, cropped. Source.

  • Pepper&Carrot by David Revoy, www.peppercarrot.com, CC BY 4.0, cropped. Source.

  • Hubble Space Telescope photograph by NASA, public domain, cropped. Source.

  • Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer, about 1665, public domain.

  • The Kiss, Gustav Klimt, 1907 to 1908, public domain. Shown in the app studio screenshot.

  • Fishing boats photograph by Jebulon, CC0, cropped. Shown in the cleanup card. Source.

  • The coasters are paintings by Tom Thomson, public domain: Autumn Foliage (1916), Soft Maple in Autumn (1914), Sketch for Autumn's Garland (1915) and The Birch Grove, Autumn (1915 to 1916).

  • P1s with ams, Pineapplefish77, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

  • 3D printers in the JD Mall electronics showroom, Dongguan, December 2024, NAS 238 WMMNO, CC0, cropped.

  • Bambu Lab X1 Carbon with AMS module, Benlisquare, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

  • UC Davis Tech Foundry, June 2025, Mario Rodriguez/UC Davis, UC Davis College of Engineering, CC BY 4.0, cropped by Elmepi.

  • Printers shown for illustration. Polychrome isn't made by or affiliated with these brands.

  • Print photographs and app screenshots by me. The close-ups are unretouched crops.

  • Boathouse photograph by me, cropped.

  • The Jack Pine, Tom Thomson, 1916-17, public domain. Shown in the layer-by-layer card. Artwork details.