Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating colored images of at least one color within a light-sensitive glass sample. The glass sample contains light-sensitive chemical components that acquire at least one of a multiplicity of colors in response to actinic radiation and subsequent heating to a temperature that causes color to appear. The method comprises focusing a pulsed laser beam to a target location within the glass, irradiating a plurality of pulses focused in the target location within the glass sample, thus generating a zone of increased opacity to the visible light at the target location and a resultant localized actinic radiation at that zone, displacing the focus point of the laser beam and the glass sample relative to each other by the displacing device in a predetermined manner so as to produce a plurality of zones of increased opacity that form an image, and heating of the sample to a temperature that causes color to appear at the zones of increased opacity.