diff --git a/datumaro/README.md b/datumaro/README.md
index 5139976db05..66a43e52809 100644
--- a/datumaro/README.md
+++ b/datumaro/README.md
@@ -177,6 +177,24 @@ project = Project.load('directory')
   datum project diff mymodel_inference/ --format tensorboard --output-dir diff
   ```
 
+- Change colors in PASCAL VOC-like `.png` masks:
+  ```bash
+  datum project import --format voc --input-path <path/to/voc/dataset>
+
+  # Create a color map file with desired colors:
+  #
+  # label : color_rgb : parts : actions
+  # cat:0,0,255::
+  # dog:255,0,0::
+  #
+  # Save as mycolormap.txt
+
+  datum project export --format voc_segmentation -- --label-map mycolormap.txt
+  # add "--apply-colormap=0" to save grayscale (indexed) masks
+  # check "--help" option for more info
+  # use "datum --loglevel debug" for extra conversion info
+  ```
+
 <!--lint enable list-item-bullet-indent-->
 <!--lint enable list-item-indent-->
 
diff --git a/datumaro/datumaro/plugins/voc_format/converter.py b/datumaro/datumaro/plugins/voc_format/converter.py
index 4e4fefd157e..15b4086553c 100644
--- a/datumaro/datumaro/plugins/voc_format/converter.py
+++ b/datumaro/datumaro/plugins/voc_format/converter.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 from datumaro.components.extractor import (DEFAULT_SUBSET_NAME, AnnotationType,
     LabelCategories, CompiledMask,
 )
+from datumaro.util import str_to_bool, find
 from datumaro.util.image import save_image
 from datumaro.util.mask_tools import paint_mask, remap_mask
 
@@ -466,6 +467,12 @@ def _load_categories(self, label_map_source=None):
         elif isinstance(label_map_source, str) and osp.isfile(label_map_source):
             label_map = parse_label_map(label_map_source)
 
+            has_black = find(label_map.items(),
+                lambda e: e[0] == 'background' or e[1][0] == (0, 0, 0))
+            if not has_black and 'background' not in label_map:
+                label_map['background'] = [(0, 0, 0), [], []]
+                label_map.move_to_end('background', last=False)
+
         else:
             raise Exception("Wrong labelmap specified, "
                 "expected one of %s or a file path" % \
@@ -559,7 +566,7 @@ def build_cmdline_parser(cls, **kwargs):
 
         parser.add_argument('--save-images', action='store_true',
             help="Save images (default: %(default)s)")
-        parser.add_argument('--apply-colormap', type=bool, default=True,
+        parser.add_argument('--apply-colormap', type=str_to_bool, default=True,
             help="Use colormap for class and instance masks "
                 "(default: %(default)s)")
         parser.add_argument('--label-map', type=cls._get_labelmap, default=None,
diff --git a/datumaro/datumaro/util/__init__.py b/datumaro/datumaro/util/__init__.py
index 19edb82de8b..1db427b1797 100644
--- a/datumaro/datumaro/util/__init__.py
+++ b/datumaro/datumaro/util/__init__.py
@@ -74,4 +74,13 @@ def take_by(iterable, count):
         if len(batch) == 0:
             break
 
-        yield batch
\ No newline at end of file
+        yield batch
+
+def str_to_bool(s):
+    t = s.lower()
+    if t in {'true', '1', 'ok', 'yes', 'y'}:
+        return True
+    elif t in {'false', '0', 'no', 'n'}:
+        return False
+    else:
+        raise ValueError("Can't convert value '%s' to bool" % s)