This paper examines hand-colored lithographed Shahnama books in nineteenth-century Iran to provide new perspectives on the relationships between manuscript and printed book productions in Qajar Iran (1789-1925). This study introduces a group of visual materials gathered from various museum collections and auction catalogues, along with a focused analysis of a unique hand-colored lithographed copy from the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI, Ms 14002-6). I will first offer an outline describing the practice of hand-coloring lithographed materials in nineteenth-century Iran. This brief introduction contextualizes the hand-coloring practice within the tradition of Iran’s manuscript painting production and compares it to similar examples outside of Iran and to other mediums, such as hand-colored photographs. I will then analyze the NLAI copy, through which I will describe how the act of hand-coloring—a complex process of artistic negotiation—brought the mediums of manuscript paintings and lithograph illustrations into direct conversation, quite literally existing on the same page. By considering other manual embellishments, marginalia, artists’ potential entrepreneurial motivations, and lithographed books as transregional commodities connecting Iran and India, this paper contributes to discussions on creative and flexible artistic responses to the introduction of lithography. This focused study of hand-colored lithographed books aims to portray a more engaged relationship between traditional manuscript and emerging printed book industries. So far, scholars have identified various ways in which lithographed books have closely followed manuscript formats—illumination designs, illustrations, and colophon layouts—while incorporating new elements like title and index pages. In these discussions, manuscripts are largely depicted as a passive and unchanging medium. Yet, illustrated manuscripts continued to be produced well into the nineteenth century and artists most likely moved freely between manuscript and lithographed book projects. In this paper, I thus aim to complicate our current understanding by highlighting the shared, ongoing dialogues between contemporaneous manuscript paintings and lithographed illustrations. This paper represents a part of my dissertation project, a systematic study on illustrated Shahnama manuscripts in nineteenth-century Iran.