diff --git a/src/cmap/_colormap.py b/src/cmap/_colormap.py
index 97a0272e4..03e12bf20 100644
--- a/src/cmap/_colormap.py
+++ b/src/cmap/_colormap.py
@@ -442,7 +442,12 @@ def __call__(
         xa[mask_bad] = N + 2
 
         rgba = lut.take(xa, axis=0, mode="clip")
-        return rgba if np.iterable(x) else Color(rgba)
+        if np.iterable(x):
+            return rgba
+        if bytes:
+            # Normalize uint8 RGBA back to [0,1] float for Color constructor
+            return Color(rgba / 255)
+        return Color(rgba)
 
     def with_extremes(
         self,