Convert a PDF to grayscale: text, shapes and pictures turned grey on your device
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Updated on 24 Oct 2026.Grayscale PDF rewrites every colour in a PDF to the matching shade of grey on your own device. Coloured text, lines, fills, gradients, photos and comments are converted with the PDF standard's own formula, so the file prints the same on any printer. Text stays selectable. Up to 20 files of 100 MB each; nothing is uploaded.
Press Select PDF files, or drop one or more PDFs onto the page.
Read the line under the files: text, shapes, gradients and pictures are all turned grey.
Press Convert to grayscale; each file shows its progress and what was converted.
Press Download; several files come as one zip. Nothing is uploaded.
Grayscale PDF turns a colour PDF into one that uses only shades of grey, ready for a black-and-white printer, a print shop that charges extra for colour, or an archive that asks for greyscale files.
Every colour command inside each page is changed to grey: coloured text, lines and fills, CMYK colours, spot colours with a simple ink definition, and two-colour gradients. Photos and other pictures are converted pixel by pixel, and comments, form-field colours and stamps are converted too, so nothing on the page keeps its colour.
Grey is worked out with the formula the PDF standard itself gives: 30 per cent red, 59 per cent green and 11 per cent blue. A JPEG photo is saved again as a one-channel JPEG, so the file usually gets smaller rather than larger.
Mesh gradients, spot colours defined by a small program, and JPEG 2000 or CMYK JPEG pictures carry their colour in a form a browser cannot safely rewrite. On a page with any of these, a grey layer is laid over the page, so it still looks and prints grey, and the result line says how many pages needed it.
The original colour data of those items remains inside the file, underneath the grey layer.
Yes. Everything runs in your browser, in a background worker that keeps the page responsive, and the PDF is never uploaded. Password-protected files ask for their password first, and the converted copy is saved without one, so add it again with Protect PDF if you need it.
Need a smaller file afterwards? Use Compress PDF. To lock form answers before sending, use Flatten PDF.
Drop the PDF on this page or press Select PDF files, then press Convert to grayscale and download the result. Every colour in the text, drawings, gradients and pictures is rewritten to a shade of grey on your device. Several PDFs can be converted at once and come back as one zip file.
Yes. The tool changes only the colour commands inside each page, not the text itself, so words stay as real text that can be selected, searched and copied. Fonts, positions and links are left exactly as they were; only the colours become grey.
Usually a little. Colour photos are saved again with one grey channel instead of three, so pages with pictures often shrink by a third or more. A PDF of plain text barely changes in size. For a much smaller file, run the result through Compress PDF afterwards.
Some colours are stored in a form a browser cannot rewrite safely, such as mesh gradients, spot colours defined by a program, or JPEG 2000 pictures. On those pages a grey blend layer is placed over the page, so it looks and prints grey, while the original colour data stays inside the file.
No. The conversion runs in your browser, in a background worker on your own device. The PDF is never sent anywhere, which is why private documents such as statements or contracts are safe to convert here, and it also works without a connection once the page has loaded.
Up to 20 PDFs at a time, each up to 100 MB and 2,000 pages. Very large pictures, over 60 megapixels, are left in colour and their page gets the grey layer instead, so the browser does not run out of memory. Password-protected PDFs ask for their password first.
Still stuck? Ask about Grayscale PDF and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
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