Grayscale converts a full-color PDF to black-and-white — commonly used to cut printing costs, meet a submission requirement, or prep a document for an older black-and-white display.
Reports, slides, scans or forms you want to print in black and white.
Smooth grayscale keeps photos and charts readable; 1-bit black-and-white is smallest for text.
Check charts that rely on color before saving. The file is often smaller too.
Charts that rely on color (such as a red and a green line) can become hard to tell apart. Check the preview.
| You want to… | Use this tool |
|---|---|
| Smooth grayscale | 256 shades of grey |
| Black-and-white (1-bit) | Black and white only |
Offices convert color reports to grayscale before mass-printing to save on expensive color toner.
Users convert color PDFs to grayscale to cut file size by 30-60% for email attachment limits.
Libraries convert color scans to grayscale for consistent monochrome archival matching legacy black-and-white collections.
Often yes, since color image data is reduced, though it's a side effect rather than the main purpose — use Compress for guaranteed size reduction.
Typical reduction: 30-60% smaller than the color original. Image-heavy PDFs shrink the most; text-only PDFs shrink less since text was already monochrome.
Layout, fonts, and structure stay identical. Colors are converted to luminance-equivalent gray shades that preserve contrast and detail.
Grayscale uses 256 shades of gray (smooth gradients). Black-and-white is 1-bit (pure black or pure white pixels) — smaller file, harsher contrast, best for text-only documents.
No. Grayscale conversion is destructive — color information is permanently lost. Keep the original color PDF as backup before converting.
Yes. Text remains as vector data, fully searchable and selectable. Only embedded images convert to grayscale.
Unlock first with our Unlock PDF tool. Encrypted PDFs cannot be converted to grayscale directly.
Yes — 30 conversions per day for guests, more on free accounts. No watermark on output.
2-10 seconds for most files. Larger PDFs (200+ pages with images) may take 30-60 seconds.
