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Text stays text
Colors are changed where the PDF defines them, so text stays sharp, selectable and searchable instead of becoming an image.
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PDF to Black and White
Convert a PDF to grayscale and keep the text sharp. Turn a color PDF into shades of gray, or make scanned pages pure black and white. Text and drawings stay vector, so they stay sharp and selectable.
Never uploaded Grayscale or black and white No signup
Choose the PDF to convert
It is converted in your browser and never uploaded.
Select PDF files
or drop PDF files here
Single file · Max 256 MB
Core processing stays in this browser after the page loads. Large files use device memory and may run slower.
PDF to black and white / no color
Remove the color from a PDF without turning its text into a blurry picture.
Quick answer
How do I convert a PDF to black and white?
Add your PDF, choose Grayscale or Black and white, then download the converted copy. Text, drawings and images lose their color, but text stays sharp and selectable because it is not turned into a picture. Black and white also turns scanned pages and photos into pure black and white, which suits scanned text and usually makes the file smaller. It runs in your browser, so the file is not uploaded.
Privacy by default
The conversion runs locally in this browser tab. Your PDF stays on your device while a black and white copy is created.
The black and white workflow
How to convert a PDF to black and white
Choose grayscale or black and white, download
- 01
Add your PDF
Choose the color PDF you want to convert.
- 02
Choose grayscale or black and white
Grayscale for most documents; black and white for scanned text.
- 03
Download the converted copy
Save the new file; your original stays unchanged.
Why convert this way
Color out, quality kept
Grayscale or pure black and white
02
Grayscale or black and white
Keep smooth shades of gray, or make scanned pages and photos pure black and white.
03
Images, gradients and forms too
Photos, gradients, patterns, form fields and comments lose their color along with the text.
04
Smaller scans
Pure black and white images need far less data than color ones, so scanned documents usually shrink.
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Works locally after the page loads
The PDF is converted in your browser tab and never sent to a server.
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No account required
Open the tool and use it without registration or a subscription.
Grayscale, printing and file size
PDF to black and white FAQs
Grayscale, printing and file size
How do I convert a PDF to black and white?
Add the PDF, choose Grayscale or Black and white, and download the converted copy. Everything happens in your browser.
What is the difference between grayscale and black and white?
Grayscale turns every color into a shade of gray, which keeps photos and charts readable. Black and white also turns scanned pages and photos into pure black and white, which looks crisp for scanned text and makes the file smaller, but photos lose detail. Text and drawings become gray in both.
Will the text stay selectable?
Yes. Text is not turned into an image; only its color changes, so you can still select, search and copy it.
Will printing it save color ink?
The converted file has no color to print, so it prints in gray on any printer. Some color printers still mix gray from color inks; to avoid that, also choose grayscale or black ink only in the print settings.
Does it make the PDF smaller?
Often. Gray images hold a third of the data of color ones, and black and white scans shrink the most. A PDF that is mostly text changes little.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The file is converted in your browser tab and never leaves your device.
Learn before you process
PDF guides for this workflow
Get the answer, understand the trade-offs, then use the focused tool when you are ready.
How to compress a PDF online
Reduce PDF size for email and uploads without losing quality: the three compression levels, readability checks and size-limit fallbacks.
Read the compression guide
Best private PDF tools: browser-local vs cloud
A neutral guide to choosing a PDF tool when privacy matters: the questions to ask, a five-minute test you can run yourself, and which kind of tool fits which document.
Read the privacy guide
Comparing PDF tools? FreePDFKit vs iLovePDF · FreePDFKit vs Smallpdf · Browser-local PDF processing vs cloud upload
Related PDF tools
Verify it yourself
Your file is not uploaded. Here is how to check.
The core tools run inside your browser tab, so a document you open here is not sent to FreePDFKit or to anyone else. You can confirm that in about a minute.
- Step 1
Open the tool and let it load
Wait until the page has finished loading.
- Step 2
Open your browser’s developer tools
Press F12 (or Cmd+Option+I on a Mac) and switch to the Network tab.
- Step 3
Run the tool on a test file
Choose a non-sensitive file of the type the tool accepts and process it as usual.
- Step 4
Look for a request that carries the file
You will not find one. The page loads its own scripts, then the work happens in your browser.
What backs this up
- Open-source libraries in the page. PDF handling uses libraries such as pdf-lib and Mozilla’s PDF.js, which run in your browser.
- No PDF endpoint on the server. The only server routes are the contact form and the social-preview image generator.
- A restrictive security policy. The site’s Content-Security-Policy limits the fetch and XHR connections page scripts can make to our own origin and Cloudflare’s anti-spam check, plus Google Analytics, which receives page views only.
Step-by-step checks, including an offline test, in how to check if a PDF tool uploads your file. More detail in the privacy policy and how this compares with other no-upload options.