Convert a PDF to black and white

• Printing costs. Color toner and ink cost more; a grayscale file makes sure the printer uses black only.
• Submission rules. Some courts, agencies and schools ask for black-and-white documents.
• Readability of copies. Colored backgrounds and highlights can turn into muddy gray when photocopied; converting first shows you what the copy will look like.
• Scanned documents. Color scans of plain paperwork are large; grayscale versions are usually smaller.
• Neutral review copies of designs or photos where color would distract.

Each page is rendered as an image at the resolution you choose, every pixel is converted to gray using the standard luminance weights (0.299 red, 0.587 green, 0.114 blue, the same formula used for TV and video), and the page is saved back as a JPEG image in a new PDF. Page sizes are kept.

Because the pages become images, text in the result is not selectable or searchable, and links and form fields are not kept. If you need searchable text afterward, run the result through OCR PDF.

The first page is processed while the rest wait, and you see progress as Page 3 of 30…, so you always know how far the conversion has got on long files.

Black and white in everyday speech usually means grayscale: shades of gray between black and white, which keeps photos and charts readable. That is what this tool produces. Pure 1-bit black and white (only black or white pixels, like a fax) is smaller still but loses photos and light text. If you are scanning paper documents and want that crisp, high-contrast look, Scan to PDF has a black-and-white filter designed for text.

The conversion runs in your browser, so the PDF is never uploaded. Long documents at 300 DPI take longer and use more memory; if your device struggles, choose 150 DPI.

You need to print a 30-page color slide deck as handouts on an office printer that charges extra for color pages. Open the PDF here, choose 150 DPI, and click Convert to grayscale. Check a few pages in the preview of your PDF reader: dark text on light backgrounds stays crisp, and charts remain readable as shades of gray. Print the grayscale file and every page counts as black-and-white.

• Multiple pages per sheet prints 2, 4 or more pages on one sheet.
• Compress PDF has a Strong mode with a grayscale option for the smallest files.
• Delete PDF pages removes pages you do not need to print.

Before you convert

• Keep the original. Converting is one-way: color cannot be restored from a grayscale PDF, so keep your color file.
• Check colored text. Light colors such as yellow or light green become very pale gray. If important text uses them, preview a page first.
• Mind the file size. A PDF made of text and vector graphics can become larger after conversion, because pages are stored as images. For text documents, setting your printer to grayscale may be the simpler choice.