Printing a colourful report in black and white often looks muddy because the printer guesses. Grayscale mode converts every colour in the document itself – text, lines, shapes, gradients, annotations and images – so text stays real, selectable text. Black & white mode produces crisp 1-bit pages, which many submission portals ask for.
How to convert PDF to grayscale or black & white
- Add your colour PDFs.
- Choose grayscale or pure black and white.
- Convert and download.
Good to know
- Grayscale uses perceptual brightness (the same weighting as TV and photo standards), so light and dark colours stay distinguishable.
- Black & white mode renders each page, so text stops being selectable – run OCR PDF afterwards if you need searchable text.
- Rare image formats and complex gradient types that cannot be converted safely are left untouched, and the result tells you if that happened.
Frequently asked questions
Will text remain selectable?
Yes in grayscale mode. In black & white mode pages become images.
Does grayscale reduce file size?
Often, because grayscale images need one colour channel instead of three.
What is the difference between grayscale and black and white?
Grayscale keeps shades of grey; black and white uses only pure black and pure white pixels, which suits text documents and fax-style submissions.