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Apply Black and White, Sepia and Vintage Effects

Make photos black and white, sepia or vivid and fine-tune brightness and contrast.

Apply Black and White, Sepia and Vintage Effects

Make photos black and white, sepia or vivid and fine-tune brightness and contrast.

Why use PDFWix to filter PDFs

• Batch in one pass: Give a whole album, product range or social grid the same look in one click.
• Same result everywhere: Pixel-level processing means the output is identical on iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows.
• No app to install: Works in the browser — no account, no subscription, no watermark.
• Private: Personal photos stay on your device; nothing is uploaded.

Common uses for filtering PDFs

• Making black-and-white portraits and headshots
• Giving old scanned family photos a warm sepia tone
• Brightening dark indoor or evening photos
• Matching the look of product photos for a shop
• Preparing black-and-white images for print or newsletters

How to Add Filters to Your Pictures

1. Add your images — Drag in JPG, PNG or WebP photos — a whole batch works.
2. Pick a preset — Black & white, High-contrast B&W, Sepia, Vivid, Warm, Cool or Brighten.
3. Fine-tune — Adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and warmth with the sliders.
4. Apply and download — Click Apply filter. Files keep their original format and size.

Tips for photo filters

• Add contrast to B&W — Black and white photos often look flat — try High-contrast B&W or add +15 to +30 contrast.
• Brighten before sharpening — Lift dark photos with Brightness rather than Contrast, which can crush shadows.
• Keep a copy — Your original is never changed, but keep it if you might want the colour version later.
• Hide faces too — Posting publicly? [Blur Image](/blur-image) hides faces and plates before you share.

Which filter to use

Quick guide to the PDFWix photo filter presets.

Related tools

• Blur Image
• Compress Image
• Grayscale PDF
• Watermark Image
• Flip & Mirror Image

Quick answer

To make a photo black and white free: open PDFWix Photo Filters, add your images, click the Black & white preset (or High-contrast B&W), and click Apply filter. You can also adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and warmth before saving.

How PDFWix Photo Filters works

PDFWix Photo Filters adjusts every pixel directly in JavaScript rather than relying on CSS canvas filters, so results are identical in Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Black and white uses the ITU-R BT.601 luminance weights (0.299 red, 0.587 green, 0.114 blue), which match how the eye perceives brightness; sepia uses the standard Microsoft sepia matrix. Images are processed in horizontal strips to keep memory low and are never uploaded.

How a good black-and-white conversion works

The quick way to remove colour is to average red, green and blue equally, but that makes skies and greenery look muddy because the eye is far more sensitive to green than to blue. A proper grayscale conversion weights the channels by perceived brightness — roughly 30% red, 59% green and 11% blue — so a bright yellow flower stays bright and a deep blue sky stays dark, the way classic black-and-white film rendered them. Contrast is the other half. Colour photos rely on hue differences to separate subjects; once colour is gone, tones can blend together. That is why the High-contrast B&W preset adds contrast, and why the Contrast slider stays available with black and white. Brightness lifts shadows in dark indoor shots, saturation makes colours richer or more muted, and warmth shifts the balance towards golden or blue.

At a glance

Presets: 7 one-click looks · Adjustments: 4 fine-tune sliders · Processing: 100% in your browser

The bottom line

Converting a document rather than a photo? Grayscale PDF turns a colour PDF black and white for cheaper printing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add a vintage filter to a photo online?

Open PDFWix Photo Filters, add the photo, choose the Vintage or Sepia preset, adjust the strength and click Apply filter. It is free and runs in your browser.

How do I make a picture black and white online?

Open PDFWix Photo Filters, add the picture, click the Black & white preset and then Apply filter. It is free and runs in your browser.

What is the difference between grayscale and black and white?

In everyday use they mean the same thing: an image made of shades of grey. True 1-bit black and white has only pure black and white pixels, which is rarely what people want for photos.

Can I adjust brightness and contrast of an image?

Yes. Use the Brightness and Contrast sliders, from −60 to +60, with or without a preset.

Does filtering reduce quality?

No visible loss. JPG and WebP are saved at 92% quality and PNG is lossless.

Can I filter many photos at once?

Yes. Add as many as you like; the same filter is applied to every image.

Are my photos uploaded?

No. Every pixel is processed inside your browser tab.

After filtering, shrink the files with Compress Image or add your name with Watermark Image.