Grayscale PDF
Upload a color PDF and get a grayscale version. The tool renders each page at high resolution using pdfjs-dist, applies a luminance-based grayscale conversion to every pixel, then rebuilds the PDF using pdf-lib with the grayscale page images.
The grayscale conversion uses the standard luminance formula (0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B) to produce natural-looking grayscale that preserves perceived brightness differences. Because the output is rasterized, the file size may differ from the original — it depends on the complexity of the original page content versus the JPEG compression of the rendered output.
Useful for preparing documents for black-and-white printing, reducing ink usage, or creating versions of presentations that work without color. Everything runs in your browser.
By The Paper Room Editorial Team — PDF Tools
Frequently asked questions
Does this preserve text selectability?▼
No. The grayscale conversion rasterizes each page — the output PDF contains images of the pages rather than selectable text. If you need selectable text, you would need to run OCR on the output.
Will the file size increase or decrease?▼
It depends on the original. Simple text-heavy PDFs may produce larger files because the rasterized images take more space than vector text. Image-heavy PDFs may produce smaller files if the JPEG compression is more efficient than the original image encoding.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?▼
No. Both the rendering and the grayscale conversion happen entirely in your browser. Your file never leaves your device.