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Grayscale image, without the upload.

Take the colour out of a picture and keep the light and dark, in a JPG, PNG or WebP. Photos, scans and screenshots stay on your device.

  • Free, no sign-up
  • Transparency kept
  • Colour-free in one step

Drop a picture to make grey

or choose from your computer paste with Ctrl V

Ready · JPG, PNG and WebP · several at once0 bytes uploaded, ever

How to make an image grayscale

  1. Add your pictures

    Drop them above or choose them. There is nothing to set.

  2. Make them grey

    Press Grayscale image. A picture that is already grey comes back unchanged.

  3. Save and download

    Save each picture, or all of them as one .zip.

What stays and what doesn't

A grey picture is written again in the format it came in. These are the things that do not come along to it:

  • camera and capture details such as make, model and date taken
  • the GPS location
  • titles, authors, keywords and comments
  • the small preview stored inside the file
  • content credentials and edit history (C2PA)
  • the embedded colour profile (colours are changed to sRGB first; very saturated colours can look slightly flatter)
  • the stored print resolution
  • other data stored in or after the picture, such as a motion-photo clip, program-specific blocks or a modification time

A JPEG or WebP saved again loses a little detail.

When it won't run

Two things stop a run before it writes anything, and each is said on the file's row. A file that cannot be read is reported as damaged, and a picture too large for this device says so, with the limit. In both cases nothing is changed and your original stays as it was. A file in a format the page does not take, such as a GIF, gets a sentence instead of a row.

  • The picture is an animation. This tool would keep only the first frame, so it leaves the file alone.
  • The picture stores its colours as CMYK. This tool can't change it without altering the colours.
  • The picture stores 16 bits per colour. This tool works in 8 bits and would flatten it, so it leaves the file alone.
  • The picture is already grey.

Making a picture grayscale: what to expect

Each pixel gets a grey value worked out from its colour the way JPEG itself weighs the three colours: green counts the most, red next and blue the least. The result keeps the brightness of the scene and none of its hue. Transparency is left alone, so a see-through area of a PNG or a WebP stays see-through.

A standard JPEG is made grey without decoding it: its colour data is dropped and its brightness data is copied, so the picture is not compressed again, and the file usually gets noticeably smaller. A JPEG built another way, a PNG and a WebP are decoded, made grey and written again; a PNG keeps three equal channels, so it may not get much smaller.

A colour profile describes colour, and a grey JPEG has none to describe, so the profile is dropped and the row says so. A picture that is already grey comes back unchanged with a sentence saying so. A JPEG in the CMYK print layout is refused, because its colours cannot be changed safely here.

The pixel limits are those of any tool that has to decode: a JPEG or WebP of up to 40 megapixels and a PNG of up to 50 on a computer, and 16 megapixels of any format on a phone. A standard JPEG that is made grey without decoding may be larger than that.

Questions

Are my pictures uploaded?

No. Your pictures are processed inside your browser, on your own phone or computer, and saved straight from this page. The reading at the top of the page counts every byte sent, and it stays at 0 B.

Is grayscale the same as black and white?

On this page, yes in the everyday sense: a picture with greys from black to white and no colour. It is not a two-tone black and white picture with only black and white pixels.

Will the file get smaller?

A JPEG usually does, because the colour data is dropped. A PNG or a WebP may change very little, since the pixels are still stored in three channels.

What happens to a see-through background when the colour goes?

It stays see-through. A logo on a clear background keeps its clear background, and only the visible pixels lose their hue. The result of a PNG or a WebP lines up with the original at every edge, so a grey logo can go on the same page as the coloured one.

What if the picture is already grey?

It comes back unchanged under its own name, and the row says it is already grey.

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