Photo Filters: Black & White, Sepia & More
Black and white, sepia, brightness, contrast, saturation and blur, with live preview.
Drop images to edit
or select to choose from your device
Files are processed on this device. Nothing is uploaded.
How to use Photo Filters: Black & White, Sepia & More
- Add one or more pictures.
- Pick a filter and move the sliders; the preview updates as you go.
- Select Apply to all and download.
How it works
Black and white converts each pixel to its luma, the perceived brightness: 0.299 × red + 0.587 × green + 0.114 × blue (the ITU-R BT.601 weights), which keeps skin and sky looking natural instead of flat. Sepia uses the standard matrix from the W3C filter-effects specification. Invert replaces each channel with 255 minus its value, giving a photographic negative.
Brightness adds or removes light evenly. Contrast stretches values away from, or towards, mid-grey. Saturation moves each colour away from, or towards, its own grey value: −100 gives another route to black and white. Blur is a three-pass box blur, a close approximation of a Gaussian blur, and its strength is in pixels of the full-size picture.
The work is done by your browser on your device. Your pictures are not uploaded, so there is no queue, no size limit set by us and no copy kept anywhere. Pictures are processed at their full resolution; the preview is a reduced copy. The arithmetic is done on the pixels directly, so results are identical in every browser.
Example
A colour portrait → Black and white with contrast +15 gives a classic monochrome look; the file keeps its size and format.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a picture black and white?
Add it, leave the filter on "Black and white" and select Apply. Raise contrast a little (10–20) for a stronger look.
Is "black and white" the same as grayscale?
Here, yes: the result has shades of grey. Pure two-tone black and white (no greys) is a different effect, called threshold, which this tool does not apply.
Can I edit several photos with the same settings?
Yes. All added pictures get the same settings and can be downloaded as a ZIP.
Does it lower the quality?
Pictures keep their full resolution. JPG and WebP are re-saved at 92% quality; choose PNG for no re-compression.
Can it colourise an old black-and-white photo?
No. Adding realistic colour needs an AI model; this tool removes or adjusts colour.
Limitations
- Adjustments apply to the whole picture, not to selected areas.
- No AI colourisation, and no threshold (two-tone) effect.
- Animated GIFs are saved as a single frame.
Last reviewed November 9, 2026. How we build and test tools.