How to Convert a PDF to Black and White for Printing

To convert a PDF to black and white, open the Grayscale PDF tool, choose your file, pick shades of grey or pure black and white, tap Make it black and white and download the new PDF. Every page you convert is drawn, turned grey and saved as a picture.

That last part has a cost: the text on converted pages can no longer be selected or searched. This guide explains when the trade is worth it, how to choose the settings, and what to do if you need the words back.

What you need

• The PDF on your phone or computer
• To know where it will be printed or sent: a home printer, a print shop, or an office with a black and white photocopier
• About a minute, a little longer for a long PDF

Steps to make a PDF black and white

1. Open the Grayscale PDF tool, tap the box and choose your PDF. The file stays on your device.
2. Under Which pages?, keep All pages, or choose Only some pages and type them, such as 1-3, 5. The pages you leave out are copied as they were.
3. Under Style, choose Shades of grey for pages with photos or stamps, or Pure black and white for pages that are only text.
4. Under Sharpness, keep Standard (150 DPI) for most prints. Choose Print quality (300 DPI) for fine print or detailed drawings, and Small file when the size matters most.
5. Tap Make it black and white. The tool draws the pages one after another and shows a progress bar.
6. Download the new PDF. The page shows the size before and after, so you can see what changed.
7. Open the new file and check a page. If thin lines or pale text have gone, go back, move Darkness to the right and convert again.

Shades of grey or pure black and white?

• Shades of grey turns every colour into a grey tone of the same brightness. Photos stay readable, and coloured stamps and highlights become grey instead of vanishing. Use it for forms with logos, reports with charts, or anything with pictures.
• Pure black and white uses only two values: black ink and white paper, like a photocopy. Text comes out sharp and the file is small. Photos and shaded areas become patterns of dots, and light colours may turn white.

If you are not sure, convert a page in Shades of grey first. Switch to pure black and white only for pages that are all text.

Why the pages become pictures

A PDF can hold text, shapes, fonts and photos, each with its own colour settings. Changing every one of them reliably is very hard, and a mistake can leave colour behind or change how the page looks. Drawing the page and turning every pixel grey always gives you what you see on the screen.

The trade-offs are:

• Text is no longer selectable. You cannot copy it, search it or have a screen reader read it. Keep the original PDF for that.
• Links, bookmarks and form fields are not kept.
• The file may get larger. Pictures can be bigger than text. Pure black and white is usually the smallest, and a lower sharpness also helps.

Pages you leave out are copied unchanged, so they keep their text.

Do you need a file, or only grey on paper?

If you only want a grey print, you may not need to change the PDF at all. Most print dialogs have a print in grayscale or black and white setting. It keeps the text as text and leaves the file unchanged. Use this tool when you need a black and white PDF file, for example to send to a print shop, to upload somewhere, or to print on a device without that setting.

If you need the words back

If the converted file has to be searchable, there are two ways. Keep and use the original PDF for anything that needs the text. Or read the words from the converted pictures with Image to Text, which can read the text from a picture of a page. Our guide on extracting text from a scanned PDF goes through the steps.

If the new file is too big

Try these in order:

1. Convert again with Small file or Standard sharpness.
2. For pages that are only text, choose Pure black and white.
3. Run the result through Compress PDF. Our guide on reducing PDF size without losing quality shows how.

Common problems

Thin lines or pale text have disappeared. In Pure black and white, move Darkness to the right. Or use Shades of grey instead.

Shaded areas turned solid black. Move Darkness to the left, or use Shades of grey.

The text looks soft. Choose Sharp (200 DPI) or Print quality (300 DPI). The file gets larger.

The PDF will not open. A password-protected PDF cannot be read in the browser. If you know the password, remove it first with Unlock PDF.

It is slow or stops. A long PDF at a high sharpness needs a lot of memory. Convert fewer pages at a time with the Only some pages option, or choose Standard.

Frequently asked questions

Does the text stay selectable after converting?

No. The converted pages are pictures. Pages you left out keep their text. If you need the words, use the original or read them with Image to Text.

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The pages are drawn and converted inside your browser, on your device. The PDF never goes to our servers or anyone else.

Will a print shop count the pages as black and white?

The converted pages contain no colour, only grey or black and white. How a shop prices them is its own rule, so ask before you order.

Can I convert just one page?

Yes. Choose Only some pages and type the page number. The other pages are copied unchanged.

Why is the new file bigger?

Pages that were text and shapes are now pictures, and pictures can take more space. Choose a lower sharpness, use Pure black and white for text pages, or compress the result.