Convert an image to black and white.
Drop an image here
or click to choose one. It never leaves your device.
Before and after
ColourBlack and whiteDrag the handle across the image. The right-hand side is this tool's output, not a mock-up of it.
Three steps
Drop in any colour photo or graphic.
Apply it fully in one click, or dial back the amount for a partly desaturated look.
The result is a proper luminance-weighted monochrome, not a flat channel average.
Why this one
Green contributes far more to perceived brightness than blue, so a weighted conversion keeps tonal separation that a naive average flattens.
A partly desaturated image is a distinct and useful look, and it needs a dial rather than a switch.
A grid of photos taken in different light stops fighting each other the moment colour is removed.
The short version
Removing colour is a design decision rather than a correction, and its most practical use is consistency: a set of photographs shot in different light and different seasons stops looking like a set the moment colour is involved, and starts looking like one the moment it is not. Doing it with proper luminance weighting is what keeps the result from going muddy.
Questions
A proper grayscale conversion weights the red, green and blue channels by how much each contributes to perceived brightness. Averaging them equally makes reds too light and greens too dark.
Somewhat, since there is less colour information to store, though the saving is smaller than most people expect because brightness detail dominates the file.
No. The conversion discards the colour data. Keep the original file if there is any chance you will want it.
When colour is inconsistent across a set, when it distracts from form and texture, or when the image needs to sit quietly behind something else, like text.
Free, and staying free
Thridy is a library of thousands of 3D icons in one consistent style, free for commercial use with no attribution and no account. The tools exist so you never have to upload an image to somebody else's server to resize it.
Keep going
Apply a smooth Gaussian blur by any amount.
Pixelate an image or hide part of it in blocks.
Bring out edges and detail with a sharpen pass.
Brighten or darken an image.
Increase or soften the contrast of an image.
Make colours richer or more muted.