Choose a colour PDF and download a black-and-white copy. Vector mode changes only the colours and keeps the document intact; Image mode re-renders every page as a picture (print-style, but text is lost and the file usually grows). Nothing is uploaded, and your original file is never changed.
Make a true black-and-white copy of a colour PDF — for cheaper printing and clean, fax-style documents.
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Convert a colour PDF to a true black-and-white (grayscale) copy in your browser: cheaper to print, cleaner to fax or archive. The default Vector mode recolours the document itself, so text stays live and the file stays lean; an Image mode is there when you need a print-style copy.
A 20-page colour brochure costs a fortune in colour toner for an internal review. The grayscale copy prints on the cheap black cartridge, the charts still read perfectly in shades of grey, the text stays searchable for the archive, and the colour original stays untouched for the client version.
Vector mode edits the document’s own drawing instructions in your browser: every colour used by text, fills, lines and shadings is replaced by the grey of equal luminance — the standard 0.299 red, 0.587 green, 0.114 blue weighting your eyes use — and embedded photos are converted to grayscale in place. Text, fonts and vector shapes are not touched, so the result stays selectable and searchable and usually close to the original size. Image mode instead renders each page and rebuilds its colours pixel by pixel.
It is — in the default Vector mode. Text only stops being selectable in Image mode, where each page is re-rendered as a picture. If your copy lost its text, check which mode was selected.
Vector mode converts every colour it can rewrite, and tells you if an embedded image had to be left in colour. Image mode converts every pixel unconditionally. Printers and their drivers sometimes add colour back; set the printer itself to monochrome too, for belt and braces.
Vector for almost everything: archives, searchable copies, lean files. Image when you need the document flattened into pictures (a print-shop style copy), or if a stubborn file’s colours survive Vector mode.
In Vector mode, often slightly smaller — never the 5–10× growth re-rendered pages can cause; the done message reports both sizes so you can see for yourself. In Image mode the file usually grows. When file size is the goal, use Compress PDF; grayscale is about colour, not size.
No — conversion happens entirely in your browser.
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