{"id":66862,"date":"2026-11-10T19:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T19:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/convert-pdf-to-black-and-white-1-bit\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T08:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T08:52:28","slug":"convert-pdf-to-black-and-white-1-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/convert-pdf-to-black-and-white-1-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"Convert PDF to black and white: now with true 1-bit black and white"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Grayscale is fine, but sometimes it really has to be black and white: for faxing, for the laser printer, for archives and for upload portals with a tight size limit. <a href=\"https:\/\/tools.pdf24.org\/en\/convert-pdf-to-grayscale\">Convert PDF to grayscale<\/a> can now do more: under \u201cColor depth\u201d you choose between \u201cGrayscale (8 Bit)\u201d and \u201cBlack\/White (1 Bit)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"509\" src=\"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-colour-depth-en.png\" alt=\"The colour depth option in the PDF to grayscale tool\" class=\"wp-image-66860\" srcset=\"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-colour-depth-en.png 960w, https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-colour-depth-en-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-colour-depth-en-768x407.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What true black and white gives you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Much smaller files:<\/strong> every pixel is either black or white. Scans in particular often shrink to a fraction of their size.<\/li>\n\n\n<li><strong>Crisp text:<\/strong> text and lines become solid black, even if they were coloured or light grey before. White text on a dark background stays white and readable.<\/li>\n\n\n<li><strong>Photos and charts stay recognisable:<\/strong> photos are rendered as a fine dot pattern, like in a newspaper. Coloured areas get patterns of different density, so you can still tell the bars of a chart apart without colour. Colour gradients, for example in a header, fade from dark to light in steps instead of breaking off at a hard edge.<\/li>\n\n\n<li><strong>Made for fax and archives:<\/strong> fax machines only work in black and white anyway. With a 1-bit PDF you see in advance what will arrive at the other end.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1244\" height=\"634\" src=\"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-comparison-en.png\" alt=\"Comparison: colour original, grayscale and black and white\" class=\"wp-image-66861\" srcset=\"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-comparison-en.png 1244w, https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-comparison-en-300x153.png 300w, https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-comparison-en-1024x522.png 1024w, https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/11\/online-2026-11-3-comparison-en-768x391.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1244px) 100vw, 1244px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The same page as the original, in grayscale and in black and white (1 bit), each with its file size<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In our example, a three-page flyer with a photo and a chart, the file shrinks from 1.23 MB in colour to 984 KB in grayscale and to just 334 KB in black and white, a little over a quarter. Text and chart stay perfectly readable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How it works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Open <a href=\"https:\/\/tools.pdf24.org\/en\/convert-pdf-to-grayscale\">Convert PDF to grayscale<\/a> and drop your PDF file.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Under \u201cColor depth\u201d, choose \u201cBlack\/White (1 Bit)\u201d. PDF24 remembers your choice for next time.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Click \u201cConvert\u201d and download the result.<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As always free and without sign-up, and your files are deleted from our servers automatically after one hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grayscale is fine, but sometimes it really has to be black and white: for faxing, for the laser printer, for archives and for upload portals with a tight size limit. Convert PDF to grayscale can now do more: under \u201cColor depth\u201d you choose between \u201cGrayscale (8 Bit)\u201d and \u201cBlack\/White (1 Bit)\u201d. What true black and ... <a title=\"Convert PDF to black and white: now with true 1-bit black and white\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/convert-pdf-to-black-and-white-1-bit\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Convert PDF to black and white: now with true 1-bit black and white\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67331,"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66862\/revisions\/67331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/help.pdf24.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}