Sepia Filter
Turn photos into warm, brown-toned vintage images. Add one or more pictures, pick one of 8 presets or set the intensity and red/green/blue tone yourself, compare before and after, then download each image or all of them as a ZIP. Everything runs in your browser, so your photos are never uploaded.
Drop images here or click to upload
JPG, PNG and WebP keep their format; GIF, BMP, SVG and other images are saved as PNG. No limit on the number of images.
Privacy First
All sepia processing is done in your browser. Your images never leave your device, ensuring complete privacy and security.
Sepia filter online: make a photo sepia, free and private
To make a photo sepia for free, drop the image on the upload area or click Select Images, choose one of the eight Vintage Presets, adjust the Sepia Intensity slider and click Download Sepia Image. The default, Classic Sepia at 100% intensity, turns the whole picture into a warm brown monochrome. Lower the intensity and some of the original colour comes back for a gentler retro tint.
Sepia is a brown monochrome tone that makes a photograph look aged. This filter runs in your browser: the photo is filtered on an HTML canvas on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, and you can check the Network tab in DevTools to see that no request carries your image.
JPG, PNG and WebP keep their format, and every file gets a "_sepia" suffix, so your original is never overwritten. For neutral grey instead of brown, use the grayscale converter; to make colour stronger or quieter, use the saturation adjuster. For darkened edges, add the vignette effect tool afterwards.
Table of Use: which sepia setting for which job
These are the real values behind each preset, so you can recreate a look by hand with the Red, Green and Blue Adjustment sliders.
| What you want | Start with | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| The classic old-print look | Classic Sepia: 100%, no tone shift | Fully brown monochrome |
| A gentle retro tint that keeps colour | Light Sepia: 50%, red +10, green +5, or any preset dragged to 30-40% | Original colours under a light brown wash |
| An aged family photo or heritage poster | Old Photo: 100%, red +25, green +15, blue -5. Or Antique: 85%, red +30, green +20 | Warmer, more orange-brown tone |
| A cooler, moodier brown | Cool Vintage: 70%, red -10, blue +10 | Brown with a cooler cast, some colour kept |
| A faded film print | Faded Film: 60%, red +5, green +15, blue +10 | Duller, less orange brown, partly coloured |
| The same look on a whole album | Tune one image, click "Apply these settings to all images", then Download All (ZIP) | Identical settings on every photo, in sepia-images.zip |
| To undo the effect | Sepia Intensity at 0% | Original colours, whatever the tone shift |
Input formats and what you download
| You add | You download |
|---|---|
| JPG | JPG, re-encoded at 92% quality |
| PNG | PNG, lossless, transparency kept |
| WebP | WebP at 92% quality (PNG in browsers that cannot write WebP) |
| GIF, BMP, SVG, AVIF or any other image your browser opens | PNG; an animated GIF keeps only its first frame |
Need another format? Convert the result with the PNG to JPG converter or shrink it with the image compressor.
Features
- Eight Vintage Presets, from Light Sepia (50%) to Classic Sepia and Old Photo (100%). The other seven also apply their own red, green and blue tone shift; Classic Sepia uses none.
- Sepia Intensity from 0 to 100%. The slider blends between your original colours (0%) and the full sepia result (100%). Transparency is left untouched.
- Custom Tone Controls. Click Show Custom Tone Controls for Red, Green and Blue Adjustment sliders from -50 to +50. Moving one switches the preset to Custom.
- Before/After Comparison. Drag the line across the preview: Sepia is on its left, Original on its right.
- Full resolution, any number of photos. Every pixel is filtered at the image's own width and height, with no resizing. Each photo has its own settings, and Download All (ZIP) packs the results into sepia-images.zip.
The sepia formula this tool uses
For every pixel, with red R, green G and blue B from 0 to 255, the tool computes the standard sepia matrix, adds your tone shift, then blends the result with the original:
sepiaR = 0.393 R + 0.769 G + 0.189 B sepiaG = 0.349 R + 0.686 G + 0.168 B sepiaB = 0.272 R + 0.534 G + 0.131 B toned = limit(sepia + tone shift, 0 to 255) output = original + (toned - original) x intensity / 100
The matrix rows are nearly proportional, so most colours land on almost the same brown hue at different brightness, which is why 100% looks monochrome; very bright tones clip at 255 and turn pale cream. With no tone shift, black stays (0, 0, 0), mid-grey (128, 128, 128) becomes (173, 154, 120) and white becomes (255, 255, 239).
Sepia pairs well with a small lift or fade from the brightness adjuster, contrast adjuster or image blur tool. For a negative look instead of a warm one, use the color inversion tool.
How to add a sepia filter to a photo, step by step
- Drop your photos on "Drop images here or click to upload", or click Select Images.
- Classic Sepia at 100% is applied straight away; the button reads "Applying filter..." until the preview is ready.
- Under Vintage Presets, click a look such as Old Photo or Faded Film, then drag Sepia Intensity between Original and Full Sepia.
- Optional: click Show Custom Tone Controls and move the Red, Green or Blue Adjustment sliders.
- Drag the Before/After Comparison slider to check the result against the original.
- Click Download Sepia Image. With several photos, click "Apply these settings to all images" on your favourite one, wait for the previews to finish, then click Download All (ZIP).
Trim a big photo with the image cropper or scale it down with the image resizer before filtering and it will render sooner.
Who can use it
- Family historians who want scanned or modern pictures to sit beside old prints in an album.
- Photographers who want one consistent look across a gallery, with a single ZIP.
- Designers and small shops building a heritage feel for a poster, perhaps with the add text to image tool or a collage.
- Students and teachers who need a period feel for a history project.
- Social media posters who want a retro post image, then a thumbnail or an added watermark.
FAQs
How do I make a photo sepia online for free?
Drop your photo on the upload area or click Select Images, and the Classic Sepia preset is applied at once. Pick another of the 8 Vintage Presets or drag Sepia Intensity, then click Download Sepia Image. There is no sign-up step and no watermark, and the file keeps your original name with a _sepia suffix.
Is it safe to use an online sepia filter, or are my photos uploaded?
This sepia filter does not upload your photos. Each image is decoded, filtered and encoded by your own browser on an HTML canvas, so nothing is sent to ZipConvert or anyone else, and you can confirm it in the Network tab of DevTools. The one extra request is the first click on Download All (ZIP), which loads the ZIP-building code from ZipConvert.
What is the difference between sepia and black and white?
Black and white uses neutral greys; sepia uses shades of warm brown. Both drop most colour, but sepia adds a fixed brown tint: with Classic Sepia at 100% intensity black stays black and white becomes a pale cream (255, 255, 239). Sepia reads as vintage and warm, grayscale as neutral. For true greys use the Grayscale Converter.
Why do old photographs look brown?
Some old prints were sepia-toned on purpose: a chemical bath turned the silver in the print into brown silver sulfide, which resists fading better. Others turned brown or yellow as the paper and untoned silver aged, and many were never brown at all. A digital filter only imitates the look.
What sepia intensity should I use?
At 100% the picture becomes a fully brown monochrome. At 80-90% a trace of the original colour remains, at 50-70% the colours still show under a brown wash, and at 20-40% only a faint warmth is added. Each preset starts at its own intensity, from 50% for Light Sepia to 100% for Classic Sepia and Old Photo, and you can drag the slider afterwards.
Which file format do I get back, and does sepia reduce quality?
The filter keeps your full pixel size. JPG, PNG and WebP are saved in the same format: PNG is lossless, while JPG and WebP are re-encoded at 92% quality, so they look the same but are not byte-identical. GIF, BMP, SVG and other formats are saved as PNG, and an animated GIF keeps only its first frame. EXIF camera data is not copied to the new file.
How do I add a sepia filter on iPhone or Android?
Open this page in Safari or Chrome, tap Select Images and choose a photo from your library. Classic Sepia is applied automatically; tap another preset or move the Sepia Intensity slider, then tap Download Sepia Image. Nothing is installed or uploaded. If your browser cannot save WebP, the button shows PNG and you get a PNG file.
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