How to Add Filters to a GIF (Black & White, Vintage…)
Give a GIF a new look — black and white, sepia, vintage, vivid, noir, a colour tint — or fix a dark one with brightness and contrast. Live preview, free.
3 min read ·
To add a filter to a GIF, open GIF Filters & Effects, add the GIF, and pick a preset — Black & white, Sepia, Vintage, Vivid, Cool, Warm, Negative, Faded or Noir. Fine-tune it with the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue shift, Sepia, Black & white and Tint sliders while the preview updates, then press Apply & make GIF and download it.
Add a filter step by step
- Open GIF Filters & Effects.
- Add the GIF (or an animated WebP or PNG).
- Click a preset as a starting point.
- Adjust the sliders:
- Brightness and Contrast — fix dark or flat recordings.
- Saturation — more vivid, or muted.
- Hue shift — rotate every colour (psychedelic at large values).
- Sepia and Black & white — partial or full.
- Tint with a Tint colour — wash the GIF in your brand colour.
- Press Apply & make GIF and download the result.
Presets and when to use them
| Preset | Look | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Black & white | Classic, serious | Drama, nostalgia, hiding ugly colours |
| Sepia | Old photograph | Throwbacks, history, memories |
| Vintage | Faded film | Retro edits |
| Vivid | Punchy colour | Food, travel, products |
| Cool / Warm | Blue or orange cast | Matching a mood or a brand |
| Negative | Inverted colours | Glitchy, surreal effects |
| Faded | Soft, low contrast | Calm backgrounds |
| Noir | High-contrast monochrome | Moody reactions |
Fixing a bad recording
Screen recordings and phone clips are often too dark or washed out. Start with no preset and:
- Raise Brightness until the darkest important detail is visible.
- Raise Contrast a little to bring back punch.
- Lower Saturation if colours look garish after brightening.
Brand colours
A Tint in your brand colour (try 30–50%) makes reaction GIFs and demos feel on-brand in newsletters and slides. Combining Black & white at 100% with a tint gives a two-tone "duotone" look.
A quick recipe for a cinematic look
- Start from Faded.
- Lower Saturation a little more for a muted palette.
- Add a Tint in teal or orange at about 20%.
- Nudge Contrast up so the subject still stands out.
Same maths as CSS filters
The effects use the same formulas as CSS filters (grayscale(), sepia(), saturate(), hue-rotate()…), so a GIF and an image styled with CSS on your website match.
Smaller files as a bonus
Black-and-white and faded GIFs need fewer distinct colours, so they often come out smaller. For more savings, use the GIF Compressor afterwards.
Transparency
Transparent areas stay transparent — the filters only change visible pixels. To make a background transparent in the first place, use the Transparent GIF Maker.
More ways to change a GIF
- Change its speed with the GIF Speed Changer.
- Play it backwards with the GIF Reverser.
- For videos, Video Effects offers the same kind of looks.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser — your GIF is never uploaded, and there's no watermark.
Frequently asked questions
Can I apply a filter to only part of the GIF?
Filters apply to every frame. Cut out the part with Cut GIF, apply the filter, and join the pieces with Merge GIFs.
Can I undo a filter?
Keep your original — the filtered GIF is a new file.
Why do colours look slightly banded?
GIFs have at most 256 colours per frame. Tick Dithering or Separate colours for each frame under the GIF output options for smoother gradients.