How to add a sepia vintage effect to a PDF

1 min read·25 July 2026

A sepia effect gives a PDF a warm, vintage look — ideal for recipes, historical reproductions, photo albums, or decorative documents. With PDFrust's sepia tool you add it in one click.

What is a sepia effect?

Sepia is a brownish tone that characterises historical photos — named after the brown pigment from cuttlefish used for ink in the 19th century. A sepia filter converts all colours to warm brown tones, making a document look old and nostalgic.

Sepia tool in PDFrust

Open the sepia tool. Upload your PDF. Click Apply — PDFrust converts all pages to the sepia colour palette. Download the result. All images and text take on the warm brownish tint.

PDF sepia effect

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When do you use sepia?

Recipe book with a vintage feel. Photo album PDF or scrapbook. Historical reproductions of maps or documents. Decorative menus for a vintage restaurant. Personalised gifts (photo book to be printed in sepia).

Sepia vs. greyscale vs. invert

Greyscale converts everything to neutral grey tones. Sepia converts everything to warm brown tones. Invert reverses all colours. Combine them: convert a colour photo to greyscale first, then to sepia for a classic old-photo effect.