YAQUIZO
Create free

Free Sepia Filter

A real sepia tone, plus the fade, grain and vignette that make a photo actually look old rather than merely brown. In your browser, nothing uploaded, no watermark.

Drop a photo here

or choose one from your device. JPG, PNG and WebP.

Your photo never leaves this device. Everything happens in your browser.

Sepia was never a look to begin with — it was preservation. A finished print was bathed in a toner originally made from cuttlefish ink, which swapped the silver in the image for a more stable compound and turned it warm brown as a side effect. The prints lasted decades longer than untoned ones, which is precisely why so many surviving Victorian photographs are sepia: the ones that were not toned largely faded away.

The digital version reproduces that colour with a specific matrix, mixing each pixel's red, green and blue in fixed proportions. That is what this uses, rather than laying a brown wash over the image — the difference is why the result keeps its tonal separation instead of turning muddy.

But tone alone is what makes most sepia filters look like an orange cast rather than a photograph. An old print also has raised blacks — nothing in it is truly black — along with grain and corners that fall away darker than the middle. Those three controls are here for that reason, and they do more for the illusion than the colour does.

How to apply a sepia filter

  1. 1. Open your photo

    Drag it onto the drop zone or choose it from your device. Nothing is uploaded — the whole effect runs in your browser.

  2. 2. Pick a look

    Classic is a true sepia. Faded photo, Strong vintage and Cyanotype set the whole chain at once, and any of them can be adjusted afterwards.

  3. 3. Tune the age

    Intensity controls the tone itself. Fade lifts the blacks, grain adds film texture, and the vignette darkens the corners — together these are what read as "old" rather than "brown".

  4. 4. Compare and download

    Hold Compare to check it against the original, then download. The full-resolution photo is processed once with your settings.

What actually makes a photo look old

The colour is the part everyone reaches for and the least convincing on its own.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add a sepia filter to a photo for free? +

Drop the photo above and it is toned immediately. Adjust the intensity and the ageing controls if you want, then press Apply and download. There is no account, no watermark, and the photo is never uploaded.

What is sepia, actually? +

Historically it was a darkroom process: a print was treated with a toner made from cuttlefish ink, which replaced the silver with a more stable compound and turned the image warm brown. It was done for archival permanence, not for looks — sepia prints last far longer than plain silver ones. The modern digital version reproduces that colour with a specific matrix that mixes each pixel's red, green and blue in fixed proportions, which is what this tool uses rather than simply laying a brown tint over the image.

Why does my sepia look like an orange filter instead of an old photo? +

Because tone alone is not the look. A real sepia print also has raised black levels — nothing in it is truly black — along with visible grain and corners that fall off darker than the centre. Applying only the colour gives you a modern digital photo with a colour cast, which reads as a filter rather than as a photograph. The Fade, Grain and Vignette controls exist precisely for this, and the Classic preset sets sensible amounts of each.

What does the intensity slider do? +

It blends between your original colours and the fully toned version. At 100% the result is entirely sepia. Around 40% keeps a hint of the original colour showing through, which is a popular look for portraits and often more flattering than the full effect.

What are the other tones? +

They are the other historic processes. Antique is yellower, like a faded album page. Selenium is the cool purple-brown of an archival darkroom toner. Cyanotype is the deep blue of the blueprint process. Black & white is included untoned so you can see what the tone is actually adding. Each maps your photo's brightness between a shadow colour and a highlight colour, the same way a real toner works on a print.

What does fade do? +

It lifts the black point, so the darkest parts of the image become dark grey rather than black. Every old print does this as it ages, and it is one of the strongest cues that an image is not a modern digital photo. A little goes a long way; too much and the picture looks washed out rather than aged.

Will the grain look the same each time? +

Yes. The grain is generated from a fixed seed rather than randomly, so the same settings always produce the same texture. Without that the pattern would reshuffle on every adjustment and the preview would crawl while you were trying to judge it.

Does this work on transparent PNGs? +

Yes. The transparency is left exactly as it was — only the colours are toned — so a cut-out subject keeps its transparent background rather than gaining a brown rectangle.

Is my photo uploaded anywhere? +

No. The photo is decoded, filtered and re-encoded entirely inside your browser, and nothing is transmitted. Once the page has loaded it works offline.

Will there be a watermark? +

No. The output is your photo with the tone applied and nothing else added. There is no watermark, no sign-up and no paid tier.

Other free tools