Image Faded Filter
Give photos the soft, matte look of faded film. The faded filter mutes saturation to 55 percent, lifts the blacks to a milky gray around 44 to 54 with a slight cool tint and pulls the whites down a little, so contrast becomes gentle and colors feel airy without changing their hue. A favorite for lifestyle, fashion and social media feeds, with intensity from 0 to 100 percent.
Frequently asked questions
What does the faded filter change?
It reduces saturation to 55 percent and brightens by 3 percent, then applies a tone curve that lifts black to about 44 in red, 48 in green and 54 in blue and lowers white to about 243 to 248. No pixel in the full effect stays darker than about 40, which gives the typical matte look.
Why do the shadows look slightly blue?
The blue channel is lifted a little more than red and green, which tints the blacks cool. This mimics the way faded color film and many popular mobile presets render shadows.
How is it different from the vintage filter?
The faded filter keeps the original hues and adds no vignette or sepia. The vintage filter turns tones brown and darkens the corners. Faded looks modern and soft, vintage looks old.
How is it different from the retro filter?
The retro filter increases contrast and adds a strong yellow and blue color cast, the opposite of faded. Faded lowers contrast and keeps colors natural but muted.
How does the intensity setting work?
Intensity blends the faded result with the original image from 0 to 100 percent. Values around 50 give a subtle matte finish that suits most photos.
Which photos work best?
Lifestyle, travel, food, fashion and portrait photos with soft light look great. High contrast scenes become calmer and more editorial.
Is transparency preserved?
Yes, the alpha channel stays as it was. Grayscale images are converted to RGB so the cool lift in the shadows can show.
Which formats can I upload?
JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, TIFF and AVIF images up to 5 MB are accepted. Animated files use their first frame and images over 4000 pixels on a side are scaled down to fit. The output is PNG.
Can I make the fade stronger?
The filter is capped at its full preset, but you can run it twice for a heavier fade, or lift the output black further with the Image Levels tool. Running it twice also mutes the colors a second time.
What engine is used?
Desaturation uses the modulate operation of the sharp library and the tone curve is applied per channel with a lookup table. The result is deterministic.