What's the difference between brightness and contrast?

Brightness shifts every pixel's luminance. Contrast stretches or compresses the luminance range — dark pixels darker, light pixels lighter.

What about saturation?

Third slider. 0% is grayscale, 100% is the original, 200% is intensified. Use carefully — too much saturation looks cartoonish.

Each adjustment is applied to a copy; the original stays intact until you export. Undo back to the source anytime.

This tool is one-image-at-a-time. For batch adjustments, use ImageMagick or a photo-editor action.

Adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation in one pass. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Images collection.

The human eye can distinguish roughly 10 million colors but only about 30 shades of pure gray, which is why contrast adjustments feel more dramatic than brightness alone.
The Levels dialog in Adobe Photoshop 1.0 (1990) was one of the first GUI tools to let users adjust brightness and contrast via a histogram.
LCD monitors typically ship with contrast ratios of 1000:1, while modern OLED screens achieve over 1,000,000:1, making contrast calibration critical for accurate editing.

What's the difference between brightness and contrast?: Brightness shifts every pixel's luminance. Contrast stretches or compresses the luminance range — dark pixels darker, light pixels lighter.
What about saturation?: Third slider. 0% is grayscale, 100% is the original, 200% is intensified. Use carefully — too much saturation looks cartoonish.
Is this destructive?: Each adjustment is applied to a copy; the original stays intact until you export. Undo back to the source anytime.
Does it work on batches?: This tool is one-image-at-a-time. For batch adjustments, use ImageMagick or a photo-editor action.

Adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation in one pass. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Images collection.

The human eye can distinguish roughly 10 million colors but only about 30 shades of pure gray, which is why contrast adjustments feel more dramatic than brightness alone.
The Levels dialog in Adobe Photoshop 1.0 (1990) was one of the first GUI tools to let users adjust brightness and contrast via a histogram.
LCD monitors typically ship with contrast ratios of 1000:1, while modern OLED screens achieve over 1,000,000:1, making contrast calibration critical for accurate editing.

What's the difference between brightness and contrast?: Brightness shifts every pixel's luminance. Contrast stretches or compresses the luminance range — dark pixels darker, light pixels lighter.
What about saturation?: Third slider. 0% is grayscale, 100% is the original, 200% is intensified. Use carefully — too much saturation looks cartoonish.
Is this destructive?: Each adjustment is applied to a copy; the original stays intact until you export. Undo back to the source anytime.
Does it work on batches?: This tool is one-image-at-a-time. For batch adjustments, use ImageMagick or a photo-editor action.