Monochrome vs. Grayscale

Main Difference

The main difference between Monochrome and Grayscale is that the Monochrome is a shades of one color; describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or values of one color, having only one colour and Grayscale is a one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample representing only an amount of light, that is, it carries only intensity information;composed exclusively of shades of gray, varying from black at the weakest intensity to white at the strongest.

• Monochrome

  A monochromic image is composed of one color (or values of one color). The term monochrome comes from the Ancient Greek: μονόχρωμος, romanized: monochromos, lit. ‘having one color’.

  A monochromatic object or image reflects colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey (with or without black or white) are called grayscale or black-and-white. However, scientifically speaking, monochromatic light refers to visible light of a narrow band of wavelengths (see spectral color).

• Grayscale

  In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a grayscale or greyscale image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample representing only an amount of light, that is, it carries only intensity information. Grayscale images, a kind of black-and-white or gray monochrome, are composed exclusively of shades of gray. The contrast ranges from black at the weakest intensity to white at the strongest.Grayscale images are distinct from one-bit bi-tonal black-and-white images which, in the context of computer imaging, are images with only two colors: black and white (also called bilevel or binary images). Grayscale images have many shades of gray in between.

  Grayscale images can be the result of measuring the intensity of light at each pixel according to a particular weighted combination of frequencies (or wavelengths), and in such cases they are monochromatic proper when only a single frequency (in practice, a narrow band of frequencies) is captured. The frequencies can in principle be from anywhere in the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, etc.).

  A colorimetric (or more specifically photometric) grayscale image is an image that has a defined grayscale colorspace, which maps the stored numeric sample values to the achromatic channel of a standard colorspace, which itself is based on measured properties of human vision.

  If the original color image has no defined colorspace, or if the grayscale image is not intended to have the same human-perceived achromatic intensity as the color image, then there is no unique mapping from such a color image to a grayscale image.

• Monochrome (noun)

  a photograph or picture developed or executed in black and white or in varying tones of only one colour.

• Monochrome (noun)

  representation or reproduction in black and white or in varying tones of only one colour.

• Monochrome (adjective)

  (of a photograph or picture, or a television screen) consisting of or displaying images in black and white or in varying tones of only one colour.