grayscale is also monochrome right?

[Ike AhLoe]

Isn’t monochrome a wider net than grayscale. Meaning isn’t grayscale also monochrome?

[Martin Bergwerf]

Hi Ike,

scientifically speaking monochrome refers to (different values of) one color and color refers to a small bandwidth of visible light. Monochrome is light of a specific wavelenght/frequency and grey is thus not a color, meaning it is not monochrome.

To be more precise, grey is when all wavelengths of the visible spectrum are present in the same amount, so that would make it the opposite of monochrome; you can’t get more polychrome than greyscale.

That being said, it is possible that you find persons calling greyscale also monochrome. There are a lot worse mistakes that you’ll see or hear, when it comes to (digital) color (even from ‘professionals’); not really something to get too wound up about, I’d say…

[Omar Domenech]

Yeah I didn’t know that either. So as Spikey said, people use it interchangeably, meaning one thing but using it as another. It’s cool you’re asking this and now we can know the difference and use the terms correctly in the future.

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