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The Many Faces of Black & White

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Convert to Grayscale
Convert to Grayscale

Convert to Grayscale Then Back to RGB

Image by Jacci Howard Bear
One of the simplest and often most effective ways to get the color out of a color photo is to convert it to Grayscale -- a common option in image editing software. When converting an RGB color image to grayscale all the color is replaced with shades of gray. The image is no longer in RGB.

Inkjet printers like RGB so you can sometimes achieve better print results if you convert the image back to RGB after going grayscale - it will still be shades of gray.

Corel Photo-Paint: Image > Convert to... > Grayscale (8-bit)
Adobe Photoshop: Image > Mode > Grayscale
Adobe Photoshop Elements: Image > Mode > Grayscale (say OK when asked "Discard Color Information?")
Jasc Paint Shop Pro: Colors > Grey Scale

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