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Monochrome

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monochrome comes from the two Greek words mono (meaning "one") and chroma (meaning "surface" or "the colour of the skin"). If something is monochromatic, it only has a single color.

In physics, the word is used when talking about electromagnetic radiation of a single wavelength.

For an image, the term monochrome usually means the same as black-and-white or grayscale. It may also be used when talking about other combinations that only have two colors, for example, green-and-white or green-and-black. In computing, monochrome has two meanings:

  • It may mean having only one color which is either on or off. If it also has shades of that color, then it is called grayscale.
  • A monochrome computer monitor can only show a single color, often green, amber, red or white. It can often also show shades of that color.