grayscale

English

Alternative forms

• greyscale, gray-scale, grey-scale, gray scale, grey scale

Etymology

gray +‎ scale

Noun

grayscale (countable and uncountable, plural grayscales)

1. (photography) A printed strip of graduated tones used to check exposure and development times.
2. (imaging) The use of black and white, representing color with shades of gray.
   • 2010, Joe Habraken, Microsoft Office 2010 in Depth:

     You can view your presentation in grayscale or black-and-white and then customize how the various colors are translated to grayscale or black-and-white.

Adjective

grayscale (not comparable)

1. (imaging) Black and white, representing color with shades of gray.
   • 2012 April 4, Sam Anderson, “Just One More Game ...”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[1]:

     Tetris’s graphics were simple enough to work on the Game Boy’s small gray-scale screen; its motion was slow enough not to blur; its action was a repetitive, storyless puzzle that could be picked up, with no loss of potency, at any moment, in any situation.

Synonyms

• black and white (“in shades of gray”)
• monochrome

Antonyms

• black and white (“easily divided into two groups”)

Translations

giving colour in shades of gray

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 灰度

• Maori: kiwikiwitea

Verb

grayscale (third-person singular simple present grayscales, present participle grayscaling, simple past and past participle grayscaled)

1. (transitive) To convert to grayscale.

See also

• grisaille

Anagrams

• clary sage