Monochrome

Monochrome refers to imagery, objects, or palettes based on a single color or hue. In common usage, a monochrome image uses only shades of one color, including black-and-white representations that employ grayscale tones. The term derives from the Greek monos, meaning "one," and chroma, meaning "color," and has long been used in art and photography to describe limited palettes and tonal unity.

In photography and digital imaging, monochrome can describe images produced with a single hue or with grayscale values. Traditional monochrome photography is black-and-white, while other single-color treatments use tones created by dyes, toners, or color filters (for example sepia). Modern workflows may classify images as monochrome when they rely on a single luminance channel or are intentionally restricted to one color channel.

In art and design, monochrome palettes emphasize unity and form by varying lightness, saturation, and hue of a single color. They are common in minimalism, branding, and large-scale works to create coherence and draw attention to texture, contrast, and composition.

In printing and displays, monochrome printing uses a single ink to produce varying tones, while some displays operate in monochrome modes, such as grayscale screens or single-color phosphor displays. In science, monochromatic light refers to light of a single wavelength; lasers and spectrometers rely on this property, and monochromators isolate narrow bands of wavelengths.