Monochrome

[ferlew]

Why is black and white referred to as monochrome, and not duochrome?

[Tilly2]

Because it's shades of one colour.

[Obiter]

Good question, and I wish knew the answer. I've always wondered that.

[Cloverjo]

I suppose because it's various shades of grey, so just one colour.

[elliemay1]

Black-and-white images are not usually starkly contrasted black and white. They combine black and white in a continuum producing a range of shades of gray.

[Pooka1950]

I'm sure that I was told at school (many years ago!) that black is not a colour but rather yhe absence of colour. So maybe "monochrome" refers to the white.

[ferlew]

Not convinced yet :)

[ferlew]

Isn't white an absence of colour ?

[elliemay1]

As previously explained, it's a combination of black and white resulting in grey which is one colour.

[hc4361]

Because there is only one colour. Usually it is black ink on white paper.

[Canary42]

It's called monochrome because only one colour is actually applied in its production, the other "colour" is where the background medium shows through, where no colour is applied.

[hc4361]

Canary, that's exactly what I was trying to say, but you explained it so much better.

My post is monochrome, I suppose, because it is black and white, but I have only applied black to an already white background.

[Buenchico]

Strictly speaking, neither 'black' nor 'white' are colours. Black is the total absence of all light (of whatever frequencies). White is the full set of all frequencies (at their usual amplitudes) found in daylight. (i.e. it's the combinaton of lots of colours).

However, since there is some light there, it makes some sort of sense to refer to 'white' as a colour but 'black' can never (scientifically) be regarded as a colour.

So a monochrome display has only ONE 'colour present (i.e. 'white', which is actually a combination of lots of colours). It also has areas where there is NO colour present (which we refer to as 'black', but it's not a colour). Thus 'monochrome' makes sense!
;-)

[hc4361]

It would still be monochrome if it were in red and green - say red printing on a green sheet of paper. Am I right?

[ferlew]

To my simple mind, any combination of colours cannot be MONOchrome.

[hc4361]

So your idea of a monochrome picture is a drawing of a piece of coal in a totally dark coal bunker?

[Zacs-Master]

Ferlew is correct. Two colours cannot be described as 'mono' tone. Monotone is taking a single colour and using any shade between it and black (as that colour becomes darker) and white (as that colour becomes lighter).

[Cloverjo]

A monochrome film is in various shades of grey, so one colour, even though we call it "black and white"
"Black and white" clothing described by fashion writers in magazines is often named as monochrome, for example, but perhaps this is where the mistake lies, as it's clearly not one colour (or lack of colours).

[Mosaic]

I expect this is a legacy from the days when (non-digital) print was the only medium available. To a traditional printer, monochrome is black n white ie black ink on paper. Yer actual colours upped the cost. So you could order one colour - say, black and red - or anything more counted as 'full colour' and that cost a lot more. Then of course there were the metallic inks and decal edging for your invitations....