Microsoft^® Paint Limitations at Converting Color Images to Black & White

Microsoft® Paint, which is available on most computers with Windows operating systems, is ineffective at converting color photos to black & white. We will illustrate briefly why this tool is inadequate at converting a color image into a black and white image.

We are going to covert the color photograph below to black & white using Paint in an attempt to format it properly to make a rubber stamp. Paint includes a “Save As” feature that allows a user to convert a color image to a “monochrome bitmap”. To see it select “Save As…” from the File menu and then choose “Monochrome Bitmap” from the options.

Original Color Photo

This is how the conversion looks:

Color Photo Converted to 1-bit Bitmap

This image will not work for a rubber stamp. An attempt to invert the color of this image also proves to be unusable. To see it, choose “Invert Colors” from the Image menu.

This is the result:

Negative of 1-bit Bitmap

Because Paint cannot dither, it is not capable of rendering shades of gray in monochrome. However, if your image does not contain shades and just simple lines, Paint works fine. Paint is a useful tool for cropping photos to reduce excessive background or to reduce the physical size. But to properly convert the color image, you need a photo-editing program with more features.

We recommend Adobe® Fireworks®, which is available for a free 30-day trial. Learn how to convert color images to black and white using Fireworks®.

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Microsoft® Paint Limitations at Converting Color Images to Black & White

Microsoft^® Paint Limitations at Converting Color Images to Black & White