A monochrome image refers to a binary image composed of black and white:
- black=0
- white=1 (or white=255 for comparison with true color)
Monochrome images consist of two distinct regions:
- foreground (usually black) -- displays areas of interest
- background (usually white)
Splitting the image into foreground and background is called image segmentation.
Although the term monochrome is often used to classify cameras that capture grayscale images, a true monochrome image contains only black and white pixels with no shades of intermediate gray.