Is there a way to use a scanner, and convert a color picture to black and white? Is there a setting in the scanner, or would you have to use a photo program? A few months back, I scanned a color picture which didn't have a lot of color to it, a white background, black band on a chrome watch. The dial did have a slight blue to it, but when I looked at the scan, it was black and white only. I didn't change anything, and the other color pictures I did at the same time turned out fine. Now that I want to do it on purpose, I can't figure out how. The scanner does some strange things, and it changes the lettering when I tried to scan an old advertisement. It puts blocks around the words.

Andy

Andy,
if you have a color picture, simply make a black and white copy of it on your scanner. Then you can scan the B&W copy into a B&W image. Alternatively, your scanner software may allow you to convert a color image to B&W.

Regarding the funny things with the words. When you scan any item you need to make sure you're:- (a) scanning an image or, (b) scanning text etc. You need to select the correct scanner setting to match what you're trying to do.

Hope this helps.

Andy,
Can you give us the model of your scanner? to check for the specific instructions altough Dave has supplied the main point.

The software built in your scanner most probably can transform directly the image to B&W selecting the appropiate settings. It also can be done with a separate photo editor (my prefered si Irfanview which is free).
Bellow an image edited to B&W, picture "stolen" from Phil Dellinger.... thanks again Phil for a great picture

Carlos,

I like the "new look" of this watch. A real case made of 14K white gold would make an outstanding addition to any collection.

Thanks for contributing this example on how to change a color picture to black and white.

Thanks all. I don't have a scanner myself, it is on a public library computer. Usually I just press the scan button, do a very limited number of changes, and the pictures are scanned. I didn't tell it to convert the one image to black and white, it did it on it's own. I think it was because the picture was already nearly black and white, it eliminated what little color there was.

It took me an hour to figure it out the last time I messed with it.

Andy