Editing Grayscale (section)

== Grayscale as single channels of multichannel color images ==
{{Unsourced section|date=March 2023}}
Color images are often built of several stacked [[Channel (digital image)|color channels]], each of them representing value levels of the given channel. For example, [[RGB]] images are composed of three independent channels for red, green and blue [[primary color]] components; [[CMYK]] images have four channels for cyan, magenta, yellow and black [[Color printing|ink plates]], etc.

Here is an example of color channel splitting of a full RGB color image. The column at left shows the isolated color channels in natural colors, while at right there are their grayscale equivalences:

[[File:Beyoglu 4671 tricolor.png|thumb|400px|center|Composition of RGB from three grayscale images]]

The reverse is also possible: to build a full-color image from their separate grayscale channels. By mangling channels, using offsets, rotating and other manipulations, artistic effects can be achieved instead of accurately reproducing the original image.