---
name: "tiff2bw"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "libtiff-tools"
version: "4.7.0-3+deb13u3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tiff2bw"
---

# tiff2bw(1)

convert a color TIFF image to greyscale

## NAME

tiff2bw - convert a color TIFF image to greyscale

## SYNOPSIS

**tiff2bw** \[ *options* \] *input.tif* *output.tif*

## DESCRIPTION

**tiff2bw** converts an RGB or Palette color TIFF image to a greyscale image by combining percentages of the red, green, and blue channels. By default, output samples are created by taking 28% of the red channel, 59% of the green channel, and 11% of the blue channel.  To alter these percentages, the *-R*, *-G*, and *-B* options may be used.

## OPTIONS

- **-c compress**

  Specify a compression scheme to use when writing image data: **-c none** for no compression, **-c packbits** for the PackBits compression algorithm, **-c zip** for the Deflate compression algorithm, **-c g3** for the CCITT Group 3 compression algorithm, **-c g4** for the CCITT Group 4 compression algorithm, **-c lzw** for Lempel-Ziv & Welch (the default).

- **-r striprows**

  Write data with a specified number of rows per strip; by default the number of rows/strip is selected so that each strip is approximately 8 kilobytes.

- **-R redperc**

  Specify the percentage of the red channel to use (default 28).

- **-G greenperc**

  Specify the percentage of the green channel to use (default 59).

- **-B blueperc**

  Specify the percentage of the blue channel to use (default 11).

## SEE ALSO

*pal2rgb* (1), *tiffinfo* (1), *tiffcp* (1), *tiffmedian* (1), *libtiff* (3tiff),

## AUTHOR

LibTIFF contributors

## COPYRIGHT

1988-2022, LibTIFF contributors