Make Image Black And White In Illustrator

Although Illustrator is Vector graphics software, it is not suitable for editing and color correction for images (because the image is in Raster format), however there are some projects where we need to edit the color of the image to consistent with the overall design. For basic editing such as color correction of images to black and white, we can do it directly in Illustrator and save the trouble of opening other image editing programs.

In this tutorial, we'll look at how to create a black and white image with Illustrator so you don't need to launch Photoshop to make this simple edit.

There are actually two different ways you can convert a photo to black and white using Illustrator. You can do so using the feature Convert to Grayscale or by using feature Saturation to remove saturation. Both of these features can be accessed in the Edit Colors section of the Edit menu.

However, if you want more advanced editing – such as curves and levels – you will have to use another application like Photoshop. Unlike Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator does not allow you to adjust the curves and levels of the image.

Convert photos to black and white with Illustrator

To create a black and white image with Illustrator, select the image and navigate to Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to Grayscale. In addition, you can also use the tool Saturation to reduce the saturation of the image to 0, this will also make it black and white.

To get started, you'll need to import (or "place") your image onto the workspace by pressing Control + Shift + P, or open an image file with Illustrator using Control + O.

For this tutorial, I will use the following example image:

Method 1: Convert to Grayscale

The first way you can convert an image to black and white with Illustrator is to select the image you want to convert and navigate to:

Edit > Edit Colors > Grayscale

Once selected, the color (or saturation) information will be completely removed from your image, making it black and white:

This is probably the fastest and easiest way to convert your images to grayscale.

It should be noted that this method will also work on vector objects, not just images.

Method 2: Remove Saturation

The second way that you can create black and white images with Illustrator is by using the Saturation feature. You can do so by navigating to:

Edit > Edit Colors > Saturation

Once selected, a menu will appear allowing you to manually adjust the saturation of the image:

Moving the slider to the right will increase the saturation of the image, making the colors more vibrant and intense. However, reducing the saturation will remove the color from your image, making it black and white:

Just like Convert to Grayscale, this method will also work on vector paths; not just images.

Although this method is a bit more complicated (since it includes an extra step,) the benefit of using the Saturation tool is that you can control the amount of saturation in the image.

The Convert to Grayscale feature completely removes saturation. In short, the Saturation setting gives you more control.

Reference: Logos By Nick