"Offering free computer help, hints, and tips to the Internet populace." Now with over 3,820 tips!

PowerPoint 2003 - Charts and Graphics

Convert Picture to Grayscale, Black and White, or Washed Out

SUMMARY: Change a picture's colors in PowerPoint 2003.

After inserting a picture into a Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 presentation, you may find that the image color scheme should be changed. If the presentation is to be printed on a monochrome printer, you may wish to convert the picture to black and white or grayscale. Or, perhaps the graphic sticks out too much from the presentation and the graphic's colors should appear "washed out".

You can make these basic color scheme changes in PowerPoint 2003 without having to load an external picture editor.

Example clipart image in PowerPoint 2003 - first is the original image, then the image in grayscale, then the image in black and white, then the image washed out

1. In PowerPoint 2003, click on a picture to change.

2. The picture toolbar should appear, as shown below:

PowerPoint 2003 Picture Toolbar

3. If this toolbar does not appear, right-click the image and select "Show Picture Toolbar".

4. Click on the "Color" toolbar button (see the screenshot to the right) and choose from one of the four options:

* Automatic (original image color)
* Grayscale
* Black and White
* Washout