diff --git a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/ITiffEncoderOptions.cs b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/ITiffEncoderOptions.cs
index 98efa52cdc..dcb8a5c440 100644
--- a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/ITiffEncoderOptions.cs
+++ b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/ITiffEncoderOptions.cs
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// Copyright (c) Six Labors.
+// Copyright (c) Six Labors.
 // Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
 
 namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
@@ -8,5 +8,9 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
     /// </summary>
     public interface ITiffEncoderOptions
     {
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Gets the number of bits per pixel.
+        /// </summary>
+        TiffBitsPerPixel? BitsPerPixel { get; }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffBitsPerPixel.cs b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffBitsPerPixel.cs
index 57a6eda5f3..502c2e425c 100644
--- a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffBitsPerPixel.cs
+++ b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffBitsPerPixel.cs
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
     public enum TiffBitsPerPixel
     {
         /// <summary>
-        /// 8 bits per pixel. Each pixel consists of 1 byte.
+        /// 8 bits per pixel, grayscale image. Each pixel consists of 1 byte.
         /// </summary>
         Pixel8 = 8,
 
diff --git a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoder.cs b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoder.cs
index 17ed52182a..881b3cc4ee 100644
--- a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoder.cs
+++ b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoder.cs
@@ -14,6 +14,11 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
     /// </summary>
     public class TiffEncoder : IImageEncoder, ITiffEncoderOptions
     {
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Gets or sets the number of bits per pixel. 8 bit implies a grayscale image.
+        /// </summary>
+        public TiffBitsPerPixel? BitsPerPixel { get; set; }
+
         /// <inheritdoc/>
         public void Encode<TPixel>(Image<TPixel> image, Stream stream)
             where TPixel : unmanaged, IPixel<TPixel>
diff --git a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoderCore.cs b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoderCore.cs
index 10d22b25b8..d81acf6c6a 100644
--- a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoderCore.cs
+++ b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/TiffEncoderCore.cs
@@ -47,12 +47,21 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
         public TiffEncoderCore(ITiffEncoderOptions options, MemoryAllocator memoryAllocator)
         {
             this.memoryAllocator = memoryAllocator;
+
+            if (options.BitsPerPixel == TiffBitsPerPixel.Pixel8)
+            {
+                this.PhotometricInterpretation = TiffPhotometricInterpretation.BlackIsZero;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                this.PhotometricInterpretation = TiffPhotometricInterpretation.Rgb;
+            }
         }
 
         /// <summary>
-        /// Gets or sets the photometric interpretation implementation to use when encoding the image.
+        /// Gets the photometric interpretation implementation to use when encoding the image.
         /// </summary>
-        public TiffColorType ColorType { get; set; }
+        private TiffPhotometricInterpretation PhotometricInterpretation { get; }
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Gets or sets the compression implementation to use when encoding the image.
@@ -123,14 +132,22 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
 
             // Write the image bytes to the steam.
             var imageDataStart = (uint)writer.Position;
-            int imageData = writer.WriteRgbImageData(image, this.padding);
+            int imageDataBytes;
+            if (this.PhotometricInterpretation == TiffPhotometricInterpretation.Rgb)
+            {
+                imageDataBytes = writer.WriteRgbImageData(image, this.padding);
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                imageDataBytes = writer.WriteGrayImageData(image, this.padding);
+            }
 
             // Write info's about the image to the stream.
-            this.AddImageFormat(image, ifdEntries, imageDataStart, imageData);
+            this.AddImageFormat(image, ifdEntries, imageDataStart, imageDataBytes);
             writer.WriteMarker(ifdOffset, (uint)writer.Position);
             long nextIfdMarker = this.WriteIfd(writer, ifdEntries);
 
-            return nextIfdMarker + imageData;
+            return nextIfdMarker + imageDataBytes;
         }
 
         /// <summary>
@@ -211,9 +228,10 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
                 Value = (uint)image.Height
             };
 
+            ushort[] bitsPerSampleValue = this.PhotometricInterpretation == TiffPhotometricInterpretation.Rgb ? new ushort[] { 8, 8, 8 } : new ushort[] { 8 };
             var bitPerSample = new ExifShortArray(ExifTagValue.BitsPerSample)
             {
-                Value = new ushort[] { 8, 8, 8 }
+                Value = bitsPerSampleValue
             };
 
             var compression = new ExifShort(ExifTagValue.Compression)
@@ -224,8 +242,7 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
 
             var photometricInterpretation = new ExifShort(ExifTagValue.PhotometricInterpretation)
             {
-                // TODO: only rgb for now.
-                Value = (ushort)TiffPhotometricInterpretation.Rgb
+                Value = (ushort)this.PhotometricInterpretation
             };
 
             var stripOffsets = new ExifLongArray(ExifTagValue.StripOffsets)
diff --git a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/Utils/TiffWriter.cs b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/Utils/TiffWriter.cs
index 1908d38ae8..7578c82135 100644
--- a/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/Utils/TiffWriter.cs
+++ b/src/ImageSharp/Formats/Tiff/Utils/TiffWriter.cs
@@ -145,6 +145,28 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Formats.Tiff
             return image.Width * image.Height * 3;
         }
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Writes the image data as 8 bit gray to the stream.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <typeparam name="TPixel">The pixel data.</typeparam>
+        /// <param name="image">The image to write to the stream.</param>
+        /// <param name="padding">The padding bytes for each row.</param>
+        /// <returns>The number of bytes written</returns>
+        public int WriteGrayImageData<TPixel>(Image<TPixel> image, int padding)
+            where TPixel : unmanaged, IPixel<TPixel>
+        {
+            using IManagedByteBuffer row = this.AllocateRow(image.Width, 1, padding);
+            Span<byte> rowSpan = row.GetSpan();
+            for (int y = 0; y < image.Height; y++)
+            {
+                Span<TPixel> pixelRow = image.GetPixelRowSpan(y);
+                PixelOperations<TPixel>.Instance.ToL8Bytes(this.configuration, pixelRow, rowSpan, pixelRow.Length);
+                this.output.Write(rowSpan);
+            }
+
+            return image.Width * image.Height;
+        }
+
         private IManagedByteBuffer AllocateRow(int width, int bytesPerPixel, int padding) => this.memoryAllocator.AllocatePaddedPixelRowBuffer(width, bytesPerPixel, padding);
 
         /// <summary>