Are you using Gimp?
When you go to create a new image, go under the advanced options and select "grey-scale". White wil be the highest point in your map, black lowest, all shades of grey inbetween. If you've already made your map with colors and need to make it greyscale, Go up to the top and do Image>Mode>greyscale instead of RGB. Again, this is how it works on Gimp.