Direct2D fails when drawing a single-channel bitmap - direct2d

Question

I'm an experienced programmer specialized in Computer Graphics, mainly using Direct3D 9.0c, OpenGL and general algorithms. Currently, I am evaluating Direct2D as rendering technology for a professional application dealing with medical image data. As for rendering, it is a x64 desktop application in windowed mode (not fullscreen).
Already with my very initial steps I struggle with a task I thought would be a no-brainer: Rendering a single-channel bitmap on screen.
Running on a Windows 8.1 machine, I create an ID2D1DeviceContext with a Direct3D swap chain buffer surface as render target. The swap chain is created from a HWND and buffer format DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM. Note: See also the code snippets at the end.
Afterwards, I create a bitmap with pixel format DXGI_FORMAT_R8_UNORM and alpha mode D2d1_ALPHA_MODE_IGNORE. When calling DrawBitmap(...) on the device context, a debug break point is triggered with the debug message "D2d DEBUG ERROR - This operation is not compatible with the pixel format of the bitmap".
I know that this output is quite clear. Also, when changing the pixel format to DXGI_FORMAT_R8G8B8A8_UNORM with DXGI_ALPHA_MODE_IGNORE everything works well and I see the bitmap rendered. However, I simply cannot believe that! Graphics cards support single-channel textures ever since - every 3D graphics application can use them without thinking twice. This goes without speaking.
I tried to find anything here and at Google, without success. The only hint I could find was the MSDN Direct2D page with the (supported pixel formats). The documentation suggests - by not mentioning it - that DXGI_FORMAT_R8_UNORM is indeed not supported as bitmap format. I also find posts talking about alpha masks (using DXGI_FORMAT_A8_UNORM), but that's not what I'm after.
What am I missing that I can't convince Direct2D to create and draw a grayscale bitmap? Or is it really true that Direct2D doesn't support drawing of R8 or R16 bitmaps??
Any help is really appreciated as I don't know how to solve this. If I can't get this trivial basics to work, I think I'd have to stop digging deeper into Direct2D :-(.
And here is the code snippets of relevance. Please note that they might not compile since I ported this on the fly from my C++/CLI code to plain C++. Also, I threw away all error checking and other noise:
Device, Device Context and Swap Chain Creation (D3D and Direct2D):
// Direct2D factory creation
D2D1_FACTORY_OPTIONS options = {};
options.debugLevel = D2D1_DEBUG_LEVEL_INFORMATION;
ID2D1Factory1* d2dFactory;
D2D1CreateFactory(D2D1_FACTORY_TYPE_MULTI_THREADED, options, &d2dFactory);
// Direct3D device creation
const auto type = D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE;
const auto flags = D3D11_CREATE_DEVICE_BGRA_SUPPORT;
ID3D11Device* d3dDevice;
D3D11CreateDevice(nullptr, type, nullptr, flags, nullptr, 0, D3D11_SDK_VERSION, &d3dDevice, nullptr, nullptr);
// Direct2D device creation
IDXGIDevice* dxgiDevice;
d3dDevice->QueryInterface(__uuidof(IDXGIDevice), reinterpret_cast<void**>(&dxgiDevice));
ID2D1Device* d2dDevice;
d2dFactory->CreateDevice(dxgiDevice, &d2dDevice);
// Swap chain creation
DXGI_SWAP_CHAIN_DESC1 desc = {};
desc.Format = DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM;
desc.SampleDesc.Count = 1;
desc.BufferUsage = DXGI_USAGE_RENDER_TARGET_OUTPUT;
desc.BufferCount = 2;
IDXGIAdapter* dxgiAdapter;
dxgiDevice->GetAdapter(&dxgiAdapter);
IDXGIFactory2* dxgiFactory;
dxgiAdapter->GetParent(__uuidof(IDXGIFactory), reinterpret_cast<void **>(&dxgiFactory));
IDXGISwapChain1* swapChain;
dxgiFactory->CreateSwapChainForHwnd(d3dDevice, hwnd, &swapChainDesc, nullptr, nullptr, &swapChain);
// Direct2D device context creation
const auto options = D2D1_DEVICE_CONTEXT_OPTIONS_NONE;
ID2D1DeviceContext* deviceContext;
d2dDevice->CreateDeviceContext(options, &deviceContext);
// create render target bitmap from swap chain
IDXGISurface* swapChainSurface;
swapChain->GetBuffer(0, __uuidof(swapChainSurface), reinterpret_cast<void **>(&swapChainSurface));
D2D1_BITMAP_PROPERTIES1 bitmapProperties;
bitmapProperties.dpiX = 0.0f;
bitmapProperties.dpiY = 0.0f;
bitmapProperties.bitmapOptions = D2D1_BITMAP_OPTIONS_TARGET | D2D1_BITMAP_OPTIONS_CANNOT_DRAW;
bitmapProperties.pixelFormat.format = DXGI_FORMAT_B8G8R8A8_UNORM;
bitmapProperties.pixelFormat.alphaMode = D2D1_ALPHA_MODE_IGNORE;
bitmapProperties.colorContext = nullptr;
ID2D1Bitmap1* swapChainBitmap = nullptr;
deviceContext->CreateBitmapFromDxgiSurface(swapChainSurface, &bitmapProperties, &swapChainBitmap);
// set swap chain bitmap as render target of D2D device context
deviceContext->SetTarget(swapChainBitmap);
D2D single-channel Bitmap Creation:
const D2D1_SIZE_U size = { 512, 512 };
const UINT32 pitch = 512;
D2D1_BITMAP_PROPERTIES1 d2dProperties;
ZeroMemory(&d2dProperties, sizeof(D2D1_BITMAP_PROPERTIES1));
d2dProperties.pixelFormat.alphaMode = D2D1_ALPHA_MODE_IGNORE;
d2dProperties.pixelFormat.format = DXGI_FORMAT_R8_UNORM;
char* sourceData = new char[512*512];
ID2D1Bitmap1* d2dBitmap;
deviceContext->DeviceContextPointer->CreateBitmap(size, sourceData, pitch, d2dProperties, &d2dBitmap);
Bitmap drawing (FAILING):
deviceContext->BeginDraw();
D2D1_COLOR_F d2dColor = {};
deviceContext->Clear(d2dColor);
// THIS LINE FAILS WITH THE DEBUG BREAKPOINT IF SINGLE CHANNELED
deviceContext->DrawBitmap(bitmap, nullptr, 1.0f, D2D1_INTERPOLATION_MODE_LINEAR, nullptr);
swapChain->Present(1, 0);
deviceContext->EndDraw();

Answer 1

From my little experience, Direct2D seems very limited, indeed.
Have you tried Direct2D effects (ID2D1Effect)? You can write your own [it seems comparatively complicated], or use one of the built-in effects [which is rather simple].
There is one called Color matrix effect (CLSID_D2D1ColorMatrix). It might work to have your DXGI_FORMAT_R8_UNORM (or DXGI_FORMAT_A8_UNORM, any single-channel would do) as input (inputs to effects are ID2D1Image, and ID2D1Bitmap inherits from ID2D1Image). Then set the D2D1_COLORMATRIX_PROP_COLOR_MATRIX for copying the input channel to all output channels. Have not tried it, though.