Convert a color PDF to grayscale in Acrobat 9
In a previous post, I described how to convert a color PDF to grayscale in Acrobat 8 Professional. The method I described in converts RGB and CMYK objects properly. But objects made up of 0% C, 0% M, 0% Y and 100% K convert to a value less than 100% black, depending on your color settings.
The good news is, this appears to be fixed in Acrobat 9 Pro. Here's how to convert a color PDF file to grayscale in Acrobat 9 Pro.
1. Open a color PDF file in Acrobat 9 Pro. The file may contain a mix of CMYK, RGB or spot color objects.
2. Choose Advanced > Print Production > Preflight.
3. Select the Convert to Grayscale PDF Fixup, and then click the Analyze and Fix button.
Posts
17 comments:
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I have been trying for days to figure out how to keep my blacks at 100% when converting to black and white, instead of changing to 91%.
This worked like a charm. You are a lifesaver!
This still isn't working for me. Now, instead of a 91% black, I get a 94% black.
Just can't win, I guess.
What I had to do in Acrobat 9:
Go into Advanced/Print Production/Convert Colors
Then Choose "Any CMYK" under matching Criteria & "Dot Gain 20%" under Conversion profile.
This kept my text at 100%, but for some reason it didn't catch the registration marks they were in CMYK. Selecting "Any color space" under "Color Type" did not work, it had to be "Any CMYK".
Excellent! So glad to have found this—thank you!
Awesome!!!! Thank you so much! This worked like a charm and sorted me out a critical time! I owe you one.
Im wondering about the Dot Gain 15% or 20% etc... What does this do really? And also in the older post there were some people saying that the method made the images to a lower quality, like compressing them harder - is this fixed now in this one?
Thank you. This was very helpful.
A fast way to convert and this only applies to text, such as blue hyperlinks, is to select print choose PDF, lower left side of print dialog box select print to black. This is a windows feature, it will change the text to 100% black instead of 84% grayscale. Do not do this with anything other than text.
did it reduce the file size?
Thanks so much!
awesome! thanks so much, just what i needed
The screen shot shows a list of options. When I click on "show all" I have no options to choose from to do a color conversion. Where can I load these from?
@Anonymous: Make sure the drop-down list in the upper left says "Show all". If not, change it and the options should appear. Or, if that isn't the problem, try clicking on the Options button in the upper right, and chose "Import Preflight Profile" and try to locate the preflight profiles on your hard drive. All the profiles displayed in the screen shot are included in Acrobat, and should be installed.
conversion was easy. in printing from Acrobat select "Print color as black" & for my Epson Stylus Photo R300 i had to use the following print settings (otherwise i just got a blank page)
text & (advanced) gray scale
Very helpful, thank you!
Worked! Thanks for the tip!
I could not get this to work but I did a print to PDF and chose grayscale there. Seems silly but it worked!!
Post a Comment