convert from cmyk to grayscale

[Brutus_Maximus@adobeforums.com]

PitStop.

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

You need Acrobat 7 (or 8) Professional because that's where the Print Production toolbar and the Convert Colors tool was added.

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

If you don't have 7 "Quite a box of tricks" plugin can do it. its cheaper than Pitstop.

[Fritha@adobeforums.com]

Hi Richard

I think your solution looks like the most promising as nothing else seems to be working urghghhg.... but the only thing is when i go to print to PDF (as if PDF were a printer) it goes through the whole process of flattening, then creating the pdf etc but then disappears and i don't know where it's putting the blooming file!

answers on a postcard...!

thanks to everyone who's been helping. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

export your PDF

[Fritha@adobeforums.com]

hey, well, it's not using the export function, it's using the Indesign, print - then printer - adobe pdf 7 -

under colour management chancing the output colour to composite grey.

then i'm hitting print to create the pdf

it comes up with the bars showing it's making the pdf but then the bars disappear and i don't know where the pdf has gone.

I had a look in the indesign preferences to see if it stashes them somewhere odd but it doesn't.

help!

[Brutus_Maximus@adobeforums.com]

>hey, well, it's not using the export function, it's using the Indesign,

print - then printer - adobe pdf 7 -




Fritha:

Is there a specific reason why you're using Print to PDF instead of exporting PDF? Just curious.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

why you're using Print to PDF instead of exporting PDF?




Because she cannot choose "composite grey"?
Just a guess.
Isn't that what this thread is about?

[Brutus_Maximus@adobeforums.com]

Ah, never mind, then. I'd misread the earlier posts.

Fritha:

If this is just a one-time need, I'm sure there are many folks here who would be happy to convert your file for you. I'd hate for you to waste time trying to find a short-term workaround. In the long term, I'd suggest upgrading to Acrobat Professional. If this is a daily need, it would probably be worth it to invest in a plugin like PitStop or Quite a Box of Tricks.

[rob day]

it comes up with the bars showing it's making the pdf but then the bars
disappear and i don't know where the pdf has gone.




Fritha,
It should show up on your desktop. Sometimes OSX can have some flakey refresh issues, so try browsing to your user folder via Users>your account>Desktop folder.

Rob

[Richard_Sohanchyk@adobeforums.com]

Export your PDF from ID. It will be in color. Open it in Acrobat and choose Adobe PDF as your print driver. Under advanced print options choose grayscale composite as your color space. Hit print.

Exporting or printing to Adobe PDF from ID won't produce a bw pdf no matter what color space you select for output, IIRC.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

printing to Adobe PDF from ID won't produce a bw pdf




It will if you use CompositeGrey and force InDesign to re-calculate all EPS and PDF by setting their opacity to 99,5%.

Gerald

[Richard_Sohanchyk@adobeforums.com]

It will if you use CompositeGrey and force InDesign to re-calculate all
EPS and PDF by setting their opacity to 99,5%.




And who's going to do that in a multi-page doc? If you have a couple dozen files, chances are you'll miss one at some point and have to do redo the PDF.

[update] Tried the above advice and it works. I don't use EPS files so I didn't have to adjust transparency. Do have have to select every eps image in a doc and adjust transparency to 99.9? If so, that wouldn't be efficient as oversights are bound to happen.

[Gerald_Singelmann@adobeforums.com]

chances are you'll miss one at some point




you could use


tell application "Adobe InDesign CS2"
set aDoc to active document
set allLinks to every link of aDoc
repeat with n from 1 to count allLinks
set aLink to item n of allLinks
set aClass to class of parent of aLink
if aClass is EPS or aClass is PDF then
if opacity of parent of aLink is 100 then set opacity of parent of aLink to 99.5
end if
end repeat
end tell


and miss none.

Do have have to select every eps image in a doc




There will be EPS that InDesign can convert to grey but there may just as well be some that it can't. This is more difficult to tell than being sure to adjust all opacities.

By the way: this script returns all previously changed graphics to 100%. You probably don't want to have any transparency flying around.
Better still not to save.


tell application "Adobe InDesign CS2"
set aDoc to active document
set allLinks to every link of aDoc
repeat with n from 1 to count allLinks
set aLink to item n of allLinks
set aClass to class of parent of aLink
if aClass is EPS or aClass is PDF then
if opacity of parent of aLink is 99.5 then set opacity of parent of aLink to 100
end if
end repeat
end tell




HTH
Gerald

[Fritha@adobeforums.com]

Ok - seem to have cracked it. Thanks to everyone for all their help! Here's the final answer:

To convert from cmyk to greyscale in an Indesign Document

Posted this on the Adobe Indesign forum:

I have an Indesign document with pictures and text in cmyk that i need to convert to greyscale. Does anyone know how to do this without changing every single item in the document. I just want a greyscale PDF of the document.

You do it NOT using the export PDF function, but using the Indesign print to PDF function like this:

Open your InDesign file, choose print - then printer

In the Print box that pops up hit the Printer drop down box and change it to adobe pdf 7

under colour management (in the box on the left) changing the output colour to composite grey.

then hit print to create the pdf

it comes up with the bars showing it's making the pdf.

The greyscale PDF should show up on your desktop. (This might take a while – just keep navigating back and forward. It should show up!)

You can check that it has converted the colours by opening the PDF in Acrobat Professional.
Choose Advanced – Output Preview – drag cursor over the pages. It should just show process black as a percentage.

Yey!

[Bob Levine]

As already pointed out there are several drawbacks with that approach.
It won't work with EPS or PDF files and it will result in a flattened PDF.

Bob

[rob day]

You will also run into Black and its percentages changing value when you convert, so you might check this thread:

rob day, "Export to EPS Changing 100% Black to 91%" #32, 30 Sep 2006 9:33 am </cgi-bin/webx?14@@.3bc1bd72/31>

Rob

[Richard_Sohanchyk@adobeforums.com]

What if you print grayscale to ps and distill? I do this when I need to make PDFs of bw jobs. I print the black plate only to ps, distill. I get a nice crisp PDF w/o and loss of tone in images.

[Fritha@adobeforums.com]

In Acrobat Professional, you can use the PDF Optimizer tool.

- this seems to work fine - thanks Steve