Export Grayscale PDF

I use InDesign a lot to create B/W newspaper ads. Many of the images that I use are color. It would be very helpful if I could specify "Grayscale" output when I export a pdf, the same way I can do this if I export an EPS file. Right now, I need to use a two step process (export a grayscale EPS file and then convert it to a pdf using Acrobat) to create a pdf for my printer.

You didn't hear this from me, but you can do what you want by printing to PDF instead of exporting. You should set your "Handling of Black" prefs in ID todipaly all blacks accurately, but print all blacks as RIch Black to aviod 100% K from rendering as 90-something in the PDF.
You can also export PDF and do a conversion to grayscale in Acrobat.

Similar Messages

Export Grayscale PDF from a color InDesign doc

A much needed feature is a setting in the Export as PDF to export a color ID document as grayscale. I, like many designers I'm sure, often am asked to create a black and white or grayscale version PDF of an existing document. Right now I have to create a copy of the document, drop in grayscale images, strip out the colors and replace with tints of black. The other solution is to use Acrobat Pro to do the conversion, sometimes simpler, but not elegant by any means. It seems like it would only make sense to have this option available in the Export panel "Export as grayscale" or something. What do you think Adobe, is this doable?? I see a lot of people looking for it when I Google it.

The question is not whether it is doable, but rather whether any way it could be done automatically would be acceptable. Simply stripping off the color information and using the result often yields results that are very low in contrast with imagery that to put it mildly is not very pleasant.
Those of us familiar with analog black and white photography may recall that black and white films were designed to provide sensitivity to different colors in a manner that would yield realistic results. Even then, serious photographers often used colored filters over their camera lenses to further fine tune the results.
Those of us who often need to create monochrome images from color digital images typically treat each image individually to yield realistic and pleasing results.
Thus, be careful what you ask for. A one-size-fits-all conversion from color to grayscale for a whole document can yield very mediocre results.
- Dov

How can I export to PDF for Offset printing including color and grayscale photo's?

After reading dozens of forum, I still don’t found the answer.
I made a photobook with full-colur and B/W photos for Offset printing. I want the B/W to be in grayscale to avoid color possible color shades. It seems InDesign doesn’t support grayscale, the images become way to dark. Even with exporting without any colour conversion or destination and/or including original colour profiles, the grayscale pictures are being exported to dark to PDF.
How can I export to PDF for Offset printing including color and grayscale photo’s?

Yes, the Photoshop & ID CMYK working spaces are the same
This can get difficult because the 3 programs handle soft proofing differently.
The working spaces don't matter, it's the document profile(s) that manage the preview. So here is the same grayscale image placed in ID on top and PS on the bottom. I've set my Photoshop info to show the doc profile in the lower left corner. I can see my InDesign's Document CMYK profile in my Proof Setup (the Working CMYK is different and isn't being used). Both profiles are effectively the same Coated FOGRA39 (Black Ink FOGRA in the case of PS).
But the previews don't match because I have Overprint turned off, so the InDesign preview is Gamma 2.2 or a "screen" media preview.
If I turn on Overprint preview I get a match because I'm soft proofing for print:

Cannot export to PDF with grayscale PDF in layout

IDCS5.5, MacPro, OSX 10.7.4
I am working on a grayscale teacher’s guide that accompanies a CMYK schoolbook. The introduction pages contain miniature pages of the workbook (formatted as grayscale PDF), but InDesign refuses to output those pages as PDF ("Impossible d’exporter le fichier PDF"), or when it does produce a PDF (when exporting page by page), Acrobat warns of a possible problem and stuff is missing on the resulting page, not necessarily from the grayscale minipages.
I have tried grayscale PDFs created from the original CMYK PDFs in Acrobat Pro X, grayscale PDFs exported from the original CMYK file in InDesign CS6, PDFs reduced to 20% in InDesign, PDFs reduced to 20% with a third-party application and imported in ID at 100%, and all sort of variations on the export values. The problem is also present in InDesign CS4 (after exporting the file as IDML) and in CS6.
The thing is, there is no problem at all if I use the CMYK PDF version of the minipages (I then turned the resulting PDF into grayscale with Acrobat Pro X). But the printer expects to see only grayscale images in a grayscale job, not color... and a Photoshop version of those minipages is not acceptable.
Has anybody encountered that problem? Can you reproduce it, i.e. can you export to PDF if you use any type of grayscale PDFs in your layout?

FOUND IT! Inspired by Rob solution, I was able to export my InDesign CS5.5 document containing some grayscale PDFs to PDF/X-3:2002 (and PDF/X-1a:2001), with or without the standard, but without converting to destination. For some reason, it does not work with PDF/X-4:2008, nor with any of the other presets.
-3

Exporting as grayscale PDF

I am using WinXP, InDesign CS2. Whenever I design a document, with all grayscale objects, and I want to export as a pdf. The document becomes RGB. It need it to stay a true grayscale. How do I make this happen?

In my understanding - I'm not a native English
speaker - the word Grayscale refers mainly to gray
raster images which were saved by one channel.
I had copied some text from a Word file (trying to
identify the source of the bugs) and pasted into a
new ID doc.
Then I had used Export to PDF with 'No Color Conversion'.
According to 'Output Preview' it's a K-only file.
Loaded in Photoshop as CMYK it appears as 100% K-only.
Loaded in Photoshop as Grayscale it appears by a
CMYK-interpretation in the Info Palette as a 4-plate
'rich black' file - obviously a misleading interpretation.
Alternatively I had used Print as Composite Gray to PDF.
The result was the same.
In my humble opinion it would be very helpful to use
the word 'Grayscale' only for gray raster images.
Vector graphics and text may be gray, but they should be
defined by CMYK = 0 0 0 K.
Sources from Word had caused trouble in the past (but not
in the actual test). Anyway - the text can be selected and
converted into K-only.
For further discussions it would be useful to explain, by
which tools the final PDF had been interpreted (e.g. Photoshop
or Acrobat Pro or Quite a Box of Tricks).
Peter,
good points: Text as Black, and the accurate measurement.
In Photoshop one needs one-point-sampling instead of averaging.
Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

Can I ask InDesign to resample as it exports to PDF?

When I export an InDesign CS document to PDF I'd like to know what InDesign does to the images that it exports. InDesign Help, in this case, was no help.
I'll give a preamble so you know what I'm on about. Originally when I first started this project 2 years ago, I thought I would layout the images within InDesign, and just before printing I would go through every one of the 800 or so images in the book (it's a big book), and crop and resample them to 300 dpi at exactly the final printed size. Big job.
After a few months of using InDesign I thought: no, I won't do that. When I export to PDF I'll assume InDesign will give me options to 'crop to frame size' and set the ppi to 300 dpi as well as converting images to grayscale if I so choose. It'll be automatic.
I'll make it clear with an example. Let's assume an original image was scanned to give an image that is 4000 pixels wide and 2000 high, and that the final image is 20" x 10". It is to be printed on a Xerox iGen which requires 300 dpi for no loss of quality. So how does InDesign get that particular image into the PDF?
Q1: Does it resample and export at 300 dpi? i.e. in the example above, will it export an image of 6000 x 3000 pixels to the PDF?
Q2. Or does it export the original image and does nothing to the image except cropping if I ask it to? If it needs resampling that will be done at print stage by the iGen.
Q3: I didn't see any options for converting to grayscale. Can you export a PDF as grayscale?
Why I am concerned about this is because if the original image is exported, that may cause me file-size problems. I scanned most of my images at 20MB-60MB, yet a lot of them when printed will be of the order of 20 square inches and only require about 6 MB for adequate printing. I may end up with a PDF file that is 5 to 10 times larger than necessary.
The real problem I have is: I trust PS and InDesign to resample my images, but I don't have that kind of faith in the iGen. If I can't ask InDesign to resample images when it exports, I may have a problem.
When I did my original series of test prints in July 2006 on the iGen, I cropped and resampled the images ready for printing before I imported them into InDesign. So I haven't tested the iGen's resampling capabilities. I be blunt I don't trust it. The iGen ( a machine costing in the millions) failed a simple test of converting colour documents to grayscale. Here are my notes written at the time:
b Converting to Grayscale using the iGen
Do not use the iGen RIP to convert colour images to grayscale because it converts all gray densities above 90% to 100%. ie dark shadows end up as 100% solid black shadows with the accompanying sheen. I measured this figure from the K-only gradient at the bottom of the page. It appeared solid black for the first 9mm of a 96 mm black-to-white gradient. All densities between 100% and 91% ended up as 100%. The effect is very obvious in Mums hair which became a solid mass.
My full notes on the iGen are here: http://jucreek.googlepages.com/temporary if anyone wants to have a look.
Anyway, that's why I have concerns about images. Maybe I should just knuckle down for a week and go through 800 images, cropping and resampling every one in Photoshop. Talk me out of it, please.
And that brings me to my final question:
Q4: Can I ask InDesign to do that job for me: to crop, to resample at a certain dpi, and to overwrite the original image so that it all matches up?

Guy,
Let me try to recap all your statments with my comments:
> Let's assume an original image was scanned to give an image that is 4000 pixels wide and 2000 high, and that the final image is 20" x 10". It is to be printed on a Xerox iGen which requires 300 dpi for no loss of quality.
From the very start you're in trouble.
The image size you describe, set at 300 dpi, will only be 13 1/3" by 6 2/3". If the image is scaled up to be 20" by 10", it will only be 200
>dpi.
So, we're starting with insufficient data according to your requirements.
Nothing that InDesign or Acrobat does can make that image the correct resolution.
> Q1: Does it resample and export at 300 dpi? i.e. in the example above, will it export an image of 6000 x 3000 pixels to the PDF?
No, InDesign and Acrobat's print device will only resample
b down.
Neither will resample up.
> Q2. Or does it export the original image and does nothing to the image except cropping if I ask it to?
The image created in the PDF will be cropped. It doesn't touch the original file.
> If it needs resampling that will be done at print stage by the iGen.
I believe the iGen will only resample
b down
the same as InDesign and Acrobat's creation of the PDF.
> Q3: I didn't see any options for converting to grayscale. Can you export a PDF as grayscale?
As mentioned, that won't happen in the PDF Export but will happen with the PDF Print driver. However, that will also convert colors in the ID file, not just images, to grayscale.
> Why I am concerned about this is because if the original image is exported, that may cause me file-size problems. I scanned most of my images at 20MB-60MB, yet a lot of them when printed will be of the order of 20 square inches and only require about 6 MB for adequate printing. I may end up with a PDF file that is 5 to 10 times larger than necessary.
Perhaps I did my math incorrectly, but in your original example, 4000 x 2000 pixels cannot be set at 20 inches by 10 inches at 300 dpi.
It requires 6000 by 3000 inches to be 300 dpi at 20 inches by 10 inches.
> The real problem I have is: I trust PS and InDesign to resample my images, but I don't have that kind of faith in the iGen.
I don't think you need to worry about the iGen if you set your images correctly. But as I said above, you haven't sampled them enough. So the iGen isn't going to do anything.
> If I can't ask InDesign to resample images when it exports, I may have a problem.
You set ID and Acrobat to
b downsample
not
b upsample.
> When I did my original series of test prints in July 2006 on the iGen, I cropped and resampled the images ready for printing before I imported them into InDesign.
Cropping and resampling in Photoshop is always preferred as you have the options for how the resampling occurs that neither ID nor Acrobat have.
> So I haven't tested the iGen's resampling capabilities. I be blunt I don't trust it. The iGen ( a machine costing in the millions) failed a simple test of converting colour documents to grayscale.
No, I wouldn't have expected the iGen to convert to grayscale at all! Converting to grayscale can be done in the Acrobat print driver, but I would prefer to do it in Photoshop if I demanded very refined conversions.
> My full notes on the iGen are here: http://jucreek.googlepages.com/temporary if anyone wants to have a look.
See my comments above.
> Anyway, that's why I have concerns about images. Maybe I should just knuckle down for a week and go through 800 images, cropping and resampling every one in Photoshop. Talk me out of it, please.
You can resample using Photoshop's batch processing, but depending on the type of cropping that might need to be done manually in Photoshop. But if the cropping is always of a certain size and position that could be done in batch processing.
> Q4: Can I ask InDesign to do that job for me: to crop, to resample at a certain dpi, and to overwrite the original image so that it all matches up?
No, InDesign doesn't overwrite your original image, but it will change the image in the final PDF.

Trouble creating grayscale PDF

Hi!
I have a bunch of grayscale PDS-files, dot grain 20%, that I need to make into a grayscale PDF. This has proven more difficult than I expected. I did a PDF from Bridge with "Output"-"preserve embedded color profile" checked, but it seems that didn't do much. The printing place said it reads like a colour PDF.
Then I tried Acrobat Pro, first to make a new PDF file from my images, and then to convert my earlier Bridge-PDF using "Preflight" - "convert colour to grayscale". That made the images low resolution and dark. The file size went down from Bridge's 140 MB to 45 MB.
Finally I gave InDesign a shot, but I lack the skills to do much with it.. If I put some effort into learning InDesign, will I be able to export one single PDF-file, with the original (or close to it) resolution and tone values, and with a grayscale colour profile?

Thanks for the quick response! They are Photoshop files, saved in Photoshop format. I have also saved the images as hi-res JPEGs with colour profile "dot grain 20%" and tried to do a PDF from those in Acrobat, same problem=dark, low-res, pixellated.
I'm using MacOS 10.6.8 for Acrobat XI, Bridge CS5 and Photoshop CS5, and have access to a PC laptop with InDesign CS6 on it.

Exporting Secured PDF from indesign using apple script

hi there, this is my first go at scripting,
basically what i am trying to do is:
tell indesign to turn on a layer called "proof" in the active document
then export pdf - set pdf preference to smallest file size, all pages, and secure the file WITH A PASSWORD so that it can be opened but not edited (unless by someone at my agency who knows this password). this easy enough to manually, but im sick of typing out a password everytime i save a proof.
then save to a specific folder on the desktop, using the already existing filename - so 'myfile.pdf'
the code below gives me this message "
error "Can’t make name of PDF export preferences into type Unicode text." number -1700 from name of «class DFpf» to Unicode text
could someone please help me word this properly? I tried first referring to a pdf preset instead of setting all the values ie set color bitmap etc but i couldnt get the password to work,
here is what i have so far, written from snippets that other people have tried:
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"
          tell active document
try
                              set visible of layer "PROOF" to false
                    end try
set docName to name
                    set baseName to text item 1 of docName
                    set ASTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
                    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
                    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ASTID
          tell PDF export preferences
                    set acrobat compatibility to acrobat 4 --> create a 1.3 pdf
                    set use security to true
                    set disallow changing to true
                    set disallow copying to true
                    set disallow document assembly to true
                    set disallow extraction for accessibility to true
                    set disallow form fill in to true
                    set disallow notes to true
                    set disallow hi res printing to false
                    set color bitmap sampling DPI to 100
                    set grayscale bitmap sampling DPI to 100
                    set monochrome bitmap sampling DPI to 100
--set image quality
                    set color bitmap quality to minimum
                    set grayscale bitmap quality to minimum
--set fonts
                    set subset fonts below to 0
--set security
                    set use security to true
                    set change security password to "editedit"
                    set disallow extraction for accessibility to false
                    set disallow copying to true
                    export format PDF type to "/Users/kimwilson242/Desktop/_PROOFS/" & name & ".pdf" without showing options
          end tell
end tell

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS5"
-- prefs belong to app so use in tell app block
          tell PDF export preferences
                    set acrobat compatibility to acrobat 4 --> create a 1.3 pdf
                    set use security to true
                    set disallow changing to true
                    set disallow copying to true
                    set disallow document assembly to true
                    set disallow extraction for accessibility to true
                    set disallow form fill in to true
                    set disallow notes to true
                    set disallow hi res printing to false
                    set color bitmap sampling DPI to 100
                    set grayscale bitmap sampling DPI to 100
                    set monochrome bitmap sampling DPI to 100
--set image quality
                    set color bitmap quality to minimum
                    set grayscale bitmap quality to minimum
--set fonts
                    set subset fonts below to 0
--set security
                    set use security to true
                    set change security password to "editedit"
                    set disallow extraction for accessibility to false
                    set disallow copying to true
          end tell
-- now deal with the doc
          tell active document
                    try
                              set visible of layer "PROOF" to false
                    end try
                    set docName to name
                    set baseName to text item 1 of docName
                    set ASTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
                    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
                    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ASTID
-- use flexible path to user desktop… path strings are HFS (colon delimited)
                    export format PDF type to (path to desktop as text) & "PROOFS:" & name & ".pdf" without showing options
          end tell
end tell

Strange color change in graphic when ID file exported to pdf ID CS3

I open a pdf of some special graphic or scientific equation in Photoshop, put it into grayscale, discard layers, and save as a Tiff. I then import it into a two-color InDesign document. With the selection tool, I choose a swatch of one of the two colors in the document at 10% tint, to be a background color (where there is no content in the Tiff). With the direct selection tool I then choose from the swatches the other color of the two-color document for the actual content of the graphic (text, drawing, etc.). On-screen this looks exactly as it should. However, when I export the InDesign file as a pdf, the color of the background of the graphic is a 10% tint of the second color, not the first color. I have tried redoing the graphic in Photoshop in different ways, but no matter what I do the export to pdf from InDesign changes the color of the background of the graphic to the other color. How can I fix this problem? I am on a new MacBook, 2.4 GHz Intel core 2 Duo; 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 memory; OSX 10.5.6.

mrgoodguy_in wrote:
I previously posted this issue in InDesign forum, where I was said that it seems to be Acrobat issue. Therefore I am posting here.
Thanks in advance
Well this is the Reader forum. You cannot check colors using Reader. Are you using Acrobat? If so, you will want to ask in the Acrobat forum for your OS. Good luck.

Export to pdf and change "Data points"

HI,
I use discoverer 9.0.4 and I want to know how to export to pdf in viewer.
And how to change the name "Data Points"
thank you

Mr. Met wrote:
I don't even know where that is. This is the only screen I see:
Here's a QT Movie of what I'm doing wrong.
I watched your movie... all your are doing is changing the settings for the gray device. If you want to convert your document from color to grayscale, you need to pick one of the color devices (RGB or CMYK) and convert it to a gray profile. Under the Profile popup menu, pick a gray gamma.

Creating Grayscale pdf file

THIS IS SCARY!! Is there no way with inDesign to create a grayscale pdf file from an inDesign document that uses colour? Specifically - We have a BIG order book that is created from a colour catalogue but the order book is printed black and white only. We NEED to be able to Export the pdf file and specify the output as grayscale (used to do this from QuarkXpress all the time)
PLEASE tell me there is away to do this (that i can't seem to find)!

You can also print to PDF from InD. If any of your type is in a process color, particularly a lighter color such as light blue or something similar, it will come out as a light grey tint and may not be good for B&W printing UNLESS it's a spot pantone to begin with. Then if printing to PDF, be sure to check off "text as black)
Make sure that any reverse heads in the original document are converted to outlines, otherwise, they'll disappear when doing this.
2c

Image aliasing when exporting print PDF at 300 ppi (bicubic downsampling)

Hello,
i am trying to describe a problem which persists since version CS3 of InDesign. It's about aliased edges in images in a certain angle; occuring when exporting the brochure as PDF file (at 300 ppi). The placed images are always at a higher quality than needed (for example 780 ppi effective). The aliasing is not there when opening the original image files in photoshop (viewing at 100%).
The PDF export settings are:
- Compression: Bicubic downsampling to300 ppi for images above 350 ppi (for color images, grayscale images and monochrome images)
- Crop Image data to frames
- Marks: Crop Marks and Page Information
- Output: No Color Conversion
- Advanced: Transparency Flattener: High Resolution
- Compatibility: Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3)
- PDF /X-3:2002
Below are two screenshots
- The left one was the original image, downsampled to 216 mm in width using automatic bicubic downsampling
- The right one is the result when exporting a InDesign Document with the same width to a PDF with the mentioned settings
Downsampled in Photoshop CS6 to 216 mm width
Exported from InDesign CS6 with mentioned settings
I have no clue what happens here, but it looks like the internal downsampling of InDesign CS6 is not very good.
When i write a PostScript file of the brochure and put it in Distiller (with the same PDF Preset as above), the image looks like the one made with Photoshop. So this problem has to lie somwhere deep in InDesign or it's settings.
Anybody with similar experiences?

Rob Day wrote:
Something about your test looks off. The export from ID and export from PS PDFs are both zoomed at 1200%, but the export from ID vrsion is 90% smaller.
Yeah I noticed that I actually had the image in InDesign scaled @ 90%, so the effective ppi was around 650. I get the same jagged results when I use anything other than a 300 or 600 effective ppi. Whereas if I use a 650ppi image in Photoshop and export to PDF, it downsamples smoothly.
Rob Day wrote:
The diagonal lines in your test are 1 pixel so at 300ppi to an offset press at 150lpi, the lines would be less than a halftone dot so I'm pretty sure you would need a loupe to see any difference. Maybe with a stochastic screen there would be better resolution but still difficult to see. So if the printing is that good I would just export without down sampling. With disk space running at 15 cents a gigabyte there's not much to gain with a downsample.
It becomes noticeable with some images more than others, but I'm printing a lot of images of buildings and drawings with sharp lines that converge to a point, or are distinguishable in the full size image but indistinguishable when downsampled. This can introduce distracting patterns when they aren't downsampled smoothly, something like this:
Unfortunately the printers near me aren't very good, so I'm having things printed online, and this particular printer (blurb.com - for a small job) won't accept large PDFs without compressed/downsampled images :/ I'm making 300dpi versions of the really crucial images for the time being, but I'm hoping there is a better solution!
The other issue is exporting the PDF for use on the web, either as a download or on an online PDF viewer like issuu.com. The two PDFs on the right side of my test look much better in these situations. Is there any disadvantage to using Distiller to make my PDFs for this purpose using the Device Independent setting? I don't have any special interactive elements.

Failed to export to pdf - need help in understanding adobe advice

my indesign document failed to export to pdf, therefore I looked up the indesign help - see below; I could not find where to proceed after point 2 / would anyone help?
thank you
Solution 2: Downsample the images after export using Acrobat.
Choose File > Export and select PDF as your format, choose a location and click Save.
In the Export PDF dialog box, disable the image downsampling options.
Open the resulting PDF in Acrobat.
Choose Advanced > PDF Optimizer.
Set the downsampling options you desire in the Image Settings pane.
Disable any other options that are not needed.
Click OK and choose the name and location to save the file.

I'm going to assume you actually are unable to accomplish/understand step 2 as opposed to not knowing how to open the resulting pdf.
See screen shot - use the pull down menus under compression for Color Images, Grayscale Images and Monochrome Images - Select Do Not Downsample. Although, I think the Help file has you chasing your tail.

Is it possible to export to PDF without a Return character at the end of every line?

I am the author of a book whose first edition has been typeset and extensively amended in InDesign. I now need to rewrite the first edition to produce a second edition.
When I copy-and-paste from the PDF with which the publisher has supplied me into MS Word, I get a Return character at the end of every line, which means that text doesn’t automatically wrap and sentences are fragmented so that I get spurious grammar errors.
I know that not all PDF files have a Return at the end of every line. Is it possible to restrict Returns to the end of paragraphs when exporting from InDesign to PDF? If so, what should the publisher be asking the typesetter to do?

Thanks for your lightning-swift and helpful replies, Mike & Ellis.
I don't have InDesign myself, so I know hardly anything about how it's used. I'm just trying to research what an internationally-known publisher should already know how to do, but apparently doesn't!
Following your suggestion, Mike, I have downloaded the trial version of Acrobat and exported the PDF to a Word file. This has been moderately successful as there are far fewer spurious Return characters, just a few that I suspect may be hangovers from the typesetter having introduced soft returns in ID.
As you've suggested Peter and Ellis, I'll suggest that the publisher asks the typesettter to export from ID to RTF and Text to see if that's even better.
Message was edited 15:24 GMT by: AlanS5100

How do you export a pdf from acrobat dc to dropbox on a mac

I have been using dropbox for years and have never had a problem exporting a pdf to it until I got Adobe Acrobat DC. Please tell me how to export to a dropbox file.

"stored on acrobat" – PDF files in your acrobat.com account ("Files" or "Workspace")?
If so then you can access those from your install Adobe Reader Mobile app.
What's New :: My Account
Once accessed it is simply easy to transfer the PDFs to the iPad.
Be well...

Export Grayscale PDF

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