Best Way to Print in GrayScale

[Jane Davis]

I have a client who wants designs that are available in color and grayscale 24x36 as PDF.

Sounds pretty simple but I cannot get the grayscale version really sharp so the text is clear.

I have Photoshop essentials (not Pro) and Acrobat.

I have discarded the idea of using JPEG anywhere because of the lossiness. I have a perfect result exporting as PDF at 300dpi, opening that in Photoshop, converting to grayscale and saving as GIF and creating a PDF. Except that makes a file that thinks it is 150" x 100".

If I export as PNG I get fuzziness. TIFF has strange tonal effects. Any help would be welcome

[CipesDesign]

If you are Mac OSX you can Save As the PDF using the Quartz Filter called "Gray Tones". Not sure if there is an equivalent function on PC (or right in Acrobat), but I'll bet there is...

[PVA - Admin]

Usually exporting to PNG in grayscale will work, however after selecting the PNG format, you have to then go back on the left of the Export Image dialogue and set the resolution, I believe it will default to 72 or 150 again, it should be raised much higher.

300 for smaller images perhaps but you can usually get no blurriness if you up it to 1200.

[Jane Davis]

I am on Windows and there is no quartz filter. And grayscale conversion is only available in Acrobat Pro, not Standard. I do not want to spend the money.....

BTW I thought maybe I had missed a variation but I went export PDF, into Photoshop in grayscale and save to PDF and that is really fuzzy.

[PVA - Admin]

Make sure that you are increasing the DPI both in the export from Vectorworks to something like 1200, and that in the Photoshop document it is set to that DPI as well, I think it defaults to a fuzzy 72DPI there too. However, I do not know for sure where that setting is in the various versions of Photoshop, I think it can be controlled when creating a new blank file and a few other locations.

[Jane Davis]

I feel like I am being really picky but if I export as PNG I get shadows around white areas - which I use as background to make text stand out on hatches.

[Jane Davis]

OK PNG at 300 DPI is OK and the shadow was on an image - 600 DPI was better but I ran out of memory - Oh for a machine that I could get to 1200 DPI.

Adobe fuzzes it a bit when it goes into Acrobat but hopefully it is good enough.

Now I hope my client is OK once it gets to paper

Thanks all

[CipesDesign]

Jane, It would be very helpful for us to what hardware and software (OS) you are working with. You can add this info to your signature using the My Stuff>Edit Profile link above.

Thanks!

[grant_PD]

I would think that you could "print to file" and create a .ps file, and in the print settings "print in greyscale." just like you would to a printer. Then create a pdf from that...

[grant_PD]

Actually just found this from adobe, works great. You will need acrobat pro though...

http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2009/10/converting-color-pdf-to-greyscale-pdf-an-update/

[Jane Davis]

Grant - thanks for the thoughts - I really do not want to fork out for Acrobat Pro though I realize that would probably do it.

Print to file on Print is using the print driver options - I get Adobe distiller, and some very weird results.

On the PNG front - I have one file that is working fine but another that is showing gray boxes around white areas and also is running out of memory in no time. I have rebooted in case of a memory leak.

[grant_PD]

Then print to pdf, open in photoshop, at 150dpi, and desaturate. Even elements should be able to do that.

[Jane Davis]

Hmmm - saving it from there as a PDF and keeping the resolution as 600 DPI is looking good. I will try getting this printed tomorrow.

Thank you all for your input - I have been tearing my hair out.

[RickR]

I often use a free program called CutePDF.

It installs as a printer, which is how PDFs were made back in the stone age. As a printer you have very fine control over how to format the output. AND it will work with any form of output.

So set it to grayscale only, 300 or 600DPI and print.