rjb1

Q: Problem saving PDF to Gray Tone

I need to save a Black and White (more correctly Grey scale) version of a color newsletter PDF that I have for submission to a commercial printer.  This used to be easy in older versions of Mac OS; I would simply do a "Save As" or "Export" and select the "Gray Tone" Quartz Filter and the result would be exactly what I need.

 

In recent versions of Mac OS (I think roughly from Mavericks on) when I do this, I get a mostly gray scale PDF, but some images in it are still in color.  No combination of printing to PDF, saving as, or exporting will turn *all* the images in the document to black and white.  It seems to be related to images that have a "shadow" effect applied in the original document (created in Pages).  Can someone please tell me what's going on here, and how to create a gray-scale document from my color document?  I've been able to do it with Acrobat Pro using the Gray Scale pre-flight fixup, but this *should* be possible with Preview, and I've no desire to purchase Acrobat Pro just for this 3-times a year requirement.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Rich

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Aug 14, 2016 12:18 PM

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Q: Problem saving PDF to Gray Tone

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  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Aug 14, 2016 12:34 PM in response to rjb1
    Level 7 (21,026 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 14, 2016 12:34 PM in response to rjb1

    You are opening the PDF in Preview, and then selecting File menu : Export… as PDF, and choosing the Gray Tone Quartz filter?

     

    The following are before and after using Preview. The third image is opening the PDF in Affinity Designer, selecting each image, and performing a new layer adjustment : Black and White to each image. Exported as press ready PDF.

    Screen Shot 2016-08-14 at 3.23.03 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-14 at 3.23.23 PM.jpg

    Screen Shot 2016-08-14 at 3.31.10 PM.jpg

  • by rjb1,

    rjb1 rjb1 Aug 14, 2016 12:36 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 14, 2016 12:36 PM in response to VikingOSX

    VikingOSX wrote:

     

    You are opening the PDF, and then selecting File menu : Export… as PDF, and choosing the Gray Tone Quartz filter?

    Yes, as I said, I'm doing exactly that, and unfortunately it doesn't work.  The resulting PDF is gray scale, except for the images which remain in color - it seems to be the images that originally had a shadow effect on them.  Most frustrating.

  • by rjb1,

    rjb1 rjb1 Sep 18, 2016 4:46 PM in response to rjb1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 4:46 PM in response to rjb1

    Anyone?  This seems to just be broken, but I'd love to find out I'm wrong.

     

    thanks!