TypeNerd

Thank you. Yes, the frustrating thing is that I have done the work already, all images are 8-bit grayscale tiffs, all my text is specified at 100%K with no other color. And then my pdf turns it all to color at the end with PDFX1a. But I did check with the printer, and the reason they specify that pdf setting is that USUALLY that is the only way to get true grayscale output (from Adobe InDesign). They are content with any pdf output that is grayscale, so I will go ahead without the PDFX1a setting. Thanks, everyone for sharing my pain and helping to work on the problem.

Yes, sadly, it appears my only solution at this time is to use cmyk color profile in Affinity Publisher 2, export PDFX1a which the publisher needs, and then use Acrobat Pro to make it grayscale again. Pretty ridiculous, but it does work. (Sigh) Longing for the day I can ditch my last subscription to Adobe and let them greedy guys make their money elsewhere. Just FYI, Adobe Acrobat Pro works fine on mac OS, and has for years.

Thanks to all for your informed and timely response on this! You all rock!

This is making me insane. You are right. If I choose a CMYK/8 color profile, I can then get a true K-only pdf with press-ready option and choose gray. But if I choose PDF/X, it outputs in color. I can do an ink correction in Acrobat Professional and get back to a true black output, and will do that. But I just couldn't believe it wasn't possible. Adobe is never getting any more of my money than what I have to pay for Acrobat, (because of this problem!) but I sure hope Affinity fixes this one day. I love Affinity otherwise.

I'm on mac running OS Sonoma 14.3.1. My document is set up color: grayscale/8 profile: generic grayscale. My images are all grayscale tiffs. My text styles have all been specified as 100% K with no other colors. My printer needs a PDF/X pdf. I have tried every combination in the pdf settings I can think of, but the pdf always exports in cmyk color. What am I missing?

OH MAAAAAAAN! I hope that is it. I will try it out! Thank you!

So I prepare print documents for many different print houses. I always set up the color profile to the printer's specs, and convert all my photos to that cmyk profile before placing, and change all text to 100%K black color. If I work straight from this set-up to pdf output, all goes well. If I then open another document (which requires and was set up with different specs) I get "Affinity Publisher converted this document to your working profile" which includes switching all my text from a true 100%K black, back to a mixed black, and changing the color profile. (Interestingly, the color profile chosen is one I almost never use.) I get this message if I work in some other document and then return to my first one also. What the? How can I keep this from happening?

I would like to do this also! The press has sent me a .joboptions file an no additional information. (They of course are imagining I am working in the (dreaded) Adobe programs ... help!

(Coming out of InDesign experience here, where as long as you have everything set up correctly in CMYK, you were good to go to any output, so this is all news to me. And this was before all this color profile nonsense.) Sigh. I will try to adapt to this program being "so helpful" and changing my color on output to pdf. Because I abhor Adobe and never want to go back to paying their subscription prices. I got some good clues here, will continue to experiment. Thanks, all.

Hmmmmm. In InDesign, just setting the logo up in cmyk was enough, and defining the black as 100K in the logo ... I thought the "assign" choice in AffPub document setup would take are of that color assignment change? Looks like no? Do I have to create a logo for each color profile? Now that we are considering wacky thoughts, did the fact that my smallest type is set on an angle have anything to do with it converting to rich black on pdf export? (Something similar used to happen in early InDesign files, now I'm thinking back ...)

I started using the layer fx for outlines because it always "said" they were setup in 100k, and when you apply a stroke, you have to remember to do it every time. Thanks for this, and that will solve my outlines problem. Now to figure out why that PTFF logo exported as a rich black, and my smaller text, although the headline "held" the 100K black and printed fine. Sheesh!

Why is APub showing it as 100%K? I am flummoxed. I hate to go back to paying Adobe for InDesign.

No color conversion (except for exporting to pdf). I assigned all the outlines from the Layer effects, and they are defined as 100K, until export. See attached. I have the yellow dates chosen.

Also, the PTFF logo is built with a "true" black, but reads as a mix in Adobe Acrobat after export. (This is common with most logos upon export from A Publisher, I have noticed.) I need a quick solution to this problem, or I have to go back to using InDesign. Help! What am I missing?