Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Converting select pages to greyscale in Publisher


Recommended Posts

  • Staff

Hi stutes,

We can't convert a page to grayscale, you could convert the whole document.  I guess one way would be to create a separate grayscale document, save it and then use File>Place to bring it into the main document.  But when you Publish as PDF I don't how that would be treated. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could apply adjustments to the page, such as an HSL layer to desaturate colors.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/6/2019 at 5:10 PM, stutes said:

In Publish, Is there a way to convert select pages of a color document into greyscale?

I would publish two versions, one color and one gray. Extract the pages needed from the gray version and replace the corresponding color pages. You would just need any pdf editor capable of removing/replacing the pages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, MikeW said:

I would publish two versions, one color and one gray. Extract the pages needed from the gray version and replace the corresponding color pages. You would just need any pdf editor capable of removing/replacing the pages.

Given that the overall document is still color, won't the grayscale pages you insert into the color document also end up as color pages, albeit gray?

How is that different from desaturating a color page, in the end?

(If you can't tell, I find the concept of different color settings for different pages within a single color file confusing :) )

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, MikeW said:

I would publish two versions, one color and one gray. Extract the pages needed from the gray version and replace the corresponding color pages. You would just need any pdf editor capable of removing/replacing the pages.

That's what stokerg suggested but with one caveat: "But when you Publish as PDF I don't how that would be treated."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Black & White adjustment generates K only output. For image resources you could use the "K only" button, which will convert RGB resources to grayscale in 4c and reduce CMYK resources to their K channel only.

Another option would be to export the file or specific pages as grayscale PDF and combine the wanted pages of the resulting PDF with that which should have colors.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Given that the overall document is still color, won't the grayscale pages you insert into the color document also end up as color pages, albeit gray?

How is that different from desaturating a color page, in the end?

(If you can't tell, I find the concept of different color settings for different pages within a single color file confusing :) )

The is a two-page spread. I converted just the recto to grayscale. If inspected in pitstop/acrobat, it is indeed all on the black plate.

Capture_000188.png.8402d5827db17189f5b696efef808c2a.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I'll give them a try next time I need to print a document that has both color spreads and greyscale spreads (in the next couple of weeks).

If you wondering why, it boils down to cost. Our in-house copier has a contract that charges more for color copies (to be expected). But when I print, I can set the driver for the color quality to "Auto", which detects if the pages/spreads have color on them or not, and if not, it prints in black and white... and in turn costs less. This even holds true for pages/spreads within the same print run. So, to keep costs down, I print the cover spread in color, and the rest of our booklet in black and white.

My current workflow involves exporting to PDF and converting the inside spreads to greyscale using Acrobat Pro. And that works quite well. Just looking for non-Adobe options.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

I'm in the same position as Stutes and for the same reason -- cost of printing colour pages. I have made several attempts to export a greyscale PDF but the pages only look grey: they are, in fact, made up of CMYK. It should be simple, shouldn't it? Now, I have to go back and replace all the colour components with greyscale alternatives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, rjav said:

I have made several attempts to export a greyscale PDF but the pages only look grey: they are, in fact, made up of CMYK.

If your Affinity document has a different than the Gray colour space choose for export the Gray Space + an according profile, and activate the option "convert image colours spaces".

1919383564_grayscalepdfexport.jpg.9dc2ae2f9f7b4bc60eb49b76ff043802.jpg

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Thomaso and others

I have had time to carry out more tests and it seems to be as simple as I thought it would be

The key is setting the ICC profile -- this was not an issue with InDesign but I had to make sure that I set up the Affinity document with the same profile that my printer was using (which was FOGRA39)

To export a greyscale file I had previously chosen the "Gray" colour space but then used one of the five available grey ICC profiles

When the printer opened the file, because it used a different profile, the grey-only PDF was converted to a CMYK mix which only looked grey

The point being, as others have noted, that any CMY on the page means a higher printing cost

This time, I chose the "Gray" colour space but used the document profile (ie, FOGRA39) and, as Thomaso has noted, selected "Convert image colour spaces"

The printer has just emailed back "All black breakdown! No colour found"

Now I will be able to produce a master document using original images which might be in colour for a PDF which is emailed to some subscribers (they might as well see it in colour) and then convert selected pages to grey only for the printed version 

Thank you to all who have taken an interest in this 

Grey profile.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, rjav said:

I had to make sure that I set up the Affinity document with the same profile that my printer was using

Another option would be to export as PDF/X. This writes the profile as an "output intent" which automatically gets used when the PDF gets opened on a different computer.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Just an update to this. I haven't tried Thomaso's suggestion of PDF/X but I have just sent off the June issue and had the same old problem. In checking my saved Settings for the grey-only output, I found that "Embed ICC profile" was ticked. When I unticked this, the grey pages were free of CMY. With this issue in production, I can now install V2 and see what happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.