Printable View
Does anyone know of a way to convert an RGB or CMYK image placed in InDesign to grayscale within InDesign without having to convert the file in Photoshop? I have set the color output in the print options to composite grayscale, but still seem to be having a problem. QuarlXpress allows this and I would like to find a way to do the same in InDesign.
You can put a black box on top of your image and change the transparency to color or place a black color in the image box and change the image to luminosity. You could either export a pdf as Grayscale only or export to pdf, open that in photoshop and save as Grayscale/photoshop pdf in order to print. You could open the image in Photoshop and convert it to grayscale, but you can instead use this InDesign plug-in to do the work for you.
You can do this in the PDF by Acrobat Professional (here 7):
Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors > CMYK: Convert Choose a Gray Profile, for instance Dot Gain 20% for Coated. you have to then change the mode back to either CMYK or RGB in Photoshop. Don't keep the color mode in Grayscale. That will print the image as a grayscale.
The following procedure is also similar earlier one but there is slight change in Exporting a postscript file and distill it and open it in Acrobat Professional. Go to:
Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors ;Keep in mind two important things – when outputting in CMYK, the gray image will only render on the black (K) plate, and the original image is NOT altered in any way. convert everything to grayscale in there using an approprate profile (such as Dot Gain 20%) and you will not have a grayscale PDF.