convert grayscale to solid black in acrobat?

[wonderings]

I have the latest version of Acrobat Pro. I know I have not touched the surface on what this app can do, but I am learning as I go.

Anyways, we have a file that came in grayscale. I want an easy way to convert the entire image to 100% black. I have gone to tools>print production>covert colors

Now here is where I just cannot seem to make heads or tales of what I need to do to convert the document to 100% black, no tints.


Can someone give me a step by step in how to achieve this? if it is possible.

Thanks!

 

[jpfulton248]

Can you attach a sample of your PDF to show exactly what you mean by converting grayscale to black?

 

[pdan]

With AA 9 - the menus are different, but the idea is the same.
I create a Fixup
From the Fixup Category I select Color Spaces, Spot Colors, inks
In the Type of Fixup I find Convert to Spot Color
The dialog shows Color Model - Source Color Value - Tolerance
I choose a source of 65 (black or gray) and tolerance of 34. Anything up to 31%-99% black will be changed. (You could choose Source 50%; Tolerance 49%)
Spot color to convert to > Black, 100%
Save and run the fixup

 

[Stephen Marsh]

wonderings, unless you have a profile that converts to solid K, the convert colours option may not be that helpful.

What objects are you wishing to convert? What are the source colour modes? You can use the output preview window set to object inspector option (not separations) to click on objects and find their true properties.

Thanks pdan, I had not tried this particular fixup before.

EDIT: One may need to create two separate fixups, one for CMYK objects and one for Grayscale objects if you have these in your files. Note, raster objects will not be altered with these fixups, nor will gradient objects (just text and line art objects are converted). Although the fixup is converting to a “spot colour” titled “Black”, the result is mapping to the K channel of CMYK mode.

P.S. x4 Fix up files attached, CMYK/Grayscale - 1%> and 50%>


Stephen Marsh

 

[wonderings]

The file was black, no cmy in the image, but it was a tint, around 65% I believe. I have been playing with this file as it is the same tint as the original file. I tried the method pdan but it leaves me with the same image tint, it has not converted the black to 100%.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Wonderings, using the output preview object inspector, the box is confirmed to be in CMYK format 60% K. Using the CMYK 50%> fix-up profile that I attached to my previous post, the result is 0cmy100k.


Stephen Marsh

 

[wonderings]

Wonderings, using the output preview object inspector, the box is confirmed to be in CMYK format 60% K. Using the CMYK 50%> fix-up profile that I attached to my previous post, the result is 0cmy100k.


Stephen Marsh

Did not see your attachment before. How do I go about using this in acrobat? Just double click on them or do I need to put them in a folder somewhere?

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Did not see your attachment before. How do I go about using this in acrobat? Just double click on them or do I need to put them in a folder somewhere?

In the preflight window, in the upper right hand corner is an options menu, where you will find an import option.


Stephen Marsh

 

[wonderings]

In the preflight window, in the upper right hand corner is an options menu, where you will find an import option.


Stephen Marsh

I did get it and one of them worked with my test file, but not with the actual file. The file supplied is a jpeg, not sure if that makes a difference for what I am trying to do. I ended up doing what I needed to do in photoshop.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I did get it and one of them worked with my test file, but not with the actual file. The file supplied is a jpeg, not sure if that makes a difference for what I am trying to do. I ended up doing what I needed to do in photoshop.

Yes, four days ago I wrote: “Note, raster objects will not be altered with these fixups, nor will gradient objects (just text and line art objects are converted)”

To keep this edit inside Acrobat, I think that you would need the Enfocus PitStop Pro 12 plug-in which offers curves.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Stephen Marsh]

New Fixups with Check Added

New Fixups with Check Added

I was not 100% happy with the four Fixup files that I added earlier to convert vector objects and text objects to 0cmy100k values. My concern was that they also affected objects that contained a CMY value that was within the tolerance value of the Fixup. My thought was that I only wanted to affect objects with a 0cmy?k values.

My issues with the original Fixup files were basically:

1. I did not like the alternate colour space which resulted in a solid black object having a density of 99% K rather than solid K.

2. More importantly, I did not like the fact that the fixups affected source objects that had a % of CMY, I only wanted the fixup to affect K only objects.

I have attached a new archive containing the four Fixup files. There is also a Single Check included for installation, which the four Single Fixup files reference. The Check is for true black only objects, if an object contains any CMY value, then the fixup will not be applied.

P.S. I also made a blog post on this topic here:

http://prepression.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/acrobat-pro-preflight-fixup-to-convert.html


Stephen Marsh