Expert: Ken Black - 10/23/2008

Question
I frequently receive PDF drawings via adobe with colored portions on the drawing. These need to be printed on 11x17, but the only printer we have that can print that size is an old HP5si. It has no color, and prints the colored portions of the drawings so light that they cannot be seen. I have already tried to adjust the output format on edit pref, select convert to pdf, picking the authoring app and click edit settings, then white as background and black as text, but it is still too light.
Any way to change the color on the received drawing to black BEFORE printing?

Answer
This is an answer I gave for a similar issue in trying to print to a black and white printer, it should do a better job of converting the colors for you.

To print always in black & white, you will need to change a couple of settings in the print dialogue that opens when you select print.

1 - In the print window select Advanced, the first options should be   for Output, where it says Color you will need to change that setting to Composite Gray in the drop down menu.

2 - In the same Advanced settings window you should find a drop down at the top that says Custom, with a button next to it that says Save As...
Save the setting you have just changed and name it something you will understand i.e. - Donna's Black/White. With this new setting selected click OK.

3 - Back in the original Print window is a menu called Presets... again select Save As and name it something you understand. With that Preset selected click Print.

That should do it, now whenever you need to print something black and white just select the Preset you have just created in the Print window and then Print. The settings should all remain and your print will be black and white.



There is a plug-in called Pitstop from Enfocus that will allow you more control over making changes within documents, such as changing the color of individual images to grayscale. Acrobat does not do this on its own, at least up to version 8.

The overall best fix for this issue is to create the images as grayscale prior to creating the pdf

Thanks,

Ken Black
www.bestprintingonline.com