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Printing Black and White or Grayscale

2007-08-22 08:37:43

crsang

Registered: Aug 22 2007

Posts: 2

We have a networked printer which is set to default to black and white. This works in all applications except Acrobat 8 (reader or standard). When a user prints using Acrobat the print comes out color, even when we ensure the black and white radio button is checked.

Workaround: We can set the color mode in the print drivers to black and white. Then when Acrobat selects color it goes to the driver to find the color mode and its set to black and white. This will make the PDF's print black and white regardless of what radio button we select on the printing preferences. The issue with this is that when that option is set in the drivers nothing will bring in color, from any application. Not a good solution

How do we get Acrobat to not override the selected settings and print all pdf's in black and white unless the color radio button is checked?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

2008-04-30 07:06:24

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

Have you tried using the "Print color as black" in the Acrobat Pro. Print menu?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-05-04 15:15:18

aleus

Registered: May 4 2009

Posts: 17

I have the same type of problem - - can't seem to get Acrobat to print in black/white, keeps defaulting to grayscale (which results in unreadable gray from "bright green" sections of lines)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2009-05-05 07:29:57

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

Under the Advanced button of the Print menu make sure that you have "Acrobat Default" selected under the Settings menu.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-05-05 08:28:40

aleus

Registered: May 4 2009

Posts: 17

When I click print and the new window opens, there are three buttons on lower left....

Printing Tips
Advanced
Summarize Comments

When I click the Advanced button...

PostScript Options are:
language (dropdown) - grayed out
font and resource policy (dropdown) - grayed out
download asian fonts (checkbox) - grayed out
convert truetype to type 1 (checkbox) - grayed out
emit CIDFontType2 ... (checkbox) - grayed out
Discolored background correction (checkbox) - grayed out

let printer determine colors (checkbox) - grayed out

print as image (checkbox - checked) with 600 (dropdown) dpi

???

I do not see any options for Acrobat default ????

TIA.

--confused user

2009-05-05 08:48:23

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

At the top of the Advanced Print Setup menu you should see a dropdown menu for "Settings:". Make sure this is set to Acrobat Default.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-05-05 09:18:23

aleus

Registered: May 4 2009

Posts: 17

I still cannot locate anything on the advanced tab but

PostScript Options are:
language (dropdown) - grayed out
font and resource policy (dropdown) - grayed out
download asian fonts (checkbox) - grayed out
convert truetype to type 1 (checkbox) - grayed out
emit CIDFontType2 ... (checkbox) - grayed out
Discolored background correction (checkbox) - grayed out

let printer determine colors (checkbox) - grayed out

print as image (checkbox - checked) with 600 (dropdown) dpi

..... this is REALLY frustrating

My sole & whole reason for purchasing acrobat 9.0 was to eliminate the issues with printing color pdf which come out in grayscale rather than black and white!!!http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/332/332720.php is of zero help!

BTW, I'm trying to print to a black only HP 4050N printer.

Thanks for the advice, but I'm still without any black and white....

:(

2009-05-05 09:52:48

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

Are you using the Standard or Pro. version of Acrobat 9?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-05-05 10:03:57

aleus

Registered: May 4 2009

Posts: 17

Ummm... Acrobat 9.1.0 Standard.

The software sales staff at insight.com indiated this was the correct product to print out the colored pdf as black/white.

TIA.

2009-05-05 10:19:14

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

Well, the Standard version does have the "Print color as Black" option but sometimes some color printers have driver controls that don't effect the content going to the printer, but instead send a command to the printer to print either in color or black and white. If this is the case some of the deeper controls in Pro. "could" help. In Pro. under the Advanced menu Output panel there are various options you might try as mentioned in this [url=http://www.acrobatusers.com/forums/aucbb/viewtopic.php?id=13106]post[/url].

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-05-05 10:33:47

#10

aleus

Registered: May 4 2009

Posts: 17

I've captured screen shots of all of the screens I found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/38097103@N02/

all of the lt. green showing in the pdf in the background seems DETERMINED to print in grayscale rather than pure black

best regards,
m

(and wishing everyone luck with their personal fight to print b/w)

2009-05-05 11:32:50

#11

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

Actually I just realized that the Standard version does not have the "Print color as Black" option (after looking at your screenshots), which might address your problem. Have you considered downloading the [url=http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/tryout.php]trial[/url] version to see if it corrects your problem?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-05-13 08:45:32

#12

ilovethevols

Registered: May 13 2009

Posts: 1

I would like to set my computer to automatically print my pdf documents in grayscale. Is this possible? I currently have to go to Advanced Options each time and change the color mode to grayscale. Is there a way to fix this?

2009-05-13 09:13:10

#13

aleus

Registered: May 4 2009

Posts: 17

If you go to the windows "printer and faxes" utility (in XP, START >> Settings >> Printers and Faxes)select your printer, right click and choose Printer Preferences... you can permanently set the default

on a printer to grayscale such that every time you attempt to print to the printer, it will attempt

grayscale rather than color.

2009-05-14 04:20:24

#14

graham_f

Registered: May 14 2009

Posts: 1

I have Acrobat 9 Extended and have a problem trying to create grayscale prints of Powerpoint slide handouts.

I used Acrobat 7.0 before and once the powerpoint print preview displayed the grayscale the 'convert to pdf' pdfmaker button created the file no problem. In 9.0, as the conversion is processed it is resetting the format to colour. However, if instead of using the pdfmaker button I set up the grayscale print in powerpoint and then in the print dialog if I choose 'Adode PDF' it correctly creates the grayscale PDF document.

Does anyone know how to get the pdfmaker route to work? Thanks.

2009-09-04 01:29:26

#15

zx6roo

Registered: Sep 4 2009

Posts: 1

Hi,
I have the same issue as aleus when printingi n Reader 9. I have a B&W printer and it will only print in grey scale... very frustrating.Downloading the trial version is not an option. I have numerous people that use the same printer and have colour pdfs that need to print in B&W. Unfortunately the main colour in some is yellow which is shocking in grey scale.There must be a work around for this? I have tried all suggestions and can get a variation on the darkness to the grey scale but it's still not good enough.

Are there any more suggestions?

I read Adobe's online help and it says to click on Print Color As Black but it just isn't there. My printer doesn't have the option because it's a B&W laserjet, no options to change.Thanks

2009-09-09 09:28:02

#16

lkassuba

Registered: Jun 28 2007

Posts: 3636

Unfortunately, the "Print Color as Black" feature is not available in Reader. Have you tried changing your Printer Properties setting to B&W versus Grayscale?

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

2009-12-25 12:09:10

#17

eduser

Registered: Dec 25 2009

Posts: 1

I can't get Acrobat (9.2.0 pro) to print black & white using the acrobat pdf printer. I am printing from pdf files that were created from b/w scans. The pdf I'm printing from is just B/W, but the pdf printer prints gray-scale, even when I have "print color as black" checked.I do have text recognized on the page, but the page is a b/w page image; so I know that it's the image that should be printed, not the recognized text, but I want the image printed as b/w, as it is in the pdf file that I am printing from.

How do I do that?

2010-01-29 09:36:41

#18

c12k

Registered: Jan 29 2010

Posts: 1

Just want to say that Acrobat has become WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too complicated. 99.9999% of us don't need all of this cra*ware that Adobe has bundled into Acrobat. There should be a single configuration button that says, "Simple User / Advanced User". For all of us simpletons who don't know about color this and color that, Adobe should just have a simple B&W / Color option. Period. It has taken me far too long to get anything resembling a black and white printout (and it is still not very good, with lots of strange lines and other artifacts on the printout.) What the heck is wrong with these people at Adobe??????????????

2010-03-10 06:30:03

#19

gibbs

Registered: Mar 8 2010

Posts: 1

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