Help with converting a CMYK file to Black (K) only

Kurt1

New Member
HI Folks,

Newbie here and hoping some of you can help me?

I have a file ready for print (240 pages), but to send to the print, it need to be in Black only (K). I have tried grayscale, but the pages are still showing as CMYK - I have Adobe Acrobat, and despite trying various online help, cannot see how to convert the entire file? (Lots on hos to convert to CMYK - I need to reverse.

The file contains mostly text, with black and white photos, hence the need to remove the CMY elements.

Trust this makes sense and hoping that one of you can help?

Thanks
Peter
 
Um.... printer guys correct me if I'm wrong (not my usual area of work) here but don't most 'black' prints also require some amount of colour in the print out because K isn't actually 'black'.... I'm thinking 'rich black'.
 
The printers will handle it - don't worry about it.
If you want it black only - they should do it.

You only need rich black for headlines - like a newspaper. Typically made up of 50% Cyan and 100% black - it's usually 2 colour - but on smaller items, typically below 72pt the registration in litho print can be difficult.

For digital print - 240 page book is quite large but not impossible, but usually digital print runs are for small quantities and smaller page counts. But times are changing. And digitally printing 240page book and it's in colour could be costly, so the printer can output in grayscale and adjust the black level on press to get a good balance.

And so for Litho too - the printers can convert when Ripping and the printers can adjust on press.
 
HI Folks,

Newbie here and hoping some of you can help me?

I have a file ready for print (240 pages), but to send to the print, it need to be in Black only (K). I have tried grayscale, but the pages are still showing as CMYK - I have Adobe Acrobat, and despite trying various online help, cannot see how to convert the entire file? (Lots on hos to convert to CMYK - I need to reverse.

The file contains mostly text, with black and white photos, hence the need to remove the CMY elements.

Trust this makes sense and hoping that one of you can help?

Thanks
Peter

What makes you say it's showing CMY as well. Can you show me how you're looking at this?
 
Thanks for the replies.

I cannot show you where the CMY is showing, as that is how it is appearing with the printers.

If it helps, I am the author and have created the book and images, converting to a PDF for the printers. I need to replace 5 of the pages to have colour pages (know how to do that). It is having the base PDF file showing as black only - to significantly cut down on the printing costs.

Just do not have the knowledge to know where, in Acrobat, to covert this base file? is that something you could tell me where to do that?

Thanks in advance
 
Thanks, trying to work through and liaise with the printers, will see what comes back.

Regards
 
It's absolutely insane if the printers can't do this for you - I'd be looking for a new printers. This is simple stuff for prepress.
 
One of the additional complications with this one, besides converting it to black / grayscale, is that I then need to replace 5 of the pages and keep them colour. I have those 5 separate files, but then, when replacing them, how do I save the 'new' file to keep the bulk of the file as grayscale?
 
Once it's grayscale in the other pages - then you can have CMYK pages inserted. It makes no difference.
PDFs can hold a file with Pantone, LAB, RGB, CMYK and various other colour models all in one PDF.

The amount of work you're doing on this is unnecessary.
 
I can only agree, far too much time on something that is, I am sure, a few clicks to sort.

Unfortunately, despite me converting to grayscale on various programs, when it goes to the printers, the entire file is still showing CMYK. It is incredibly frustrating.

I have followed the help you have given, plus followed other advice online, downloading additional programs - I am still ending back at the same point.

Your help is very much appreciated and I would love to solve this issue (will have to go through the same steps for future books), but cannot seem to get to desired outcome.
 
I am still unsure at what point you think it's showing CMYK - if you're viewing separations it will always show the CMYK channels, but turning off the black channel should remove all the grayscale from the preview, leaving only the CMY - which would be the five pages.

But I don't know what juncture you're encountering your issue - is it when you send the file to the printers?
 
It is when the file is getting to the printers.

The base manuscript is done in Word, then converted to PDF. The printer has suggested the issue may be the base manuscript (being in Word). That's why I have added additional programs to sort it. Still to no avail.
 
Word.....

That’s where it all falls apart. You are using the wrong application to create the document. Converting a word document to pdf keeps all the ms caggage, invisible to you but visible to the print application.

You are better off finding a printer who can work with a word document.
 
Is it better to recreate this in one of the Adobe programs? should not take too long, as the layout, text and everything else is done, just a case of setting up the template and cutting and pasting - then sort the colours from there?
 
I have a printer I work with, done many projects together, so that side is fine, it is the file conversion that is the issue.
 
Word will typically be RGB black which conversion to CMYK would cause a 4 colour black.

But I can easily fix that.
 
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