Grayscale or Black? Choose the Right Mono Conversion

A mono printer makes its own conversion whether or not the file does. Converting first gives you the choice: smooth grey photographs, solid black text, or a mix of both on the same page.

Why this comes up

Reports often carry a colour logo, a highlighted table and a photograph on the same page, and each needs a different treatment. The wrong setting either turns a chart into mud or leaves pale grey text that the printer renders even lighter.

Check before you run it

• Choose what happens to text separately from images. Text conversion offers grayscale or black; black gives small type a solid edge. Image conversion offers grayscale or none, which keeps charts and photographs in colour while the rest of the page is greyed.
• Leave images in colour only when colour carries meaning. A legend, a red warning band or a chart series can lose its distinction in grey. Keeping images in colour is a deliberate exception, not a way to avoid the conversion.
• Watch the trade-off when you tick Compress images. Compressing the images trades resolution for size, which is the wrong bargain for fine line art, very small type or detailed drawings. Leave it off when the page has to survive close reading.

When to reach for it

• A colour report has to print on a mono office printer. Convert text to black for legibility and let photographs fall into grey, so the printer is not deciding contrast for you.
• Only the photographs should stay in colour. Keep image conversion at none when a chart's colour coding is the point, and let the surrounding text and rules go grey.

One question we get

Does grayscale ruin the colour original?

No — the copy you download is grey; your upload keeps its colour. Images can stay in colour while only the text is converted, if you prefer.

Where it fits

The tools people usually open next to Grayscale:

• Deskew — Automatically straighten and deskew scanned PDF pages.
• Header & Footer — Apply page numbers or text labels to PDF files.
• Page Numbers — Apply page numbering to PDF files.

Every tool works on a copy, so the original file is never touched. Uploads are stored under an unguessable id and deleted automatically two hours after you last open them; nothing is listed, shared or indexed. More on the security page.