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nicolasc34894575
Participant
Aug 24, 2016 7:15 PM UTC
Answered

How do I print true black?

I am trying to print color a document with black in it. The black keeps coming out as a faded grayish black. It is not true black. I have printed real black before on this printer from this computer so I know it is possible, but for some reason it keeps coming out like this. Any ideas?

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Dov Isaacs
Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
Legend
Aug 29, 2016 12:13 AM UTC

The response given above is absolutely wrong unless you want all of the color to be converted to true grayscale.

What you are encountering is a problem known a “rich black” due to the application that produced the content treating black as equal components of red, blue, and green (R=G=B) instead of either grayscale (G) or CMYK=(0,0,0,1).

Assuming that what you want to print in true black is indeed exactly R=G=B, the solution is directly accessible from the print dialog. In the print dialog, press the Advanced options and select the Color Management. In that dialog, check the boxes for Treat grays as K-only grays and Preserve Black. (See screen shot below!) Press OK and then Print. That should solve the problem of rich black text, rich black vectors, and any raster images for which all pixels are R=G=B.

Note that if all you want is for all the output to be black and white, that can be easily accomplished from the original print dialog by selecting the Print in grayscale (black and white) ​option.

Please advise if this helps.

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

3 replies

Dov Isaacs
Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
Legend
Aug 29, 2016 12:13 AM UTC

The response given above is absolutely wrong unless you want all of the color to be converted to true grayscale.

What you are encountering is a problem known a “rich black” due to the application that produced the content treating black as equal components of red, blue, and green (R=G=B) instead of either grayscale (G) or CMYK=(0,0,0,1).

Assuming that what you want to print in true black is indeed exactly R=G=B, the solution is directly accessible from the print dialog. In the print dialog, press the Advanced options and select the Color Management. In that dialog, check the boxes for Treat grays as K-only grays and Preserve Black. (See screen shot below!) Press OK and then Print. That should solve the problem of rich black text, rich black vectors, and any raster images for which all pixels are R=G=B.

Note that if all you want is for all the output to be black and white, that can be easily accomplished from the original print dialog by selecting the Print in grayscale (black and white) ​option.

Please advise if this helps.

          - Dov

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- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Participating Frequently
Feb 26, 2023 4:33 PM UTC

Mr. Isaacs - could you assist to resolve my issue without having me to reinstall windows?

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/print-in-grayscale-still-in-color/m-p/13607723#M400946

 

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Adorobat
Participating Frequently
Aug 26, 2016 2:46 AM UTC

Hi nicolasc34894575

Could you please let us know the version of Acrobat installed on the computer?

What operating system you have- Windows/Mac?

Try tp perform following step:

1- Launch Acrobat,open the document>click Tools>then search preflight.

2- Click on Preflight,search Convert to grayscale>then click Analyze and fix>and save the file.

3- Print pdf file and check if its printing fine.

Below are the screenshots :

Let us know if it worked.

Thank You,

Shivam

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