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rmaps
Participant
January 6, 2017
Answered

Setting CMYK Illustrator files to print in grayscale on a color printer

  • January 6, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 4495 views

Hi, when I searched on this topic I found an answer from 3 years ago but it doesn't work for me, so I'm wondering if there's a new answer for Creative Cloud. I would like to save money by printing some full color Illustrator files in grayscale (on a color printer). I know I can convert to Grayscale in Edit>Colors, but I was hoping for something in the Print dialog box that would, among other things, work for more than one file at once. Something like for Acrobat, where you can set a button to Print Grayscale. I don't see any Grayscale options under Color Management>Printer Profile, which was where it apparently was 3 years ago. Is there an easy solution to this that I'm missing? Thanks.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Monika Gause

    Print Setup > Color Management > Printer profile

    3 replies

    Participant
    August 1, 2024

    Usually when you print to an office color printer from Illustrator, you have the options of [Page Setup] and [Setup] in the print dialog box. When you select the [Setup] option you might get a message like, "The Print Setup dialog box is provided by the operating system..." Just hit continue and it will give you your color printer's settings where you will often find a choice to print in color or black and white.

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 6, 2017

    Some people did this accidentlly by selecting a grayscale color profile in their print dialog.

    rmaps
    rmapsAuthor
    Participant
    January 6, 2017

    But how? Where?

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    January 6, 2017

    Print Setup > Color Management > Printer profile

    John Mensinger
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 6, 2017

    rmaps wrote:

    Something like for Acrobat, where you can set a button to Print Grayscale.

    I'd open in Illustrator, save as PDF, print from Acrobat using the Print in Grayscale feature.

    Maybe not what you're looking for, but second nature for me since Acrobat is the ONLY CC app from which I ever print directly.