How to change CMYK art to grayscale?

[kiski]

I am trying to change a CMYK vector file to grayscale in CS4.

I went to Edit/Edit Colors/ Change to Grayscale. The .AI vector art now looks gray on screen, but the title says "Icon.ai@100% (CMYK/Preview)". It still reproduces as a CMYK file and not Grayscale.

I can't place this into a 2 spot colour document. What am I missing?

[Jacob Bugge]

kiski,

There is no Grayscale Color Mode, so it will still appear as CMYK.

[kiski]

Here is a recap -

- the vector file was received from the customer as a CMYK PDF file. It is to be placed in a two spot colour flyer.

- I used Illustrator CS4 to open it and convert it to grayscale. It will print black only in the flyer.

It looks grayscale on the screen and yet says "CMYK" in the title.

I am not sure where to look in the palettes to confirm its colour mode.

- When I place the file in my InDesign CS4 document and Package the document, it shows up as a CMYK file. When I delete the file from that document, I end up with one spot colour and one process colour (black) job which is what I want.

So, this vector file is confusing me. How do I tell in Illustrator if it is CMYK or grayscale?

How to change the color mode?

Thank you!

[Guest]

How do you tell if it's grayscale (which is black or shades of black)?

Open your file, go to the Window menu and select Separations Preview. Click off the box next to the Black plate, and your artwork will all disappear if it is grayscale.

[kiski]

Thanks Tom.

Did that...  I had to check off the Overprint Preview box to make anything work. Otherwise all the CMYK boxes were grayed out. Make sense?

When I clicked on the Black plate, the art disappeared. When I clicked on the CMY boxes, nothing changed.

If that proves this is a black only image, that's what I want and need! BUT, when I import this art into InDesign and Package it, it's telling me it's a CMYK file!

As a Test, I imported it into a new InDesign document as a single image and Packaged it. It tells me the document is using "4 process colors" and 0 spot colors. Will the printer have to print additional plates for nothing?

[emil emil]

kiski wrote:

....

I went to Edit/Edit Colors/ Change to Grayscale. The .AI vector art now looks gray on screen, but the title says "Icon.ai@100% (CMYK/Preview)". It still reproduces as a CMYK file and not Grayscale.

I can't place this into a 2 spot colour document. What am I missing?

Why not? If you sent to print CMYK file with nothing on the CMY channels and all you have is on the K channel then this is in effect 1 color job that can be printed with any spot color.