How to obtain real grayscale EPS

[gibs02]

Hello,

I need to provide to my printer EPS files in grayscale. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the right way to do that.

Below a simple example :

- I open a new document in Illustrator

- I draw some shapes in blue, red, green and so on

- I convert the whole content in grayscale thanks to this option :

     => Edit > Edit Colors > Convert To Grayscale

- I choose save as a copy

- I choose .eps. I don't change any option.

Then, I open the file in Adobe Acrobat Pro, I use 'output preview' tool and I can see that there are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow in my image.

I don't understand why... If someone have an idea. Thanks !

Yohan

[Monika Gause]

Are the plates empty?

Which color mode is your file?

Which options when saving it?

Do you really need an EPS?

[gibs02]

Hi Monika,

Thanks. In my document, I can have text, square with outline, empty or not (but most of the time empty). I'm not sure to understand what you mean by 'plates'.

I'm in RGB mode (I think in Illustrator, we juste have CMJN or RGB).

I use default options for EPS. I don't change anything.

I need really EPS unfortunately...

[Test Screen Name]

"Plates" applies to CMYK mode. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are printer's plates to be covered in ink of the relevant color, and pressed onto paper. To make greyscale you need to be working in CMYK, and ensure that the cyan, magenta and yellow plates are blank. To put it another way, the C, M and Y plates must all be zero.

Working in RGB it will be converted to a mixture of C,M,Y,K according to the print profile in use. Won't have blank plates. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you turn off the checkmarks in Acrobat's Output Preview.

If you uncheck the black plate everything should disappear when the file content is grayscale.

I cannot reproduce the problem, when I select all in an RGB or CMYK doument and choose Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to Grayscale the result will appear on the black plate only. in a pdf (even with the conversion from eps to pdf).

[gibs02]

Hello,

Many thank you for your answers. I did some test on CMJK plates and Adobe Acrobat preview checkmarks but without any success.

So I've created a video in order to show you a precise example :

https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/criiibV1P9a

[Ton Frederiks]

I followed your workflow (I did not see your conversion from eps to pdf), and it worked fine.

I am using the latest versions, which versions are you using?

Is there a reason to use CS6 eps?

[gibs02 · Accepted solution]

In fact, I didn't convert it in PDF. Just open the .EPS with Adobe Acrobat.

I use Illustrator CS6 16.0.0.

You are about the eps version, if I use "Illustrator 3 EPS" instead of the most recent one, I obtain an EPS in real grayscale...

When I save the file in PDF directly from Illustrator I get also a good document.

When I follow this workflow, it works too :

- Save EPS file from Illustrator with default options

- Open it in Acrobat pro (still CMJ plates)

- Save it in EPS from Acrobat pro

- Open it again in Acrobat pro (real grayscale)

So, except if someone has another idea, I think I'm going to close this topic. It's a weird (or normal but difficult to understand for me) behaviour with recent EPS format from Illustrator.

Thanks a lot.

[Ton Frederiks]

If you open the .eps in Acrobat, Acrobat uses the Distiller in the background to convert the PostScript to PDF.

Good to hear you got it working somehow.

[gibs02]

Thanks to all of you !