Convert PDF to grayscale

Printing colour documents on a black-and-white printer can make text look faint, and colour ink is expensive. Converting to grayscale shows exactly how the document will print and can cut costs.

Common uses

• Save colour ink when printing long documents at home or the office.
• Meet submission rules that require black-and-white documents.
• Preview how charts and photos will look on a monochrome printer.

Tips for best results

• Check charts after conversion – colours that differ only in hue may look identical in grey.
• Compress PDF afterwards for an even smaller file.

Ink and toner savings

Colour cartridges are expensive and many offices default to black-and-white printing. Converting first lets you check readability of charts and highlights before printing, avoiding wasted pages.

Smaller files too

Colour images contain three channels of information; grayscale needs only one, so converting can also reduce file size for image-heavy documents.