Four Ways to Convert to Grayscale
Tips and Tricks, Tricks | April 7th, 2008
Sometimes you need to convert a Illustrator file to grayscale. This could be for a print ad, logo option, or even just to try something different. In Illustrator CS3 you have several options to easily change and edit any artwork to grayscale. There are a couple of simple options and a couple of options that give you more control of how the artwork will look.
Notes
This tutorial was created with Illustrator CS3.
Original
Below is the original artwork with the four grayscale options for comparison.
Convert to Grayscale
This is probably the quickest but least versatile option. Select your artwork and go Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to Grayscale.
Adjust Color Balance
With this option, you have more control over the Black. Select your artwork and go Edit >Edit Colors > Adjust Color Balance. Select Grayscale from the Color Mode drop-down menu and check the Preview and Convert boxes. Now you can adjust the Black percentage with the slider.
Desaturate
If you still want more control over the grayscale, try the Adjust Color Balance option. Select your artwork and go Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork or click to color wheel icon in the control panel. Either way, it will bring up the Live Color dialog. At the very bottom of the dialog are sliders. To the right of the sliders are two buttons. Press the button that looks like a play button. Choose Global Adjust from the drop-down list and move the Saturation slider all the way to the left (-100). Play around with the Brightness, Temperature, and Luminosity sliders to get different results.
Recolor Artwork
If none of the previous options had enough control, you can try the Recolor Artwork option. First, you will need to load the default Print swatches if they are not open. Open the Swatch Libraries Menu on the bottom left of the Swatch panel and go Default Swatches > Print. Once these swatches are open, drag the folder of grayscale swatches into your Swatch panel. Again, you only need to do this if you don’t have the default print swatches open.
Now you can select the artwork and go Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork or click the color wheel icon in the control panel. Once in the Live Color dialog, select the Grayscale set of swatches in the right Color Group column. Now the artwork is grayscale, but the Live Color dialog lets you edit the black swatches assigned to the original colors.
Click the play button next to the sliders at the bottom of the Live Color dialog and select CYMK. Select the original color that you wish to edit from the Current Colors column and use the K (black) slider at the bottom to edit the black percentage . If you hover over the grayscale swatches in the New column next to the Current Colors on the left, you will see an arrow for a drop-down menu. I like Preserve Tints, but try the others for different results.
Ultimately, I liked the Adjust Color Balance option results, but I have used every option for different artwork. Which way works best for you?
nice blog, and nice tips
I commonly just use convert to grayscale. But these other options seem to give better results for some situations. Thanks for sharing!
Dude, this site rocks and I love this character…keep it up.
you are the lord of vectors lol :p
Great tutorial. I made a similar tutorial once having been without the knowledge of your tute, and now mine is definitely a sore loser.
Seriously though, it’s fantastic now to have 4 additional methods of converting to greyscale.
P.S.
My original need was for overly complex, client-supplied logos that our firm would need to use for newspaper b&w advertising needs.
( http://howtoforward.com/2008/01/04/black-white-not-red-all-over/ )
Nice Tutorial. Thank You.
thanks!
Thanks for the tips, I’ve been wondering how to do this
nice! just what I needed! thax mate
Super helpful, thank you!! Your tutorial is very clear and visually attractive, well done.
This was suuuuper helpful. I always coloured
the images by hand.. I mean clicking the swatches one by
one. Now I can use the recolor option for colour schemes and grayscale.
Thanks, this is exactly what i needed, and it worked great.
Thank you so much! This was so helpful and saved me so much time!
Nice. This kind of stuff is so fundamental but so hard to find online. Great post and great site!
Once the image is grayscale, is there also a way to convert the document to grayscale, like in Photoshop? Or is that not necessary for vector images when printing one color jobs?
Is there a way to do a batch to convert hundreds of files to grayscale? These are files that do not need special attention since they are chemical formulas.
I believe there is using the Actions palette. I’ve converted a bunch of files from .ai to .eps before but using the same principle I believe you could convert from color to grayscale.
Thank You. I forgot how to convert to Grayscale but your post helped me do the job.
Thank you – I thought there must be an easier way – but it was so difficult to find!
Thanks, saved me a lot of time!
Thanks. I liked this post.
LOVED IT!!! I ALMOST CRY EVERYTIME I READ IT!!!
P.S.
I HATE PAPYRUS AND YES I AM ONE OF THOSE AVATAR COMPLAINY PEOPLE!