Making Color Documents Readable in Black & White Printing
Key points
- Convert first to see how it will look
- Watch parts distinguished only by color
- For many pages, consider several pages per sheet
Choosing black and white on a convenience-store or school printer is cheaper than color. But printing a color PDF as is in black and white can make it hard to read.
Convert first and check
With Convert a PDF to Grayscale, you can see in advance how it will print.
Parts that tend to become hard to read
- Pale yellow or light blue text: nearly unreadable.
- Graphs distinguished only by color: you cannot tell which line is which.
- Text on a colored background: contrast drops.
What to do
- In the monochrome preview, find the parts you cannot read.
- In the original, fix them, for example by using darker colors or changing line styles (solid, dotted).
- After fixing, convert again and check.
Use fewer sheets
For many pages, Put Multiple PDF Pages on One Sheet with 2-up or 4-up saves even more paper. Converting first and then combining makes checking easier.
Documents for submission
If black and white is specified, make a monochrome PDF rather than submitting it in color, to be safe.
Use "Convert a PDF to Grayscale (Black & White)" (free)Tools that go well with this
- Compress PDF: Shrink a PDF to fit under a size you choose, for upload limits.
- Combine PDF Pages onto One Sheet (2-up, 4-up): Arrange several PDF pages on one A4 sheet (2, 4, 6, 8 or 9 up) to save paper when printing.
- PDF to Images: Save each page of a PDF as a JPEG or PNG image.
More guides for this tool
- How to Convert a PDF to Grayscale for Free (Works on Phones)
- Grayscale or Pure Black & White: Differences and When to Use Each
- Making a PDF Black & White Before Fax or Copying
- PDF Got Bigger After Converting to B&W? How to Reduce the Size
- Making Scanned Documents Black & White: Readability vs. Size
- Troubleshooting Monochrome PDFs: Faint, Broken Text, Cannot Select Text