Reply To: Typeset in Colour or Black and White

I’ll second the recommendation to contact the print house before you go making 2 versions. Most print shops can simply take your full-color PDF and with the click of a button RIP it as black only. The thing to keep in mind with this option is that anything that is color will not necessarily convert to 100% (solid) black – in fact, most colors will convert to a shade (screen) of black.

If you need all your colors to convert to solid black, ask if the print shop can do that – many shops have special PDF editing software that can make such a request very simple and cost-effective.

As I write this, I thought of yet another way you could do it yourself and still maintain 1 document and maximum flexibility: Build your book in color, and make sure every color swatch you use is defined as a Spot color (normally this would be taboo, but in this instance it is called for). When you are ready to export your B&W PDF, first visit the Ink Manager dialog and once there you can alias each color to Black. When you are ready to export your full-color PDF, simply revisit the Ink Manager and undo the aliasing. (Aliasing takes a particular ink and puts onto the same “plate” as another ink).

(The only potential downside I see with this solution is if you have color images it won’t affect them the way you’d want.)