Selecting colours during printing

[flyboy]

i periodically want to print long out of print documents/books/PDFs that have yellowing from age , without the "age related yellowing".

i am wondering if it is possible to dial out everything but black when printing?

i have an Epson ET-3750.

TIA ALan

 

[thebestcpu]

i periodically want to print long out of print documents/books/PDFs that have yellowing from age , without the "age related yellowing".

i am wondering if it is possible to dial out everything but black when printing?

i have an Epson ET-3750.

TIA ALan

HI Alan
I don't know how to do that from the printer driver - only on grayscale.
However, If you happen to be on a Mac, there is an easy workaround using their built-in "Preview" app. What type of computer do you have, and do you have any other image editing software?
John Wheeler

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I would do that already at the time of scanning - I don't have your printer but there should be a B/W mode at which you can adjust the threshold in a preview.

 

[The Hat]

i am wondering if it is possible to dial out everything but black when printing?

Maybe if your document was in a different format, it would be easier, but unfortunately PDF’s don’t give you any options to change with-in their format..

The answer I have is a slow one but it works..

Open each page separately in Photoshop and switch it to greyscale mode and make the adjustment there and then save as a single PDF page, and after you have converted all the pages, save as a complete PDF document.. The first page has the most discolouration..

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi Alan
I did not see a response on your computer type, so I looked up your past posts and indicated you had an Apple computer. So here is how you do it.
1) Open the Preview App and load the original PDF file
2) Go to export and leave it in PDF format, yet choose Black and White in the dropdown. Please select a different file name to save it so you do not overwrite the original. It can take some processing time, so let it run (the program is not frozen).
3) Done and open the new file in Preview. It is B&W and ready to print, and all pages are done in a single process and not page by page.

I have shown screenshots of the steps below.

Note that the result has trouble when the contrast is low such as in the starting page yet it still gets most of it
Hope this helps
John Wheeler

 

[PeterBJ]

If you don't have Photoshop then the free "Irfan View" can also do the conversion to B/W. Here is my result of the conversion, it is very similar to that uploaded by The Hat. Click to enlarge:



Irfan View can save the converted image as PDF, but it cannot merge PDF files. There are free online services for that though, if you only have the free Adobe Reader. If you want to try Irfan View then download it from its website and remember to also get the plugins. Do not download it from the Microsoft App Store. That version is not fully functional.

I would do that already at the time of scanning - I don't have your printer but there should be a B/W mode at which you can adjust the threshold in a preview.

I also tried this. This method also works. I scanned an old recipe book that was printed on cheap paper that had turned yellow. Here is a colour scan of a page, click to enlarge:



And here it is in B/W, best result of adjusting the threshold. Click to enlarge:

 

[flyboy]

Wow, thanks ink stained fingers, thehat. thebestcpu and PeterBJ for your kindness !

thebestcpu, i just put my computer in the signature. i also tried your method and it worked very well. The first page was a bit of a dog's breakfast but the rest were fine. For some reason one page didn't come out, but it was readable and therefore my objective was met. i prefer to read a document as a book, so i can pass it to my friend.

i have been wrestling with this for awhile, so i very much appreciate everyone's assistance

 

[thebestcpu]

Wow, thanks ink stained fingers, thehat. thebestcpu and PeterBJ for your kindness !

thebestcpu, i just put my computer in the signature. i also tried your method and it worked very well. The first page was a bit of a dog's breakfast but the rest were fine. For some reason one page didn't come out, but it was readable and therefore my objective was met. i prefer to read a document as a book, so i can pass it to my friend.

i have been wresting with this for awhile, so i very much appreciate everyone's assistance

Glad that worked out for you Alan! I will likely use that as well, as there are a lot of old genealogy papers that are pretty yellowed.
John Wheeler

 

[flyboy]

It was actually nicer than when i did an OCR version which had a lot of artifacts.

Speaking of genealogy, i believe that i have found someone who will go back 7 generations.