Bug 47278 - RFE: Add option to PDF Export for produce monochrome pdf document
Summary: RFE: Add option to PDF Export for produce monochrome pdf document
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Printing and PDF export (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.5.0 release
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64) Linux (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: filter:pdf
: 61192 115804 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: PDF-Export-Options-Dialog
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2012-03-13 06:54 UTC by David Burleigh
Modified: 2021-10-04 18:57 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Acrobat pre-flight report, along with 3 pdfs, showing color content. (1010.46 KB, application/zip)
2012-06-05 10:54 UTC, David Burleigh
Details
Requested document (37.44 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)
2012-08-09 12:46 UTC, David Burleigh
Details
example document produced by Scribus with option set to monochrome (3.15 KB, application/pdf)
2013-05-29 13:22 UTC, sasha.libreoffice
Details

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Description David Burleigh 2012-03-13 06:54:45 UTC
The pdf export always produces a color-mode pdf, even when the document being exported is all black text. This is a serious problem when you are using a leased printer that is billed per impression, when color impressions are literally ten times more expensive than greyscale impressions.
Comment 1 sasha.libreoffice 2012-06-05 03:20:28 UTC
Thank for bugreport
It exports as color even if use File->Print instead of File->Export_as_PDF?
Comment 2 David Burleigh 2012-06-05 10:53:50 UTC
Yes, the pdf is color whether I export it, print to file, or use the CUPS pdf driver. I'll attach an Acrobat pre-flight report of the same document done all three ways, including the three pdfs.
Comment 3 David Burleigh 2012-06-05 10:54:59 UTC
Created attachment 62595 [details]
Acrobat pre-flight report, along with 3 pdfs, showing color content.
Comment 4 sasha.libreoffice 2012-06-05 23:21:22 UTC
Thanks for attachment with additional information
Comment 5 bfoman (inactive) 2012-08-09 12:16:15 UTC
Could you attach original document used to produce PDF?
Comment 6 David Burleigh 2012-08-09 12:46:45 UTC
Created attachment 65344 [details]
Requested document

Sorry, but I no longer have the same version of the document from which I produced those pdfs, but there was nothing special about it. The same effect happened with any document. At any rate, the version I'm attaching is identical in content, but was saved with LibreOffice 3.6, as I am no longer using the 3.5 branch.
Comment 7 Joel Madero 2013-05-28 15:37:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 8 David Burleigh 2013-05-28 19:02:08 UTC
I do not know what additional info is needed or expected. I provided attachments that show exactly what I reported. I am running LibreOffice 4.0.3 now, and each pdf exported reports color content, such that for our leased Toshiba color laser printer, which is billed based on color or b/w pages, we are charged for color pages even though nothing is printed in color.
Comment 9 Joel Madero 2013-05-29 02:59:36 UTC
Please read the instructions carefully:

"If you have already provided the requested information, please mark the bug as UNCONFIRMED so that the QA team knows that the bug is ready to be confirmed."


Marking as UNCONFIRMED so QA team knows information has been provided.


Thanks!
Comment 10 sasha.libreoffice 2013-05-29 09:59:03 UTC
@ David Burleigh
Sorry for bureaucracy.

IMHO LibreOffice includes in PDF no color profile. Acrobat uses it's internal default profile. And it is color. 
And I have one question (because I am not an expert in PDF format):
how can we determine if PDF file is color or monochrome without Acrobat Reader?
Comment 11 David Burleigh 2013-05-29 11:48:23 UTC
I don't know the answer to that question. But I do know that with Scribus, when I export a pdf, I can choose whether it is color or grayscale. It would be very helpful if that option were available when generating a pdf from LibreOffice, and since Scribus is also open source, it should be possible to find out how they do it.
Comment 12 sasha.libreoffice 2013-05-29 13:22:57 UTC
Created attachment 79965 [details]
example document produced by Scribus with option set to monochrome
Comment 13 sasha.libreoffice 2013-05-29 13:27:46 UTC
sorry for my previous comment. Color profile not involved here.

When we open PDF document in text editor we can see this:
/DeviceGray
or this:
/DeviceRGB
IMHO this is what we searching for

As I can understand this bugreport is about adding new option in export dialog.
Comment 14 Joel Madero 2013-05-29 15:41:56 UTC
*** Bug 61192 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 15 Joel Madero 2013-05-29 15:42:51 UTC
As PS printing used to allow grayscale and it's not an uncommon thing to want (grayscale print out), upping this to a high level enhancement request.
Comment 16 crxssi 2013-05-29 22:55:19 UTC
I don't really see this as a duplicate of Bug 61192 although I can see they are related.

When you export as a PDF, there is no option at all for specifying color or not. That is what THIS bug (47278) apparently seeks.

Bug 61192 has to do with printing documents from LO with the new PDF engine ignoring the file->print->properties->device->color setting.  Has nothing to do with PDF files or PDF exporting.
Comment 17 Joel Madero 2013-05-29 22:58:01 UTC
Thanks for that crxssi - I saw one of your other bugs were tackled - we appreciate your knowledge with printer issues :)
Comment 18 crxssi 2013-07-26 19:04:38 UTC
Tested in LO 4.1.  Behavior has not changed (still a problem)
Comment 19 Dieter 2018-02-17 16:42:59 UTC
*** Bug 115804 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 20 Xisco Faulí 2019-11-29 13:27:37 UTC
Changing priority back to 'medium' since the number of duplicates is lower than 5
Comment 21 Heiko Tietze 2021-10-04 12:51:13 UTC
UX-wise it wont hurt to add another option. Using "[x] Export in RGB colors" might be confusing due to CMYK but "[ ] Export grey scaled" could work.

The code in vcl/source/gdi/pdfwriter_impl.cxx seems to be a bit more complex than just replacing DeviceRGB by DeviceGray. See also http://www.asppdf.com/manual_15.html