topic How to plot to PDF in black and white in AutoCAD Forum

How to plot to PDF in black and white

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 16:56:59 GMT

When I plot to PDF (DWG to PDF.pc3), my PDF is in colour. I want the PDF to be in black and white. I selected, in the 'Plot Style Table Settings' in the 'Plot and Publish' tab, "Use colour dependent plot styles" and "Greyscale.ctb" as my plot style. When I return to my Plot window, I still don't see "Greyscale.ctb" as my option for my plot style table. What am I missing or doing wrong?

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

Alfred.NESWADBA — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 17:09:22 GMT

Hi,

what you do set in the _PUBLISH dialog is not stored in the layout.

If you want to assign a layout a CTB- or STB-file you'll have to do this by using command _PAGESETUP or _PLOT (and then button "Apply to Layout").

- alfred -

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 17:31:49 GMT

I tried doing that through _PAGESETUP and _PLOT but I don't have an option to select "Greyscale.ctb" in my Plot Style Table (pen assignments), which I'm assuming is what I want to select if I want to plot black and white PDF's.

How do import or save the "greyscale.ctb" file to my plot style so that I can select it for my PDF print?

So what I see is the problem, is that I don't have any ".ctb" file extensions to choose from in my Plot Style Table (pen assignments). Only the ".stb" file extensions. How do I get the ".ctb" file extensions to show up in my _PLOT or _PAGESETUP windows?

Hope someone can help me because this is frustrating me as in older drawings of mine done on older versions of AutoCAD, I am able to plot black and white PDF's. So I don't understand why the ".ctb" file extensions are not showing on this drawing.

Thank you.

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

Alfred.NESWADBA — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 17:43:41 GMT

Hi,

>> I don't have an option to select "Greyscale.ctb"

>> Only the ".stb" file extensions

That means that your drawings are build for "the other mode". DWG-files can either be "plot-style-dependent" or "color-dependend" mode (can be verified using sysvar CPLOTSTYLE).

You can either switch the mode of your drawings using command _CONVERTPSTYLES (>>>details<<<) or you create a plot-style-table that creates monochrome/grey-scale output.

- alfred -

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 19:33:17 GMT

Thank you Alfred! That worked!! Much appreciated.

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

kenhuse — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 00:17:39 GMT

I was stuck with a color dependent plot style so I was unable to change it to monochrome.ctb.

So I saved the drawing as different name then went into model space, selected all, then went to properties and selected black for all the colors.

This mostly solved the problem but the blocks were still their original colors so I exploded them individually and changed them to balck. It was the only solution that worked for my situation after having spent at least a couple hours looking through the web.

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

pendean — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:19:40 GMT

@kenhuse Did you try SETBYLAYER command's block-content option to resolve the issue vs exploding and changing the blocks?
Or the dozens of free LISP that pretty much do the same or more without exploding the blocks https://www.google.com/search?q=autocad+lisp+to+change+blocks+colors+without+exploding

HTH

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

kenhuse — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:33:03 GMT

I was completely in the dark about those things until you mentioned them.
Thanks! Will give SETBYLAYER a go. Unfortunately, I have Autocad 2012 Lt.
where lisp routines don't work

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

pendean — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:48:03 GMT

@kenhuse wrote:
Unfortunately, I have Autocad 2012 Lt.

For future reference, LT users are best served in the forum dedicated to that variant over here https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-lt/ct-p/2000

Re: How to plot to PDF in black and white

Rick_SorensenD4PEU — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:51:45 GMT

This solution was exactly what I needed! 👍