# Is there a way to make an image black and white in InDesign itself?

I'd like to be able to simply make an image greyscale without having to defer to Photoshop or another program. Is there any way to do this?

##### Post Metadata
- Posted at: almost 7 years ago
- Author title: Megan Dias
- Net upvotes: 1


## Comments
### Comment 1

It depends. InDesign doesn't have a way to convert a color image to grayscale in the way that Photoshop does, but you can fake it pretty easily.

1. Set the Fill color of the image frame to paper.
2. Double-click on the image frame so that you have the content selected, not the frame.
3. Change the blend mode to "Luminosity."

Your image will now appear in shades of warm grey only.

To make an entire document greyscale for output, create a new PDF output profile. In the "Output" panel, make the Color Conversion field "Convert to Destination" and the Destination field any of the "Dot Gain" profiles: 10% Dot Gain, 15% Dot Gain, etc.. The PDF will be greyscale, perfect for monochrome newspaper ads and similar black-only purposes. To see what the PDF will look like while you're editing in InDesign, turn on View>Proof Colors and make a custom profile with the same dot gain.

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: almost 7 years ago
- Author title: Creative Director, G&G Creative
- Net upvotes: 1

#### Reply 1

This worked. Thanks. I ended up exporting it the image as .jpg and converting it to grayscale in Photoshop anyway.

##### Reply Metadata
- Posted at: about 4 years ago



## Related Product
[Adobe InDesign](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-indesign/reviews)

## Related Category
[Desktop Publishing](https://www.g2.com/categories/desktop-publishing)

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