: Can I store separate grayscale versions of images in a colored pdf? While one should ideally make sure a color image is also suitable for greyscale printing via a printer's automatic conversion,

@Debbie163

The easiest way to manage colors and grayscale versions is to simply create 2 different PDF. Not only it's safer but your printer will probably also prefer this. You can probably store them in layers but that's just a risky workflow that might not save you much time.

One easy easy to replace images through Indesign is to simply create 2 different folders for your images and name the images with the same filenames. Create you color version first, save it and then create a duplicate of that file for grayscale. Then move the colored image folder and relink all your grayscale versions in that new Indesign grayscale layout, and adjust your stylesheet.

Yes, that means every time you'll make new changes to the color version, you'll either need to do this step again for the grayscale or do the revisions in the grayscale version.

But the result is far better than using the automatic grayscale conversion and you can adjust your contrasts and stylesheets properly too. There's also less risks of mistakes (eg. forgetting a layer or a spot color, etc.)

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@Turnbaugh909

You can't (as far as I'm aware) store different images (or text or anything else for that matter) in a single PDF for different printing processes.

You should be supplying PDFs in the correct color space, with appropriate profiles embedded, so I'm not sure if it would even be a good idea.

What I would suggest is to setup both sets of images in the InDesign document on separate layers. You would have for example, a CMYK Images layer and a Greyscale Images Layer with the respective versions of your images. You can then export color and greyscale PDFs from your InDesign document easily by setting the layers you need to print (Double click unwanted layers and deselect 'Print Layer').

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