Abstract: A system for converting a colored page to a black and white page for black and white printing. A colored page is selected for conversion to black and white. The colored page contains at least one graphical item, such as text, a frame, a line, a closed shape, or a picture. One of the graphical items is then selected for conversion to black and white. After a graphical item is selected, a mode is selected for converting the selected graphical item to black and white. The modes can include a gray scale mode, a light gray scale mode, an inverse gray scale mode, a black with white fill mode, a gray with white fill mode, a black with gray fill mode, a black mode, a white mode, a don't show mode, and an automatic mode. These modes each describe a different method for converting colors in the selected graphical item to black, white, and shades of gray. The selected graphical item is then converted to black and white based on the selected mode. These tasks can be repeated for each graphical item on the colored page.