old MacBook will print color, new one not - ?!?

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Level 1

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old MacBook will print color, new one not - ?!?

Thank you Mom for the lovely Christmas gift: MacBook Pro M5 32GB nano screen, mmmmm nice!

Replacing MB Air M2 2022 which I just printed from fine in color.

- The new one won't print color from Safari or PowerPoint, even with "color" selected in the print dialog the print previews are grayscale.

- Printer is an old HP Deskjet 6988. I suspect a difference in the printer driver for this old gal, but how do I even check that?

In other words, how can I find the name/file of the printer drivers?

P.S.: YES the printer is OLD but I hardly use it and when I do pull it out it WORKS WORKS WORKS just fine. I have zero need to buy a new printer. If the 2022 can print color to it it really must somehow be possible from the new.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Feb 5, 2026 5:02 PM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Feb 6, 2026 2:00 PM in response to head_unit

This Deskjet should still print color from modern macOS, but the key difference is often what driver macOS auto-assigns when you add the printer. New Macs (especially with newer macOS versions) frequently default to AirPrint or a generic driver, which can cause weird behavior like grayscale previews even when color is selected.

Your Deskjet model does NOT support AirPrint, so using an HP printer driver is a must.

Ok, so how do you find out exactly what driver is using?

Open System Settings > Printers & Scanners
Select your HP Deskjet 6988 from the list.
Look for a line labeled: Kind You’ll see something like: AirPrint, Secure AirPrint, Generic PostScript Printer, or HP Deskjet 6980 Series (HP driver). If it says AirPrint or Generic, that’s usually the culprit.

Alternately, if your comfortable with using commands in the Terminal, you can get more advanced details.

Open Terminal
Run: lpstat -l -p

What I suggest that you try:

Go to Printers & Scanners
Remove the printer.
Click Add Printer again.
VERY IMPORTANT: in the Add dialog, look at the Use:” dropdown.

Try selecting:

“HP Deskjet 6980 Series” (if available)
NOT AirPrint if you see an HP-specific option.

So why preview shows grayscale even when color selected?

That’s a sign the driver is exposing the printer as monochrome-only or defaulting to a monochrome capability profile. Safari and PowerPoint both rely on the system driver capabilities, so if the driver says “monochrome,” they’ll generate grayscale previews regardless of your color checkbox.

Finally, if removing/re-adding the printer driver didn't help, I would suggest that you reset the macOS print system.

System Settings → Printers & Scanners
Right-click in printer list area (or Control-click)
Choose Reset Printing System
Re-add printer and carefully pick the non-AirPrint driver.

If you want, tell me:

What macOS version the new MacBook Pro is running. Right now, I'm assuming that it is macOS Tahoe.
What “Kind” currently shows
Whether you’re connecting the printer via USB, Ethernet, or WiFi

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