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How do I print in Black and White?

I know, sounds like a rediculous question. But no matter where I look in the print settings of any application for OS X Lion (10.7.2) there doesn't seem to be any setting to print in black and white, or greyscale. Is there something I need to add?


If your answer is "What printer model do you have?" you need to read the question again.


Any help would be appreciated. I need as answer as soon a possible. Thanks for your help!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 12, 2011 2:40 PM

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13 replies

Jun 18, 2017 11:04 AM in response to ajbcanada

ajbcanada,


did you ever figure out the printer issue? Tony T1 below is incorrect for my system: Sierra. This is how my print page shows up; clearly no way to change from color to B&W although his info is correct for other OS's. Here we are in 2017 and still there are rediculous problems like this that cannot be worked out.


User uploaded file


Good Luck; if I figure it out I will post here.

Dec 12, 2011 3:18 PM in response to ajbcanada

If you are referring to the default profiles that were previously available in 10.6 and earlier, then these are not available. In checking the Color Matching menu I found that some printer drivers show an empty folder when you select Color Matching > ColorSync > Other. But then when I changed the driver to one of my Canon inkjets, selecting Other showed me a list of the profiles that you do see via the ColorSync > Profiles > Computer. But these are still the vendor supplied profiles. No sign of a generic b&w or grayscale.


So as Tony has shown, it may be a case of relying on the vendors driver/plugin to provide a B&W / Grayscale setting.

Dec 12, 2011 6:22 PM in response to PAHU

PAHU wrote:

So as Tony has shown, it may be a case of relying on the vendors driver/plugin to provide a B&W / Grayscale setting.

I would concur. These settings would be found in the vendor specific driver. Furthermore, even when you choose to print Grayscale, it is up to the printer driver whether only the black cartridge is used. I have an Epson Workforce 1100 that will still use color cartridges when the output is set to Grayscale. If I use the Gutenprint drivers, it will only use the black cartridges.

Jun 27, 2013 7:19 AM in response to ajbcanada

It's an asinine arrangement that is either a significant oversight on the part of Apple, or is intentional so that somebody, somewhere sells tons of unnecessary colour print cartridges.


Since they've had complaints about it since 2007 I would bet on the latter explanation.


Hey Apple! When you go to the Print screen, have a nice big, fat button that says B&W. Not too tough eh?

How do I print in Black and White?

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