How do I print grayscale with an HP Officejet Pro 8600?

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Level 1

21 points

How do I print grayscale with an HP Officejet Pro 8600?

I have an "HP Officejet Pro 8600 Pro e-All-in-One" printer. Can I print grayscale or black and white with it?

I'm running OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion. In System Preferences for Print & Scan, I chose the driver called "HP Officejet Pro 8600" (rather than the default of "AirPrint"). In the print dialog box, under "Color Matching", I select "ColorSync" rather than "Vendor Matching" and get a list of seven ColorSync profiles as shown below, none of which are grayscale or black and white.

Am I simply out of luck because HP hasn't provided the necessary feature?

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 6:40 PM

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Answer 1

PAHU

Level 6

16,711 points

Jan 21, 2013 10:30 PM in response to Tim.Leonard

With the most recent batch of printer drivers, the vendors have provided their own grayscale setting rather than creating a ICC profile and adding it to the ColorSync library. So if you set Color Matching back to Vendor and then change from the Color Matching menu to one of the HP menus, maybe there is a Grayscale option available this way.

With reference to my Canon MP990, I don't use HP so don't know the menu names, I have a Quality menu and within here is the Grayscale setting.

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Answer 2

Tim.Leonard Author

Level 1

21 points

Jan 22, 2013 4:42 AM in response to PAHU

When Color Matching is set to Vendor, the panel has no options for controlling color.

I have managed to find a workaround: I used System Preferences Print & Scan to delete the printer, then added it again and selected AirPrint rather than the HP Officejet 8600 driver. AirPrint does provide a Black and White option (though no grayscale).

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Answer 3

Oct 3, 2013 9:26 AM in response to PAHU

Unfortunately you have to get to that Greyscale Printing option every time you print by choosing the Quality and Media menu. I see no way to make it a permanent change.

I cannot think of a reason why it has to be that way. Whether it's printer vendors or OS X needing a change, it should be a minor change.

I usually print text, my experience is that if I do not use the Greyscale option the expensive colored inks get used up incredibly quickly even with no color to print plus there are much longer print head cleaning delays. Now that I'm in the habit I usually use Greyscale - even with color to be printed, for example maps.

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