How to STOP default two sided printing

Thank you PAHU! 🙂

Fantastic Answer PAHU, thank you! Much more helpful type of answer (than saying contact Canon! 🙂)

for some reason this does not work for me. i know other people say it worked. but i had the message saying successfully done but when i printed, still comes out 2-sided. ?:(

The action via CUPS changes the driver default. So you can view the result by opening a document to print and with the driver selected, check the respective menu used by the driver for two sided and single sided printing. If it is still set to two sided, then your changes via the CUPS web interface did not work for this driver.

Thanks PAHU... you saved me today setting up a new Canon for someone's first Mac... much appreciated!!!

This did not work for me. When I went into the setting on the CUPS page the default was already set to one-sided. I tried saving those settings anyways, didn't work. Tried changing it to a different setting, saved it, then changing it back and saving it again, still didn't work. I have been to the webpage connected to my printer and that was also set to one-sided. I can't find any way to fix this problem, and it's very annoying. I usually remember to change it to one sided before printing, but sometimes I don't. I'm not allowed to print front and back for school, so I just have to throw it away and end up wasting paper and ink. Very frustrating, anyone have any other suggestions?

KAJ528 wrote:

This did not work for me. When I went into the setting on the CUPS page the default was already set to one-sided.

If the printer is already showing 1-sided in CUPS, but not via some application print dialog, then are you sure you are looking at the same printer or at the correct menu? CUPS is the core printing system of OS X so what you see here will be shown in the print dialog.

KAJ528 wrote:

I have been to the webpage connected to my printer and that was also set to one-sided. I can't find any way to fix this problem, and it's very annoying.

The settings in the printer will be invoked when there is no over-riding command. This is often the case with text-based printing, such as from the command line or from mainframe systems. In the case where a print job is sent from an operating using a supported driver, then these printer defaults will be over-rided.

KAJ528 wrote:

I'm not allowed to print front and back for school, so I just have to throw it away and end up wasting paper and ink. Very frustrating, anyone have any other suggestions?

What brand and model of printer do you have? I would like to install the supporting driver to determine what is happening for you.

PAHU I just want to say thank you, you're the man! I've had several techs in the office the past 2 weeks and no one could figure this out. Your solution from the first page worked perfectly.

Now since you seem to have the knowledge, is there some sort of way – other than by sharing the printer on the network – to package up these driver settings and install to the other macs in the office? Or even possibly to run a script that can go through these steps for each computer? I've had about 10 people so far and I anticipate they'll all be back after they waste their first ream of paper mistakenly printing 2-sided.

csmackey wrote:

Now since you seem to have the knowledge, is there some sort of way – other than by sharing the printer on the network – to package up these driver settings and install to the other macs in the office?

Your ability to achieve the desired result will depend on the printer driver. If it is not already installed on the other Mac's, then depending on its install process, it may not be easy to package it with the modified PPD from this Mac to install on other Mac's.

But if the printer driver is already installed on the other Mac's then all need to do is copy the modified PPD from this Mac to the other Mac's. In case you're not aware, every printer that is created on the Mac has a PPD - Postscript Printer Description. When you use the CUPS web page to change the default setting for a printer the menus you see are from the PPD for that printer. And this PPD resides in a hidden directory > /private/etc/cups/ppd. So once you locate the supporting PPD you can copy it and then replace the current PPD for the same printer on the other Mac's to get the same default setting - assuming the printer driver is already installed on these Mac's.

Brilliant! I will give this a try, and perhaps even write a script to replace this file. Shouldn't break anything right?

csmackey wrote:

Shouldn't break anything right?

No it shouldn't. You're just replacing a text file.

YES! Thank you!! I had the same issue - I clicked "draft" at one point and all of the sudden, everything was printing two sided. Switching back to default settings fixed my problem!

I know your's is an old post, but wished to record your suggested solution worked for me. I have kept a copy as my permanent source for how to fix the 'problem' in the future.

I FINALLY found a really simple solution on mine…not sure if it is printer dependent but I went into the print menu and then under "copies and pages" selected "xerox" and it gave me the option to change double sided to single sided.

This is the answer.