Can't change print settings

Question

Level 1

8 points

Can't change print settings

I have a new printer, an Epson XP 430. My previous printer was also an Epson. With my old printer, when I chose Print (for a document, web page, etc.) the dialog box always had an option to choose black & white. I was also able to add to the presets and change the presets.

With this printer, I can view the presets but I can't make any changes. When I click Show Presets, there isn't an option for adding a new preset as there was with my old printer and the delete and duplicate boxes are both greyed out.

I'm assuming this is due to the printer, not OS X, as I noticed the difference when I began using the new printer. Am I missing something somewhere? I rarely print in color so I'd like to have a preset that specifies black & white.

Thank you.

Sheri

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Safari 9.1

Posted on Apr 27, 2016 3:36 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 14, 2017 7:44 AM in response to PAHU

@PAHU

I really have to thank you for your solution! We faced the same problem and with your solution we solved our problems we faced after installing the printer an driver following the instructions of Epson. In our case (my wife and I have both an iMac) we did choose for the bonjour P600 and not for the other P600 and at the bottom we changed 'Use:' to '.... P600' not for 'Airprint'. After this the 'Printer Settings' are back (as it used to be before with the R3000 printer) and in Lightroom we now have the ICC-profiles for Epson paper too! And profiles from Ilford print like they did before.

Thnx again!

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Answer 2

Aug 26, 2017 6:57 AM in response to PAHU

HI there....I have the same problem as original person who started the discussion. My issue is that the 'Show Details' or 'Hide Details' button no longer exists. It is just the PDF button on the left and the cancel/print button on the right. Can I get the Details button back? Otherwise I can never access the grayscale or black/white option. I have a Canon MX922 prints and using Sierra OS

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Aug 26, 2017 7:55 AM in response to Teresa in VA

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one. PAHU hasn't been active in the community lately.

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Answer 4

May 10, 2017 6:57 AM in response to srlanza

Just go to "Quality and Media" and then select the option "Grayscale Printing".

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Answer 5

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Apr 27, 2016 4:21 PM in response to srlanza

Since you have a new printer you will have to create new presets. This is done via the printer dialog with the printer selected, not via the Show Presets page. When you select to print make the settings you want to create a preset for and then click on the Presets drop menu. Select "Save current settings as preset" and then give the new preset a name.

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Answer 6

srlanza Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 5:00 PM in response to PAHU

I'm not sure I understand. I am in the printer dialog w/the printer selected. I choose print and the dialog box opens, where you select which pages you want to print (or all), how many pages, etc. The top line in that box is a drop-down lets you choose the printer; I only have the one so that's what is shown. The next line is also a drop-down and it's labelled Presets. From there you can choose which of the presets you want to use; Default Settings, Last Used Settings, Save Current Settings as Preset, etc. but there's no way to customize your settings or pick and choose your settings so as to save new settings. The last line in the dialog box is Show Presets. But when I view the presets, there isn't an option to add a new preset or modify an existing preset. It does show options to delete a preset or duplicate a preset but those options are greyed out.

Is there some other place to make these changes/additions/deletions?

Thanks.

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Answer 7

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Apr 27, 2016 5:21 PM in response to srlanza

When you select to print from an application for the first time, the print dialog will be shown in Hide Details view, which looks like below.

In order to see the driver settings you need to press the Show Details button at the bottom of this print dialog. This will expand the view and give you access to the driver settings.

In the following example, I want to make a Preset of Grayscale so I first have to select the Quality menu in order to select the Grayscale setting.

With this setting selected I can then click on the Presets menu and then select Save Current Settings as Preset (Note I had previously created a preset called Grayscale so that is why you see it in the menu)

A new window will appear prompting to name the preset and then save it.

So you don't use the Show Presets menu to create the preset. You create it first by selecting the desired setting in the print dialog and then you save that selection as a preset.

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Answer 8

srlanza Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 5:39 PM in response to PAHU

Thank you, I understand all of that. I have it set to Show Details.

But there isn't a way to specify black & white versus color.

As you can see from the above dropdown menu, those are the only categories to choose from. But when you choose one of them, there isn't a way to make changes to it. Below, for example, I chose color options. Yes, you can make some changes but still can't choose B & W vs color. I've been through all the drop downs and that option isn't there. The print dialog box is completely different than it was w/my previous Epson. And why, under Show Presets, does it show delete and duplicate but you can't do either as they're greyed out? I had no idea changing printers, particularly w/in the same brand, would cause such confusion.

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Answer 9

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Apr 27, 2016 6:11 PM in response to srlanza

Apologies for providing info you already knew. I've often made the mistake of jumping in too deep with my responses.

With reference to the drop menu, it appears you have a reduced set of options. Almost like you are using a light version of a driver. If you change the Preset menu to Default Settings from the one currently selected, does this alter the view?

As for the Delete and Duplicate buttons not being available, if you created a new preset and then selected it, then those buttons would be available. The buttons are not available for the Apple provided presets, such as Current, Default and Last Used, and vendor provided presets, which this one could be given the long name.

Also, is this the same model of Epson printer that you had installed previously? I noticed its name has a 2 which indicates you have two instances of this printer name.

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Answer 10

srlanza Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 7:55 PM in response to PAHU

No apology necessary; you had no way to know what I already knew, if that makes sense. Yes, it appears to me as well that there's a reduced set of options. I did change to Default Settings but the rest of the dialog box remained the same.

No, it's a different printer. I think the 2 came from this: I ran into some glitches when setting up the printer. I've set up several printers over the year so I was getting frustrated. I called Epson tech support (ha!) and it was useless. The person "trying" to help me knew so much less about the printer than I did it was laughable. She was trying to find things in the manual....Anyway, I became frustrated and finally just hung up. I un-did what I'd already done to install the printer, deleted everything related to it on my Mac, and did a new install. That time it went fine. I hadn't noticed the 2 but there must have been some trace of the original partial install that I missed deleting so my Mac must have "thought" it was a second one of the same printer.

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Answer 11

srlanza Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 7:57 PM in response to srlanza

I just checked to see if there was an updated printer driver. There was, I downloaded it, installed it, and made a new attempt to print. Unfortunately, nothing changed in the print box.

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Answer 12

srlanza Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:11 PM in response to srlanza

Me again. When I checked for the driver update, I did so using the Update app that Epson installed on my Mac when the printer was initially installed. After I sent the previous message, I went to the Epson site and downloaded the driver(s) directly from the website. It didn't say whether or not I needed the update, it automatically downloaded and I went through the install process. Here's what the print box looks like now:

Yay! There's my old black & white check box.

Thank you so much for mentioning the driver. Never occurred to me and it should have. Now I've wasted half a day trying to fix what shouldn't have been a problem at all.

Many, many thanks for your input; you really saved me!

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Answer 13

PAHU

Level 6

16,717 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:20 PM in response to srlanza

Might be time for some brute force removal of files.

First action is to remove the printer from Printers & Scanners.

Next, the printer driver files will be located in /Library/Printers/Epson. Using Finder, select Go > Go to Folder and enter that path. Select all the shown folders and trash them.

The preset files will be located in your User Library > Preferences folder and are labelled "com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.printername". Easiest way to get to the User Library is to open Finder and click the Go menu. If you then hold down the Option key, the Library folder icon will appear in the list. Select it and then open the Preferences folder and look for the presets to trash them.

With those two things complete, restart the Mac and when you have logged back in, install that latest driver you found and then add the printer to see if things have been corrected.

Edit: Whoops. Just saw you posted while I was typing. So don't do any of the above.

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Answer 14

srlanza Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:22 PM in response to PAHU

While I didn't do what you suggested above, I think what I did was just another version of the brute force method to make it all work correctly.

Thanks!

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