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Gary King

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
495
1
How do I lower the printing quality in the Mac? I want my default printing settings to be in 'draft' mode. This is easily set in Windows, but not on the Mac, apparently.
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
It's one of the options whenever you print... you can set it as a default as well.
 

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jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Once you have all the settings the way you want, you can save that profile under any name you choose (e.g., "Draft", etc.).
 

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Gary King

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
495
1
Sorry, but I cannot find the page that you are showing; I can't find it anywhere in my Print dialog in Safari.

There is no Quality & Media option in the dropdown, as well.
 

dubbz

macrumors 68020
Sep 3, 2003
2,284
0
Alta, Norway
The name seems to be different depending on your printer... For my Epson it's in the same place, it's just named "Print Settings" instead. I don't have anything named "Quality & Media".

What kind of printer do you have? Maybe someone with the same printer could tell you.
 

Gary King

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
495
1
No, sorry, it doesn't exist (the option.)
 

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jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
It would seem, then - assuming you've looked at all the options - that your printer driver doesn't support lower-quality printing, which seems odd.

Have you looked here?
 

Gary King

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
495
1
jsw said:
It would seem, then - assuming you've looked at all the options - that your printer driver doesn't support lower-quality printing, which seems odd.

Have you looked here?
Installed, didn't seem to change anything. Just gave me a 'InkJet Toolbox' which apparently can't find my printer.
 

ITASOR

macrumors 601
Mar 20, 2005
4,398
3
Yeah that's definitely weird...I have an HP DeskJet 5550 and I have Paper Type/Quality in every print box.
 

grinnelljd

macrumors newbie
Jun 23, 2003
15
0
MA
Yes Gary, check that you have the correct drivers.

In the screenshot you posted the printer is simply called "HP" which indicates to me that the OS is using a generic HP print driver and not one that is specific to your printer.

Here is the HP webpage with the Deskjet drivers. Find your printer model and download the driver for it.

Jeff
 

Gary King

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
495
1
I have the DeskJet 932c, and I have downloaded and installed the drivers for it.

The reason it says only 'HP' is because this is the printer's name, but in fact, I chose the '900 series' printer because there was no 932 listed, and the 900 seemed to be the best choice.
 

diehldun

macrumors 6502a
Nov 15, 2003
674
0
I don't mean to intrude...

But why would you want to lower the printing quality?

Gary King said:
How do I lower the printing quality in the Mac? I want my default printing settings to be in 'draft' mode. This is easily set in Windows, but not on the Mac, apparently.

:confused:
 

zakatov

macrumors 6502
Mar 8, 2005
497
0
South Florida
All quality settings are added thru drivers. Most HP drivers are built-in with Tiger. Go to HPs website and download/install the right drivers/apps from them for your printer. Should solve the problem.
 

agentphish

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2004
1,140
0
I have the same problem w/ my HP Deskjet. Not to hijack the thread at all, but i'm looking for suggestions as well. I have the HP 882C. Tiger recognizes it if i plug it right into the USB no problem, but still no quality selections. Panther had the same problem. It will not find it over the network at all w/o GIMP drivers installed.

I normally keep this printer hooked to my PC and have it shared via the network, but w/o GIMP drivers installed I can't even make it print over the network, and even then my printer doesnt show on the list of the available printers. I have to choose the 845 or 810 to make it work and I still dont get any quality settings. Quite strange.

Thank god for PDF files i can send over to my PC and print.

Any suggestioins?
 

iSaint

macrumors 603
I have an HP Deskjet 5150, and I feel you can get to the draft printing setting you're looking for.

File > Print

open the third dropdown menu, and select Paper Type / Quality , more options open on the menu

select the Quality dropdown, and select FastDraft

select the Color dropdown, and select Grayscale

THEN go back up to the Presets dropdown, and select Save As , name it FastDraft or something to your liking, and those settings will be saved for future use.

Let me know if this helps.
 

Gary King

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
495
1
iSaint said:
I have an HP Deskjet 5150, and I feel you can get to the draft printing setting you're looking for.

File > Print

open the third dropdown menu, and select Paper Type / Quality , more options open on the menu

select the Quality dropdown, and select FastDraft

select the Color dropdown, and select Grayscale

THEN go back up to the Presets dropdown, and select Save As , name it FastDraft or something to your liking, and those settings will be saved for future use.

Let me know if this helps.
Nope, sorry. As I said earlier, 'Paper Type and Quality' does not even exist for me, even after I installed the 932C drivers for Mac, from HP.
 

iSaint

macrumors 603
Gary King said:
Nope, sorry. As I said earlier, 'Paper Type and Quality' does not even exist for me, even after I installed the 932C drivers for Mac, from HP.

Oh, well, we're trying! :)

Wonder if you might unplug your printer from your Mac, reset your printer settings and plug it back in to reload the driver. I'm on Tiger now, but even on Panther the drivers were built in for my HP.

Utilities > Printer Setup Utility > Printer Setup Utility dropdown > Reset Printing System
 
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