How can I force my printer to print in B&W?

ascender · Oct 18, 2006

Man, I'm embarassed asking this question, but I just can't see how to do it. I have a Deskjet printer, but my colour cartridge is empty and I need to print out a document this afternoon. Of course, printing it from Safari defaults to colour meaning a lot of the info is a really faint grey colour, or just non-existent.

I've downloaded the latest printing center from HP but the Toolbox option just lets me do diagnostics. In page setup when printing, there's just the usual paper size options.

Am I missing something really obvious?!?! Its driving me mad!

Thanks,

Mike.

iSaint · Oct 18, 2006

When you use File>Print there is usually an option for Properties or further settings. I'm on a Windows machine right now, so I can't say for sure how to get there. I believe there is a drop down for color settings where you can select 'grayscale' or 'black and white' printing.

ascender · Oct 18, 2006

That's what I was looking for but i can't seem to find it. I was also looking for a generic setting in Sys Pref for example which would set it to default of B&W.

Fearless Leader · Oct 18, 2006

take out the color cartridges. dont know about your printer but mine goes b&w.

ascender · Oct 18, 2006

Rokem said:
take out the color cartridges. dont know about your printer but mine goes b&w.

Lol! great idea but unfortunately the deskjet just errors and won't let me start any jobs.

Man, when did things get this bloody complicated....

thworple · Oct 18, 2006

When you do a File - Print, click where it says "Copies and Pages" and from the dropdown menu select "Print Settings".

It will present you with more options, including whether you want to print in colour or black & white.

Starflyer · Oct 18, 2006

Try This...

SmurfBoxMasta · Oct 18, 2006

uummm...FYI

the term "black & white" is technically incorrect, since there is no way (that I know of) for any standard inkjet printer to make white ink

MisterMe · Oct 18, 2006

SmurfBoxMasta said:
uummm...FYI

the term "black & white" is technically incorrect, since there is no way (that I know of) for any standard inkjet printer to make white ink

This is not a helpful statement. The white is background from the paper beneath the black ink. But to address the OP's question, some printers have a B&W setting among the color settings. Search your settings for the one that you need.

Lau · Oct 18, 2006

I have an HP too, and it doesn't have a B/W setting in properties like my old Epson had, so I suspect the OP's doesn't either (although it's worth a look). This, incidentally, is annoying as feck.

If I was in this situation I'd put the picture (I'm assuming it's a picture) into Photoshop and convert it to B&W.

If you don't have Photoshop, let us know what kind of document it is, and we can hopefully can recommend a program that might convert it to black and white for you.

ascender · Oct 18, 2006

Nope, still no joy! I thought about the Photoshop thing, but its not as simple as that, its an online form, where you hit the print button and its generated.

I can't believe there's no easy setting to change it to B&W. Is this a scam on behalf of HP to make sure you buy new ink straight away?

And yes, I was referring to the B&W setting in the original post!

Thanks for all the suggestions anyway!

Lau · Oct 18, 2006

ascender said:
Nope, still no joy! I thought about the Photoshop thing, but its not as simple as that, its an online form, where you hit the print button and its generated.

I can't believe there's no easy setting to change it to B&W. Is this a scam on behalf of HP to make sure you buy new ink straight away?

And yes, I was referring to the B&W setting in the original post!

Thanks for all the suggestions anyway!

Ah, well if that's the case, if you hit print in your browser, there's a "PDF" button in the bottom left of the print dialogue box, and if you click on that and say "Save as PDF" (the first option) it'll "print" it to your desktop as a PDF, and then you can open it in a graphics program of your choice to convert it to B&W.

The option to print as a PDF is one of my favourite and most useful things, and not being able to print B&W on my HP is one of my least favourite things, so I can totally sympathise.

ascender · Oct 19, 2006

Lau said:
Ah, well if that's the case, if you hit print in your browser, there's a "PDF" button in the bottom left of the print dialogue box, and if you click on that and say "Save as PDF" (the first option) it'll "print" it to your desktop as a PDF, and then you can open it in a graphics program of your choice to convert it to B&W.

The option to print as a PDF is one of my favourite and most useful things, and not being able to print B&W on my HP is one of my least favourite things, so I can totally sympathise.

Lau, thanks very much for that. I was playing about in Preview yesterday but never thought to try saving it offline. I'll give it a go in a minute.

Marble · Oct 20, 2006

For my Epson there is a Paper Type/Quality tab in the print settings pulldown (where the colorsync and other options are); there should be tabs at the top labeled "Paper," "Color Options," and "Ink." In Color Options, there is a radio button you can press titled "Black Ink Cartridge Only." Is this not there on the HP?

EDIT: It's an HP, not a Lexmark.

SmurfBoxMasta · Oct 21, 2006

MisterMe said:
The white is background from the paper beneath the black ink.

uumm.......white paper beneath the black ink ? AFAIK, that usually results in a black printed area

And yes, I was correct in my original statement.........so why would any printer driver give an option of "B&W" instead of just "Black" or "Color"

Marble said:
Is this not there on the Lexmark?

the OP has a deskjet, as in HP !

todd2000 · Oct 21, 2006

I have an HP Photosmart printer, and when I click print there is a drop down menu that says "Copies & Pages". If I click on that there is an option for "Paper Type/Quality" which brings up this screen:

Click on the color drop down menu and there should be an option for Greyscale

Marble · Oct 21, 2006

Also click the Color Options button there for the "Black Ink Cartridge Only" option.

HughJ · Oct 21, 2006

i too have an HP printer/scanner/photocopier and have tried soooo many times to print (especially photographs) in B&W and the set up will allow printing in B&W but it actually prints in Blue

i then tried to print via photoshop when converted the image to greyscale and it still came out blue

todd2000 · Oct 21, 2006

Marble said:
Also click the Color Options button there for the "Black Ink Cartridge Only" option.

Actually I don't have the option, but the greyscale options works well.

How can I force my printer to print in B&W?

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