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One area that OS X is worse that Windows-switching between color/black&white printing

spaceballl

spaceballl

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2003
2,941
365
San Francisco, CA
Just some commentary...

I think that when printing something, it should be a top-level visible option to just quickly switch from color to black&white and vice versa. Instead you have to click on the PaperType/Quality Tab, go to the color profile, etc. I think for advanced users, those options should be there, but if i want to quickly switch to black and white, i'd love a slider right on the top level...

It's a bit easier to do this on Windows. Would be a small switch to remedy this.
 
You can. Their is a presets tab in your print setup window. I have one set up for quick, low quality, black ink only printing.
Just set up the options you want and save it..
 
Right - there's a 'presets' section which is handy. But if mom calls me from across the country asking how to change print settings, she really needs to dig through settings. I just think there should be a quick slider for print quality / color. Those are the most common tweaks.
 
spaceballl said:
Right - there's a 'presets' section which is handy. But if mom calls me from across the country asking how to change print settings, she really needs to dig through settings. I just think there should be a quick slider for print quality / color. Those are the most common tweaks.
Click to expand...

It's three mouse clicks. If you think mom will have trouble then just do remote control of her desktop and setup a preset for her.
 
Right. I'm not trying to describe this as a solution without a problem. I'm merely making the suggestion that color / quality get bumped to the top level. :rolleyes:
 
I'm going to disagree that this should be a first-pane option in the default dialogue; in 14+ years as a troubleshooter I've never once been asked how to switch to B&W, and I've only done it myself once that I can remember. It's just not something I see people doing often, if ever, these days--certainly not enough to warrant "front page" placement in the generic dialogue box. Additionally, generally if your tech level is high enough to understand why you'd want to explicitly set B&W printing it's high enough that this isn't hard to find.

Now, if a particular app made it a priority I believe it could be added to the default page for that app (as many apps modify the default options).
 
BobZune said:
Make suggestions over at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html if you want it to go to Apple.
Click to expand...
feedback = submitted
Makosuke said:
I'm going to disagree that this should be a first-pane option in the default dialogue; in 14+ years as a troubleshooter I've never once been asked how to switch to B&W, and I've only done it myself once that I can remember. It's just not something I see people doing often, if ever, these days--certainly not enough to warrant "front page" placement in the generic dialogue box. Additionally, generally if your tech level is high enough to understand why you'd want to explicitly set B&W printing it's high enough that this isn't hard to find.

Now, if a particular app made it a priority I believe it could be added to the default page for that app (as many apps modify the default options).
Click to expand...
Hmmm I disagree with you. Right now the "front page" options include page orientation and paper size. In a family environment with kids printing rough drafts and projects all the time, people always want to print off a quick draft to proof read or save ink, or save the color ink if it's not needed, etc.

In general, I find the OS X interfaces to be quite masterful. but the dropdown box of random print options in the print menu isn't very well organized.
 
spaceballl said:
... In a family environment with kids printing rough drafts and projects all the time, people always want to print off a quick draft to proof read or save ink, or save the color ink if it's not needed, etc.

...
Click to expand...
I don't know about your planet, but on mine the black ink or toner is consumed most rapidly. Switching from color to B&W or grayscale will only accelerate the consumption of black ink. And for what purpose?
 
MisterMe said:
I don't know about your planet, but on mine the black ink or toner is consumed most rapidly. Switching from color to B&W or grayscale will only accelerate the consumption of black ink. And for what purpose?
Click to expand...
faster printing / the color cartridges are more expensive. Silly planet.
 
spaceballl said:
faster printing / the color cartridges are more expensive. Silly planet.
Click to expand...
Silly indeed. Here on my planet, black costs only twice as much per volume as cyan, yellow, or magenta. At 30 pages/minute, speed is not an issue. Wonderful planet.
 
I agree with the OP. This has caused me much frustration at work because we have to pay a certain amount per color copy.

In fact, I still haven't found where to change from color to black/white.
The OP's description didn't help me at all. I can't find a paper type/quality tab.

Anyone else have any direction for me?
 
spaceballl said:
faster printing / the color cartridges are more expensive. Silly planet.
Click to expand...

Even if you select B&W, most, if not all color inkjet printers WILL use all color ink to make the document.

Even if you only use black ink, the cost with inkjet is about 5x to 10x cost of a good b&w laser printer per page.

Better to get a B&W laser printer that has low cost per print to be the draft printer. Brother has some good ones.
 
Well I'm glad to see some people agree with me! I thought I was the only one at first. but yeah - i just think the printing menu, in general, is quite confusing. Not very clearly organized at all. I suppose the settings I mentioned wouldn't NEED to be on the top menu, as long as they were easy and intuitive to find, which they are currently not.
 
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