How To Print Black And White on Mac

print black and white on Mac

Currently, the MacBook family has the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, and macOS is the operating system that powers every Mac. It comes with a package of beautifully designed apps and works side by side with iCloud to keep photos, documents, and other things up to date on all your devices.

To use a printer on Mac, use printers and scanner's preferences and add it to your list of printers. macOS automatically downloads the printer's software or uses AirPrint to connect to the printer.

How To Print black and white on a Mac

Printing in black and white on a mac might sound pretty easy, but it is not that simple. Before your printer prints any document without any colors, certain things need to be modified.

Your Mac is instructed to use the color cartridge even if your entire document is black and white. It means that by default, most printers are set up to use color cartridges to print documents. The default behavior can be changed to have your printers use their black and white cartridges to print color-less documents.

There are two different ways to print black and white on mac

Method 1: Use the default option to print in Black & White on Mac

The black & white print option is usually tucked away in the print settings, and you need to dig a little deeper to find the option and use it on your system.

You can choose this method if you have only a few documents to be printed without any color. If there are dozens of files to print, it is recommended to use the method 2.

To print your document first select the Print option in the File menu. An alternate option is to press the Command + P key combination. If you find the tick box for black & white Print on the main screen, check the box and hit Print to get your document.
Sometimes you don't find this option as it tucked away in the settings. In such cases, you can find it in the submenus. Click on the main dropdown menu to get the option. You will see various printing options. Select the option that says 'Quality & Media,' after which a new dialog box will open right beneath the dropdown menu. In this part, you will find a tick-box that says Grayscale Printing. Once you tick the box, the black & white printing will be enabled.

Your document will be printed in black & white as you hit the Print button at the bottom.

Method 2: Create and Use a Preset to Print in black & white on Mac

All your saved settings are automatically applied to the document you are printing by a preset. Preset is a set of configurations that is responsible for the above function.

To create a preset, all you need to do is select a configuration and save it.

Press' Command + P' once the document is launched to open the default print dialog box.
Click the main dropdown menu when the dialog box opens and select 'Quality & media' to choose your printer type.
To print your documents in black and white, enable the 'Grayscale printing.'
You will find a dropdown menu at the top of the dialog box with the label that says 'Presets.' Choose the option that says 'Save Current Settings as Preset.'
Enter a name for the preset.
You can save the preset for all printers on your Mac or only for the current printer you are using. Then click 'ok' to save the preset.

The preset will be saved and available in all your apps where you can open the default print dialog box as it is created in the default printing dialog box.

How to fix Common issues with printer on mac

The first way to resolve Mac's printing issues is to restart the printer, Wi-Fi router, and then your Mac. When you get a new printer, avoid issues from arising by installing it correctly:

Click on system preferences on the Apple Menu
Select the printers & scanners option
Click the (+) plus symbol to add a new printer
You can either select the printer by entering its IP address or choose from the default tab that shows all the printers connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Fix Black & White Printing Issues on Mac

To fix a broken black & white print feature, remove the printer and add it back to your system.

Select the Apple logo at the top and select 'System Preferences.'
After selecting 'System Preferences' click on 'Printers & Scanners'.
To remove the printer, select it from the left sidebar list and then click on the minus (-) sign at the bottom.
To remove your printer, hit the deleted printer.
Add it back to your machine and you are done.

Reset the entire printing system on Mac

Reset the whole printing system if removing and adding the printer didn't fix your issues.

Select 'Printers & Scanners' in 'System Preferences'.
Click on Reset Printing system after right-clicking any of your printers.
Choose reset in the pane that appears on your screen.
Then add your printer to your Mac.

Conclusion

Checkpoint: Do keep in check that your printer supports grayscale or black and white printing in the first place. And if your printer doesn't support this mode, the greyscale mode will not show up on your Mac. For this case, you can first convert your document to black and white mode and then get it printed.

Although we live in a digital society, you will need to get your things printed in some instances. Also, printing in Black and White comes with a lot of advantages. Not only it cuts down your cost for printing, but Mac also prints faster in Black and White mode.