You have to print in black and white with the Mac but you do not know how to do it? In this guide I show you the procedure explained step by step on how to set up printing in BN or grayscale on OS X and macOS so you can print documents, books and other files, saving ink and speeding up printing.
There are many users who prefer to print in black and white with the Mac especially if you have to produce invoices, print a term, university notes, books or web pages found on the network and do not require the use of color ink.
Obviously, the habit of printing in BN with the Mac is a good way to:
- save color ink
- speed up printing times
- obtain greater contrast and clarity than printed texts
- reduce waste
If you want to get all these advantages but above all you can almost double the printing speed, follow the suggestions below.
Mac: how to print in black and white or grayscale?
Before you begin to follow the steps explained in the procedure below, you should make sure that the printer is fully functional and configured with your Mac, with cartridges or toner loaded and that it can support printing in grayscale or black and white, otherwise the operating system will not show the useful items to print in black and white with the Mac.
Obviously, the settings suggested in this article are suitable for printing handouts, documents or manuals, and are not recommended if you want to print images, photographs or color content.
To print in black and white on your Mac, follow these steps:
- choose the document you want to print
- Click on File> Print in the top menu bar or the CMD + P keyboard shortcut
- to the left of the Printer item, make sure the printer you want to use for printing in B/W or grayscale is selected
- from the drop-down menu (arrow 1) select Paper type/Quality (if it does not appear, click on the Show details button that appears below)
- click on the arrow Color options (arrow 2)
- select Grayscale next to Color
- select Black print cartridge only (arrow 3)
- click on Print
In this way you managed to make your first black and white print with the Mac, using only the black cartridge or black toner. For some printer models, the ability to print only in BN is given to a box at the top, next to the field where you set the number of copies to print; this function depends on the model of the printer and the installed drivers.
This is all you need to know if you want to print in black and white on Mac quickly and easily; if you continue to have problems or can not follow the indicated procedure even though the device is working and supports black and white printing, reset the printing preferences or uninstall and reinstall the printer from OS X or macOS preferences.
Share this guide with all your friends who have a Mac and the habit of printing paper documents! If you still have any doubt then feel free to leave a comment in the box below.