How to print in Black and White for Canon Printers

Question

I am using a Canon MP280 printer, which I found a driver from canon on the european site for. The print dialogue does not allow me to print in black and white unfortunately. Does anyone know of a way for me to force this? I'm guessing it is just a fault with my printer driver, but I feel like greyscale printing should be something in the OS sending the job, not in the printer drivers part.

Answer 1

If you print to PDF first, you might have the option in there. If you don't (I don't for some reason), you can use imagemagick to convert a PDF from colour to greyscale in one command:

convert -density 600 -colorspace gray output.pdf output_greyscale.pdf

The -density 600 value is just there to preserve some quality as it rasterises text.

Answer 2

As outlined in this blogpost. I tested this on Canon MP280 using Ubuntu 12.04.

1. Click System –> Administration –> Printing.

2. Now right click on your printer and select Properties.

3. Now select Job Options

4. Now scroll down to the bottom.

5. At the bottom you will see a text box . In that text box add CNGrayscale and click on Add button .

6. Once you click add there will appear another text box right above the first text box . So in the second text box add "TRUE” and click on apply.

Thats all , now your printer will print in Grayscale mode . In case you want to print in color mode just change the TRUE to FALSE .

EDIT, In the 12.04.1 precise, these options are difficult to find.

You have to run the application "system-config-printer" in terminal or Alt-F2. Then you will always print in grayscale. No options are available in the menu. I am using mp280series_3.4-1. To print in colour you will have to run system-config-printer again.

Answer 3

If you want print grayscale in Ubuntu, and your printer is a Canon, the .ppd from Canon does not support the average black-white print.

You can search for edited .ppd files in Google that match and support black and white printing with your printer model. Replace your last .ppd and put the new .ppd in /usr/share/ppd.

Edit printer configuration (ubuntu 12.04)

Select dash -> printing -> chose your printer-> properties -> make and model -> provide .ppd -> choose the .ppd file that you downloaded and then change your .ppd

And then add CNGrayscale as above. I hope that help.