Have you ever wanted to print a document using just black ink from your Mac? This tutorial will show you how to do just that.
Background
Sometimes when printing an email, document or other file, you don’t want to use your color ink because the images or colors in the documents are unimportant. Here’s how you can conserve your color ink by printing in just black and white. Since the process can vary quite a bit between versions, we’ve broken the instructions down into two main sections – current/modern versions of macOS (Catalina, Big Sur etc) and older versions of OS X (Snow Leopard, Lion etc).
Print in Black and White (macOS)
Though the option to print in black and white isn’t nearly as buried as it used to be, printing in macOS can look a bit different from app to app. For example, when printing from the Calendar app the way print in black and white is to place a check in the the Black and white box that’s found in the Options section.
When printing from the Chrome browser, the interface is a bit different. This time you need to switch the Color Mode from Color to Black and white in order to print in black and white.
Printing from the Notes app is different too – in this case you need to place a check in the Black & White box.
As you can see from the examples above, the “print” screen on your Mac can be a bit different from app to app, but switching to “black and white only” isn’t too buried in the settings (like it used to be).
Print in Black and White (older versions of OS X)
- Select Print from the File menu as normal
- Select the small “drop-down arrow” next to the Printer: field.
- Select the Layout menu.
- Choose Quality & Media from that list.
- Place a check in the box labeled Grayscale Printing. Click the Print button.
- Now your file will print using just black ink – no colors will be used. That’s it!
