Mac OS X and Google Chrome: Set printer defaults from color to black and white / grayscale

apple · chrome

Google Chrome on Mac OS X does not use the printer defaults set in the system.
To set the defaults for the Chrome print interface, for example to set the default color mode to black and white / grayscale, follow these steps:

  1. Enable Web-Access to the Unix Printing System by typing cupsctl WebInterface=yes in a terminal window.

  2. Open http://localhost:631 in a browser.

  3. Click on Printers:
    Open the printers page

  4. Click on the printer you want to change:
    Select to printer to change its defaults in Google Chrome

  5. Change the 2nd select field to Set Default Options:
    Set the new defaults

  6. Click on the General tab. The settings you see here are the printer defaults that Google Chrome uses:
    Printer defaults

I needed to change the default color mode from color to grayscale / black and white as printing in grayscale is the default for me.

  1. Don’t forget to hit the Set Default Options button to save your choices.
share