Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer. We are in the process to deploy color printers to some of our offices where they use centos 5.5 as their OS. They need the printers to print some advertisement material. But for everything else, they don't need it. And because of the costs of the color printing we would like to force them to use B/W where not explicitly necessary. Is there a way to force a printer driver to be just B/W even if it is a color printer. So i could install a second color printer which would only be available to a special print user.
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 3:48 AM, Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.comwrote:
Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer. We are in the process to deploy color printers to some of our offices where they use centos 5.5 as their OS. They need the printers to print some advertisement material. But for everything else, they don't need it. And because of the costs of the color printing we would like to force them to use B/W where not explicitly necessary. Is there a way to force a printer driver to be just B/W even if it is a color printer. So i could install a second color printer which would only be available to a special print user.
I assume that this is printer dependent. So I'd look at man lpoptions and try listing the various options available lpoption -p <printer> -l and look at storing the needed options in ~/.cups/lpoptions or /etc/cups/lpoptions
For example, on my HP L7590 (color all-in-one):
$ lpoptions -p home-printer -l PrintoutMode/Printout Mode: Draft Draft.Gray *Normal Normal.Gray High High.Gray PhotoBest PhotoHigh PhotoNormal InputSlot/Media Source: *Default PhotoTray Upper Lower CDDVDTray Envelope LargeCapacity Manual MPTray PageSize/Page Size: Custom.WIDTHxHEIGHT *Letter A4 Photo Photo5x7 PhotoTearOff 3x5 5x8 A5 A6 A6TearOff B5JIS CDDVD80 CDDVD120 Env10 EnvC5 EnvC6 EnvDL EnvISOB5 EnvMonarch Executive FLSA Hagaki Legal Oufuku w558h774 w612h935 Duplex/Double-Sided Printing: DuplexNoTumble DuplexTumble *None Quality/Resolution, Quality, Ink Type, Media Type: *FromPrintoutMode 300ColorCMYK 300DraftColorCMYK 300DraftGrayscaleCMYK 300FastDraftColorCMYK 300FastDraftGrayscaleCMYK 300GrayscaleCMYK 600ColorCMYK 600GrayscaleCMYK 600PhotoCMYK 600PhotoNormalCMYK 1200PhotoCMYK
So I assume that setting option Normal.Gray instead of Normal (the defaullt) would give me gray-scale printing.
YMMV, of course.
From: Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.com
Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer. We are in the process to deploy color printers to some of our offices where they
use centos 5.5 as their OS. They need the printers to print some advertisement material. But for everything else, they don't need it. And because of the costs
of the color printing we would like to force them to use B/W where not explicitly necessary. Is there a way to force a printer driver to be just B/W even if it is a color printer. So i could install a second color printer which would only be available to a special print user.
Google says: http://osdir.com/ml/printing.pykota.user/2006-04/msg00098.html
JD
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 12:41 PM, John Doe jdmls@yahoo.com wrote:
From: Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.com
Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer. We are in the process to deploy color printers to some of our offices
where they
use centos 5.5 as their OS. They need the printers to print some
advertisement
material. But for everything else, they don't need it. And because of the
costs
of the color printing we would like to force them to use B/W where not explicitly necessary. Is there a way to force a printer driver to be just
B/W
even if it is a color printer. So i could install a second color printer
which
would only be available to a special print user.
Google says: http://osdir.com/ml/printing.pykota.user/2006-04/msg00098.html
JD
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
I know what google says, but i don't know what to do with it. This sounds like some kind of rocket science to me.
The answer from Dale sounds more doable to me, and i have to test it.
On Tue, 3 Aug 2010, Janez Kosmrlj wrote:
To: CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org From: Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.com Subject: [CentOS] force b/w printing
Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer. We are in the process to deploy color printers to some of our offices where they use centos 5.5 as their OS. They need the printers to print some advertisement material. But for everything else, they don't need it. And because of the costs of the color printing we would like to force them to use B/W where not explicitly necessary. Is there a way to force a printer driver to be just B/W even if it is a color printer. So i could install a second color printer which would only be available to a special print user.
I think as system administrator, you should be able to setup the printer to only print in B&W - not color.
I use an HP DeskJet 810c on Fedora 12. It has a color print cartridge, and a separate black ink catridge. The printer actually prints OK in black and white (maybe grayscale) with an empty color cartridge. It does need the empty color cartridge to be present in the printer.
Kind Regards,
Keith Roberts
Greetings,
On 8/3/10, Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.com wrote:
Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer.
Strange how come people miss out the loclhost:631 on the system hosting the printer and check out the printer options button.
I swear, it is gui.
This is in addition to commandline options mentioned in the other post.
Regards,
Rajagopal
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Rajagopal Swaminathan < raju.rajsand@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings,
On 8/3/10, Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.com wrote:
Has anyone an idea, how to force users to print b/w on a color printer.
Strange how come people miss out the loclhost:631 on the system hosting the printer and check out the printer options button.
I swear, it is gui.
This is in addition to commandline options mentioned in the other post.
Regards,
Rajagopal _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
And why would the web gui be better than the gnome gui. The problem with both of them is, that you can set the defaults, but the user can still change back to color mode, if he wants to in the print dialog. I want that they don't even have the option to print in color. The option should have just one dedicated print user.
As for Keith's suggestion. First, we have laser printers. And they won't print if one of the toners is empty. And second, i search for a solution for about 400 offices and 1500 computers not my home printer. So the logistics of your solution would be a bit tricky.
The best solution would be command line and if possible bash scriptable.
Greetings,
On 8/4/10, Janez Kosmrlj postnalista@googlemail.com wrote:
The best solution would be command line and if possible bash scriptable.
Ignore the previous jest.
In your scenario, puppet would possibly be one of the components twiddling the /etc/cups* stuff in the clients across location etc. *assuming* the clients are linux.
Dunno nothin bout doz. (Powershell perhaps?)
Regards,
Rajagopal
On Wednesday 04 August 2010 02:18:55 Janez Kosmrlj wrote:
but the user can still change back to color mode, if he wants to in the print dialog. I want that they don't even have the option to print in color
Have you tried modifying the PPD file to remove the color option? I mean, I would copy the original PPD file to a file named "whatever-NOCOLOR.ppd". Then I would create the second printer and assign this PPD file to it.
I've never done it before but I think it should work as all the printer options the user is presented come from the PPD file. Let us know if that works.
Regards, Jorge
-
Dale Dellutri -
Janez Kosmrlj -
John Doe -
Jorge Fábregas -
Keith Roberts -
Rajagopal Swaminathan