Printing in black and white on Linux
2 April 2009
I do not normally print very much at home, however I decided to get a very cheap printer for coach tickets, airplane boarding passes and other last minute emergencies.
I went for the HP Deskjet D2560. Here it is in its full twenty-five pound glory:
The printer was so cheap in that it did not come with a USB cable, however I had a few at home already. The printer end needs a B-type connector.
The first lead I tried, the posher one pictured top, didn't work as the connector didn't penetrate the socket enough. The second lead, pictured bottom, did work. So if you buy a lead at the same time as the printer, make sure your B connector is long enough.
The printer worked with my Linux computer out of the box and printed fine in both colour and black and white.
The printer came with a black ink cartridge and a colour ink cartridge. With these cheapey printers they have a razor and blades model. It is indeed cheaper to buy the printer again and throw it away, than to buy both of the cartridges again.
Therefore I decided to conserve ink, and thus cost, by printing pages in black and white only.
I pressed Ctrl+P which gives the normal GNOME print dialog that most of the programs have. Then I tried to find the button to set it to black and white.
How to do this on Linux through the graphical interface is not obvious enough in my opinion. The fact that I had to Google through random forum posts for the answer is a somewhat damning indication that the button is too far down.
So the task I was trying to achieve was to 'make my document print in black and white only'. However, it turns out that the interface forces you to 'change your printer mode in your printer settings to grayscale'. The same result but the path you make through the interface is different. The Linux desktop needs a lot more usability testing.
Anyhow, in the end I went to the top panel and clicked on 'System', then 'Administration' then 'Printing'.
Then I had to right-click on the particular printer and choose 'Properties'. Making it per printer means that if I choose a different printer then my document prints in colour, as before, I am not convinced that this approach has the highest level of usability for most people.
Lastly, I then clicked on 'Printer Options' and then under 'General', I used the drop-down labelled 'Printout Mode'.
A lot of work, a least compared to the equivalent option on the legacy operating system. Oh well, let the presses run!
1 Giacomo says...
Wasn't the "GNOME print dialog" one of the most accessibility-scrutinised and accessibility-debated thing in the entire desktop environment? I think I remember echoes of the kerfuffle spreading through the blogosphere years ago, about the time GNOME hackers decided on the "less is more" approach.
Posted at 10:41 p.m. on April 2, 2009
2 Paul says...
I don't think any printers come with cables, regardless of how cheap they are (my network-capable HP didn't, and I can't remember ever buying a printer which did come with cables - this seems to be where the likes of PC World make their profit).
Posted at 11:50 a.m. on April 4, 2009
3 Andrew West says...
I'm always surprised when people complain how difficult installing hardware on Linux is, I can only assume most of them have never tried. Both the Gnome and Cups people have made a breeze.
On the subject of printer costs, you right that unless you buy a top brand model it's cheaper to just buy a whole new printer than replace the cartridges. As Paul mentioned and you found out, printer manufacturers save money on producing a printer in lots of ways. You won't get a USB cable and the cartridges you get with the printer are usually not full either. Also the cartridges in many inkjets also contain the print head, which makes the printer itself cheaper to produce, but conversely the cartridges more expensive.
Next time you are looking to buy a printer for B&W only consider getting a old laser printer off ebay. I picked up a HP deskjet for £50 inc delivery, that included toner and even a ethernet adapter so I could network the printer. Even thou it's 10 years old, the quality is on par with most entry level inkjets and while the cost of new toner is high the cost per page is similar to inkjets. Oh yes it of course works out of the box in Linux as well :)
Posted at 10:54 p.m. on April 16, 2009