Application not taking B&W printer driver settings

[scoobysteve]

Hi All,

Just installed a Ricoh MPC2800 into a clients network using the RPCS driver. I have defaulted printing to B&W in both "Printing Preferences" as well as "Advanced --> Printing Defaults".

When the client goes to print from their specialised software (custom to their business/industry) the documents still print out in colour.

Anyone know where I can possibly look or what i can check to see why the B&W setting is being transferred across.

I know its not a driver issue as MS Word etc prints by default in B&W.

anyhow any suggestion would be great. thanks.

Regards,
Steve

[Llama God]

I'd try the PCL driver next, then refer it to their software people.

[scoobysteve]

I chose not to load the PCL6 driver as this client sometimes prints mixed coloured mode documents ie, 1 page may be colour and the rest in B&W in which the B&W pages may contain grayscale images. The PCL6 driver will count these pages with the grayscale images as a colour.

Only the RPCS driver is able to ensure that grayscale images are printed with K and not CMYK (process black).

Anyhow, I know its not my/ricoh problem however i just thought if maybe I can help them out in some way via our drivers or machine then it would be great however it seems that it will be an application problem.

[ApeosMan]

It looks like this program is just using the print queue you've created as a data stream to the printer and is ignoring everything else.

I think it's up to the programmers of the program to ensure it carries the default print settings when printing from the application. I've seen a few customised programs for businesses have issues like this, as the programmers don't realise or care about printing, which is silly as it's an important part of the business work flow. It's very frustrating, especially when the customer blames the printer more than the application.

I have no idea about the Ricoh drivers or print language, but I know that with some drivers you can edit the config files to lock the driver down to black only output, though I'm not sure if that would help though.

[Vulkor]

Some Applications, ie COREL products will Ignore your print driver settings. Install an ACTUAL Black and White driver, such as the
Aficio MP 2550 driver. Call it Black and White and the Other Driver Color. What I had to do for customers who use Corel.

That or setup user codes to limit Color use.

[blackcat4866]

Excellent idea Vulkor. I remember a situation when my customer was complaining that their Copystar color MFP would only print in monochrome.

The IT specialist had saved some time by installing HP LJ4 drivers to all the printers on that floor. Since the HP LJ4 is a monochrome printer there is no option for color prints.

This may just do the trick.

[Llama God]

I had this yesterday on an MPc2050 printing from an accounts package which used a Crystal Reports bolt-on. The MP3010 driver did the trick for me.

[Vulkor]

yeah lots of drivers are similar. And if you want most of the features pick one that is about the same just B&W vs Color. That way finishing options are still there.

HPLaserjet 4 drivers will however work in a pinch. Had to use those on a customer with Microsoft ACCESS 1997 on a Savin 9040. It printed the reports and then a page of garbage when I used the Savin/Ricoh driver, but the HP driver fixed it. Really weird.

[Llama God]

The HP LJ4 driver is renowned as being a very simple, works on anything driver. It does not, however, give you tray control, finishing etc as Vulkor correctly pointed out, but I do use it from time to time for troubleshooting.

[KenB]

I've had very good luck using the mini drivers, whether PCL5 or 6 in cases like this.

You get the simplicity of the HP drivers, but the tray selection and finishing of the Ricoh ones.

[scoobysteve]

Hi All,

I was reluctant to load just a plain B&W driver as previously we've been burned.

We had clients who had been running MPC4500s using the current versions of the RPCS driver at the time of installation of the machines and because they wanted their staff limited to B&W only (no colour option - controlled printing via print queue), they loaded the MP4500 driver. In doing so, it seemed logical that if you used the MP4500 driver then all printing will come out in B&W only. Were the clients wrong!! Even though they were using the MP4500 driver, it would still print grayscale images using process black thus incrementing the colour counter.

Anyhow so i DIDNT end up loading a B&W driver. I know that the new RPCS driver has a limitation setting where you can limit the printing to either colour only or B&W only (once an option is chosen, the other colour option is no longer optional). So i just locked one instance of the driver to B&W only and installed another instance to use colour.

I set the B&W driver as default and this worked. All documents being printed regardless of whether or not it was colour or B&W would come out in b&w only using K black.

However, one thing here to note. One of the staff actually had a little HP LJ2100 as his default printer. when he printed from this specialised software to the ricoh, the ricoh would be defaulted in B&W as per the ricoh print driver default settings. However, the minute he switched the default printer to the Ricoh, then when he went to print from the specialised software to the ricoh, the default setting was colour - not taking the default settings set in Printers and faxes for the Ricoh.

anyhow, this is how my problem was solved.