MacOS – How to make the OS print dialog default to a particular preset

cupsmacosplistprinting

Simply put, this is what I want: I want to take a unique printer preset that has already been made and make the OS default to it any time that particular printer is selected to be printed to.

I know how to edit a particular printer's 'Default Settings' preset through the CUPS web UI, but this solution doesn't work for me because one of the printing options I need to change doesn't appear in this UI (for science: the printers I'm working with are Konica Minolta Bizhub C252, C353, and C364; the setting I'm looking to change is make the default color "Grayscale").

I have been able to modify the com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.PRINTER.plist file to get the system print dialog to pull up the preset that I want by default, but there is a problem with solving things this way: I can't edit this PLIST file properly with TextEdit (the XML gets mangled), and installing XCode on every machine isn't feasible. A solution could be to bring an editor with me on a thumb drive to each machine, but I don't know of an app I could use.

Any path to a solution to this problem, I am open to. I've tried to be as specific about my ultimate goal as possible, and I will answer any followup questions I can.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

There is a much easier way.

  1. Create a Print Preset, with the settings as you want them. Select it.

  2. Press the Print button while holding down Alt (Option).

That will force your current settings to be the default for the printer.

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