How do I make “black&white” the default?

Question

When I print something (Firefox 5 but also other apps), the option "color" is always set to "Color (CMYK)". How do I make "monochrome" or "black & white" the default?

This is a Kyocera FS-C5100DN with CUPS 1.4.6-5ubuntu1.3.

[EDIT] Output of lpstat -d -v:

system default destination: FS-C5100DN
device for FS-C5100DN: socket://192.168.0.24

So the question is now: Can I change the default somehow on my own computer without changing settings on the server?

Answer 1

You can configure CUPS defaults for your account by running the lpoptions command. Run lpoptions -l to see what options are available for your printer, and determine which one corresponds to the color/monochrome choice. For example, with this output

$ lpoptions -l | grep Color
ColorModel/Color Model: Gray Black *RGB CMY CMYK KCMY

I would set ColorModel to Black. Then run lpoptions -o NAME=VALUE to set a default option. This creates a file called ~/.cups/lpoptions that applications using CUPS will read.

lpoptions -o ColorModel=Black

You can define aliases for sets of options and make one of them the default.

lpoptions -p FS-C5100DN/bw -o ColorModel=Black
lpoptions -p FS-C5100DN/color -o ColorModel=RGB
lpoptions -d FS-C5100DN/bw

Answer 2

Most CUPS printer drivers have this in their options settings. I don't know about Ubunutu but a default CUPS installation will include a special local-host only web server that can be used for configuration and management of printers. Try this URL: http://127.0.0.1:631

From there go to the Printers tab, select the printer you want to modify, then choose "Set Defaults Options" from the Administration menu. My printer has B&W default options under the Printout Mode tab, but yours may vary.