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Configure black and white (grayscale) printing

This page applies to:

🔎 Admin console: Reduce Waste > Promote Black and White / Auto Black and White

📄 For more information, see About encouraging or enforcing black and white (grayscale) printing and Reduce waste - overview and benefits .

Encourage black and white (grayscale) printing

  1. In the admin console, go to Reduce Waste > Promote Black and White printing.

  2. Click the Encourage users to convert color to black & white toggle to on (green).

  3. Decide how often you want users to be prompted,  and what size print job (how many pages) you want to trigger the message.

    Options availableDescription of the behavior
    How often to prompt

    Use the sliding scale to set the frequency that prompts are displayed. You might want to encourage users before 100% of their jobs printed through PaperCut Pocket or Hive, or you might want a smaller percentage - it all depends on how often your users print and how often you think they should see the message. An occasional hint can be helpful, whereas relentless nagging could become annoying!

    The percentage of jobs applies to the overall organization’s jobs - so just like the claw-grabber game in an arcade, there’s a certain amount of luck involved.

    In theory, if you set the percentage to 25% and your organization prints a lot but one person prints once a month - they could, by complete chance, never see that suggestion popup. However, the higher the percentage used, the chances of not seeing the suggestion dramatically decrease, the more the person prints. 

    Size of document to prompt forThe more pages in a document, the more you save by choosing 2-sided. For example, you can customize the suggestion to only apply to documents of 10 pages or more.
  4. Customize the message the message you want your users to see.
    The message will remind your users of the good that can be done by saving on color ink. Maybe there’s an environmental goal that your organization is working towards that is worth a mention in the message, to sway their choice!

  5. Click Save changes

When the user goes to release their print job from the mobile app (or if they’re using PaperCut Hive from the MFD or copier), they’ll see the notification about the conversion as well as the options to Keep in Color or Convert to B&W - it’s their choice!

Screenshot showing the options for promoting grayscale / black and white printing.

Promoting black and white printing by popping up a suggestion to users when they print documents in color.

Automatically convert documents to black and white / grayscale

  1. In the admin console, go to Reduce Waste > Automatics Black & White Printing.
  2. Click the Automatic black & white printing toggle to on (green).
  3. Select the users and groups that you to apply the rule to.
    Maybe there’s a marketing group that needs to print posters and other materials in full color (wow, they really get all the fun don’t they!). You can exclude those users in this case.
  4. Select if you want a message to pop up a notification to let the user know that their document has been converted.
    Explaining the ‘why’ can greatly help people understand the change; they can react in completely different ways if they know it’s for a good cause or a good reason
Options availableDescription of the behavior
Select the users to apply the rule toYou can select which users have their documents automatically converted to black and white. Maybe there's a marketing group that needs to print posters and other materials in full color (wow, they really get all the fun don't they!). You can exclude those users in this case.
ActionChoose whether or not to notify the user that their document has been converted to grayscale. In most environments, we'd recommend this since it gives the user the chance to cancel the document if for some reason this won't work for them!
  1. If you’ve chosen to show a message, type the message you want them to see. 

When the user goes to release their print job from the mobile app (or if they’re using PaperCut Hive from the MFD or copier), they’ll see the notification about the conversion.

Screenshot showing the options for forcing users to print in grayscale / black and white.

Automatically convert all your users’ print jobs to black and white. In this case the user will also get a handy popup to let them know that the document is now black and white!

FAQs

Can I enforce suggestions or automatic conversions based on user groups?
Sooooon. It’s not in the product at the moment - but we’re working on it!
Can't I just let my users choose their format when they release their job?
Absolutely - even if you don’t use any of these suggestions or auto-conversions when releasing their print job, users can always use their mobile app (and soon, if they’re using PaperCut Hive, the device screen!) to change a document from color to black and white!

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