This article explains the default color mode settings in Print Conductor and how to adjust them for optimal printing, including options for color, grayscale, and customized page-specific color modes.
Contents
- What is the default color mode option in Print Conductor?
- Grayscale printing
- Printing document pages in their original color: As in document
- Changing color detection threshold by setting Min pixels quantity threshold
- Color mode for selected pages: Printing part of pages in Color and other in Grayscale mode
- Q&A
What is the default color mode option in Print Conductor?
By default, color mode in Print Conductor is set to As in printer meaning that color mode is determined by your Printer Properties. These are your printer settings, and you can check them by clicking the corresponding button under the printer selection box. Learn more about Printer Properties →
Grayscale printing
To turn on grayscale printing mode, open Print Conductor Settings, and select Color mode: Grayscale.
Printing in grayscale uses only black ink or toner, which is typically cheaper and faster than color printing, especially when color isn’t essential to the materials you're printing.
Printing document pages in their original color: As in document
You can change Color mode to As in document to print pages in their original color. The program will choose either Color or Grayscale mode for each page – depending on their contents.
That means, the actual printing will be based on the page's color or absence of color. If at least one pixel of the original file has color, the whole page will be considered as colored and thus printed in color.
Changing color detection threshold by setting Min pixels quantity threshold
If you set Color mode to As in document, you can also adjust color detection manually, by using the Min pixels threshold setting. Changing this setting can be helpful, for example, if a small part of the original page or image has some color, but you still want to print them as grayscale. Here's a request from one of our customers as an example:
In every page, there is a logotype, that is an image, but in those pages the only image is the logotype, I would like to print in B&W.
We recommend changing it to Min pixels quantity threshold: 1% and increasing this value if this doesn't help (try setting it within a range of 1-50%).
Important: When using Color mode: As in Document and Min pixels quantity threshold: 1% (or higher value) make sure that color mode of your printer is set to printing in "Color" or "Auto" or a setting with a similar name. You can check it via the Printer Properties button.
If "Black and White", "Grayscale" or a similar option is set in the printer driver settings, Print Conductor will not be able to correctly render pages as coloured or grayscale before printing.
Color mode for selected pages: Printing part of pages in Color and other in Grayscale mode
The Color mode for selected pages feature in Print Conductor allows users to specify different color settings for different page ranges within a document. This is particularly useful when you know the exact page ranges and want to print some pages in color and make others black-and-white.
To set color mode for different pages or page ranges:
- Open Print Conductor Settings;
- Go to the Advanced tab;
- Find the Color mode for selected pages setting (start typing "color mode" in the search bar);
- Define the page ranges and color modes, for example, 1-3 → Color; 4-999 → Grayscale
- Click OK to save changes and apply the settings.
Q&A
What is Grayscale printing mode?
When using Grayscale mode, the final image or text appears as black and white, with smooth transitions between light and dark areas if the printer supports good halftoning.
In this mode, all colors are converted to gradations of brightness, from black (0% brightness) to white (100% brightness), passing through different shades of gray. For example, a bright red or blue color may become a light gray, while darker shades may become closer to black. This is achieved by removing color information (hue and saturation), leaving only the luminance level.
What is the difference between Grayscale and B/W?
Grayscale mode is often referred to as black and white (black-and-white, B/W) printing. People frequently use both terms interchangeably to mean "printing in shades of gray" or "composite gray" (shouldn't be mixed with monochrome printing), which is not technically correct. The term "grayscale" is more accurate in this context; however, we use both "Grayscale" and "Black and White" interchangeably throughout our Knowledge Base since "Black and White" is often used in other software products and printer driver interfaces.