Bug 449709 - Print Color Mode: not possible to print in black-white
Summary: Print Color Mode: not possible to print in black-white
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: okular
Classification: Applications
Component: printing (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 24.02.2
Platform: Arch Linux Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Okular developers
URL:
Keywords:
: 478631 497746 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-02-06 18:12 UTC by DaCoEx
Modified: 2025-11-01 18:04 UTC (History)
10 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
KDE Plasma - Print Color Settings (57.38 KB, image/jpeg)
2022-02-06 18:12 UTC, DaCoEx
Details
KDE Plasma - Print Color Setting not available (68.72 KB, image/jpeg)
2022-02-06 18:14 UTC, DaCoEx
Details
Firefox Print Dialogue (52.15 KB, image/jpeg)
2022-02-06 18:18 UTC, DaCoEx
Details
Print to PDF as grayscale (56.44 KB, image/png)
2023-02-20 20:35 UTC, Guillaume Zin
Details
system-config-printer printer option window on job options page with print-color-mode option highlighted (103.08 KB, image/png)
2024-07-02 16:05 UTC, Erik Quaeghebeur
Details

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Description DaCoEx 2022-02-06 18:12:59 UTC
Created attachment 146347 [details]
KDE Plasma - Print Color Settings

Print Color Mode setting in the print dialogue is not reflected in print-out & all prints are in normal color mode


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open a PDF in Okular
2. Open Print Dialogue: CTRL+P 
3. select a physical (non PDF) printer
4. go to "properties" right next to printer name
5. go to "Advanced" tab
6. Switch "Print Color Mode" to monochrome
7. Print

OBSERVED RESULT
Print-out is color

EXPECTED RESULT
Print-out is black & white

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Kubuntu 21.10
KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.90.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 DaCoEx 2022-02-06 18:14:39 UTC
Created attachment 146348 [details]
KDE Plasma - Print Color Setting not available

Sometimes, when selecting a different entry for the same physical printer model, the settings tab "Advanced" is not even available.

Not understandable.
Comment 2 DaCoEx 2022-02-06 18:18:36 UTC
Created attachment 146350 [details]
Firefox Print Dialogue

Ironically, the following works:
1) open PDF file in Firefox
2) Open print dialogue (CTRL+P)
3) Change setting to color mode "black-white"
4) Print 

Outcome:
Printout is in black-white.
Comment 3 Michael Büker 2022-09-06 14:27:04 UTC
I confirm this bug for:
- Okular 21.12.3
- KDE Frameworks 5.92.0
- Qt 5.15.3

When "Mono" printing is selected via the "Properties" printer configuration dialog, output is in color anyways.

In the past, Okular had a "Color Mode" selection in the "Options" tab of the print dialog (checked for Okular 0.20.2 in KDE 4.14.2). This no longer exists.

It seems like okular somehow overrides the printer's settings with this kind of "Color Mode" selection, even though it doesn't exist in the print dialog anymore.
Comment 4 Guillaume Zin 2023-02-20 20:35:31 UTC
Created attachment 156547 [details]
Print to PDF as grayscale

I confirm this bug for:
- Okular 22.08.3
- KDE Frameworks 5.102.0
- Qt 5.15.6

When "Mono" printing is selected via the "Properties" printer configuration dialog, output is in color anyways (Brother printer).

The bug is present if you print to a PDF file too and you select grayscale in "Options", cf. OkularPrintPdfGrayscale.png attached file.
Comment 5 Naxdy 2023-04-06 11:43:58 UTC
I have the opposite problem. Setting "Color Mode" to "Color", I always get a grayscale print. Seems to be a general problem with how Okular is transmitting color settings?
Comment 6 Oleksandr Natalenko 2024-05-01 10:01:49 UTC
I can confirm this still happens for me with the latest KDE 6 on Arch.

Is this a KDE or Qt bug after all? Anyone found a way to work around this?
Comment 7 Oleksandr Natalenko 2024-05-01 10:17:23 UTC
Oddly enough, this happens if I use IPP Everywhere driver. In I use "deprecated" CUPS driver, then things work as expected.

My printer is Brother DCP-L3550CDW, "deprecated" CUPS driver is https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/brother-dcpl3550cdw (repack of an official 32-bit one).
Comment 8 Erik Quaeghebeur 2024-07-02 15:54:59 UTC
*** Bug 478631 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Erik Quaeghebeur 2024-07-02 16:05:48 UTC
Created attachment 171292 [details]
system-config-printer printer option window on job options page with print-color-mode option highlighted

My guess is, that this bug is related to a changed CUPS behavior. See https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/421 and https://github.com/OpenPrinting/system-config-printer/issues/312. Namely, a default job option is set (print-color-mode monochrome/color) that does not seem to be overridden when selecting the color mode in the Advanced settings tab. It is not clear to me whether Okular is at fault here, but it possibly is, as system-config-printer does expose this job option.

In any case—but this is likely bigger than this bug—it would be good if the print dialog also exposes the color mode for physical printers as it now does for print-to-pdf in the Options tab, next to the Double Sided Printing option.
Comment 10 Michael Büker 2024-07-02 16:47:31 UTC
(In reply to Erik Quaeghebeur from comment #9)
> In any case—but this is likely bigger than this bug—it would be good if the
> print dialog also exposes the color mode for physical printers as it now
> does for print-to-pdf in the Options tab, next to the Double Sided Printing
> option.

This used to be the case until KDE 4 at least. The feature was subsequently removed for reasons unknown to me.
Comment 11 mippo 2024-10-20 19:06:18 UTC
The bug is still present. Recently I had to set the printer as monochrome, due to the run-out of the color cartridge. but now, after changing the cartridge,  I cannot manage to set back the Okular to the Color mode. It seems Okular doesn't keep the setting and continue keeping the old monochrome setting.
Other applications like Gimp or Firefox work with my current color setting.
Comment 12 mippo 2024-10-20 19:15:14 UTC
(In reply to mippo from comment #11)
> The bug is still present. Recently I had to set the printer as monochrome,
> due to the run-out of the color cartridge. but now, after changing the
> cartridge,  I cannot manage to set back the Okular to the Color mode. It
> seems Okular doesn't keep the setting and continue keeping the old
> monochrome setting.
> Other applications like Gimp or Firefox work with my current color setting.

System General Settings:
Operating System: KDE neon 6.2
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.7.0
Qt Version: 6.7.2
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-47-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Memory: 7.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Product Name: Inspiron 7373
Comment 13 John Kizer 2024-12-30 06:10:05 UTC
*** Bug 497746 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 14 Peter 2025-07-18 08:57:39 UTC
Issue still present when printing to a PDF file using Okular 25.04.03. 

Is not everyone experiencing this problem?  

Operating System: KDE neon User Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.11.0-29-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
Memory: 8 GiB of RAM (7.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Intel® Xe Graphics
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Product Name: XPS 13 9305
Comment 15 Sergio 2025-07-18 09:14:58 UTC
A couple of comments:

1. In /some/ cases, the problem can be worked around by ticking the entry in the print dialog that "forces rasterization". Probably this happens because when you rasterize /before/ printing, the rasterization itself happens in BW. However, even when this trick works, it is rather sub-optimal because it may slow down printing significantly and decrease the print quality.

2. If you open the `system-config-printer` application and you double click on the printer, you will see a dialog from which you can configure the (default) "job options". Typically, you will find there an option regarding the print color mode. Changing the default option from this dialogue will generally make the printer switch from color mode to BW and viceversa as expected. So it looks like there is a problem in the qt print dialog that does not pass the print color mode option to the printing backend in a way that is suitable for overriding the default.  Maybe, but this is just a hypothesis, this is because the print color mode is not managed at all by the Qt-print dialog as a job option (like duplex for example), but as an advanced printer property.
Comment 16 Peter 2025-07-18 14:05:47 UTC
(In reply to Sergio from comment #15)
> A couple of comments:
> 
> 1. In /some/ cases, the problem can be worked around by ticking the entry in
> the print dialog that "forces rasterization". Probably this happens because
> when you rasterize /before/ printing, the rasterization itself happens in
> BW. However, even when this trick works, it is rather sub-optimal because it
> may slow down printing significantly and decrease the print quality.
> 
> 2. If you open the `system-config-printer` application and you double click
> on the printer, you will see a dialog from which you can configure the
> (default) "job options". Typically, you will find there an option regarding
> the print color mode. Changing the default option from this dialogue will
> generally make the printer switch from color mode to BW and viceversa as
> expected. So it looks like there is a problem in the qt print dialog that
> does not pass the print color mode option to the printing backend in a way
> that is suitable for overriding the default.  Maybe, but this is just a
> hypothesis, this is because the print color mode is not managed at all by
> the Qt-print dialog as a job option (like duplex for example), but as an
> advanced printer property.

Hi Sergio, 

Your 'Force rasterisation' suggestion works a treat, and with no discernible impact on print speed or quality.  

As a matter of possible interest, my motivation was that printing a colour document to my black and white printer was giving a blank - not black, interestingly - page.  Converting it to a grayscale PDF file first was a workaround for that.   

Thank you.  

P
Comment 17 Sergio 2025-11-01 17:56:26 UTC
I have looked a bit more into this. My conclusions:

1. I do not think that this is an issue in okular at all.
2. The problem is with cups, but won't be fixed because cups developers think they are right and that printer manufacturers are wrong. See the exchange at https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/1364#issuecomment-3292398029. They seem not to care very much about the fact that you need to print on real world printer that work in the way their manufacturers choose. They might well not be right either. But still "don'tfix".
3. You see the issue with okular and not with other PDF viewers, because when you ask to print in B/W, okular passes the original job to the printer driver telling it to print in B/W, while most viewers rasterize it in B/W to start with. But I think that the okular behavior is the correct one.
4. Given the fact that the problem in cups won't be fixed, at this point there are only two possible solutions. The first one is to use printers only via driverless printing for which the color/BW selection works. Unfortunately, this is often not something that can be done. Not all printers support driverless operation and even for those that do, cups in this mode often gives you an unacceptably bad rasterization (experiencing this with Brother and Canon printers). The second solution is to set up two different queues, one for B/W printing and the other one for color printing. This is basically, installing each printer twice and set the color/BW mode at the printer install time (i.e. at the queue level). Also horrible, but probably the best solution.
Comment 18 Sergio 2025-11-01 17:57:25 UTC
My two cents are: consider closing the issue in okular as invalid, because the issue is almost certainly not in okular.
Comment 19 Sergio 2025-11-01 18:02:53 UTC
As a final note:

Assuming that cups developers maintain their point that they will not consider users who have printers that use "non standard" option keywords in their advanced options to choose between color and B/W printing, one way to work around the problem would be to have the cups printer dialog itself enhanced to let one control the "print-color-mode" (IPP) attribute.
Comment 20 Sergio 2025-11-01 18:04:29 UTC
Sorry for the typo: not the cups print dialog, the QT print dialog. But again, this is no okular problem, but a Qt one.