How can I stop a printer from printing colour unless I want it to?

We have a couple of Canon Color Imagerunner c3380/C2880 printers.

When we print black and white it costs us about a cent. When we print
colour its about 10 cents. To reduce costs we want to slow people down
from printing color.

We use active directories, and often several people log onto one
computer. If a person is logged in I can go to preferences in the
printer window and choose black and white as the default for their
setting rather than auto, which would make all their copies print b/w
unless they specifically choose colour. But this means I have to do
this on 100 computers. Seems a bit much. Is there a Global way to
change peoples computers so that they can be set automatically to
print black and white, unless they specifically choose Colour. Does
any one know this printer I have listed above, and know how to do
this. Or is there a script that can be written to automatically do
this on everyones comptuer say when they log in. I DONT want to stop
people I just want to globally change things to b/w unless they
specifically choose colour.

Regards

You can't. Put in a Laser black only for them to use and restrict who uses
the color printer.

"steve" wrote in message
...
We have a couple of Canon Color Imagerunner c3380/C2880 printers.

When we print black and white it costs us about a cent. When we print
colour its about 10 cents. To reduce costs we want to slow people down
from printing color.

We use active directories, and often several people log onto one
computer. If a person is logged in I can go to preferences in the
printer window and choose black and white as the default for their
setting rather than auto, which would make all their copies print b/w
unless they specifically choose colour. But this means I have to do
this on 100 computers. Seems a bit much. Is there a Global way to
change peoples computers so that they can be set automatically to
print black and white, unless they specifically choose Colour. Does
any one know this printer I have listed above, and know how to do
this. Or is there a script that can be written to automatically do
this on everyones comptuer say when they log in. I DONT want to stop
people I just want to globally change things to b/w unless they
specifically choose colour.

Regards

Considering how cheap even fairly good networking business black and
white laser printers are these days, I would agree with Woody, and offer
two printer, one for Black and white prints, one for color.
However, make sure the cost of consumables on the black and white
printer aren't ridiculous. Some less costly B&W laser printers may make
up for the cost by charging you so much for the refill toner that it
will end up close to ten cents a copy anyway.

On the server, you may be able to place a warning when the color printer
is selected as part of the printer "name" or some type of pop up window
that says something like: This printer is only to be used for intended
color printing, otherwise please select printer X for black and white
output.

Then send out an email notice to all employees telling them they will be
docked bonus pay if they print unnecessary color output ;-)

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

Woody wrote:
You can't. Put in a Laser black only for them to use and restrict who uses
the color printer.

"steve" wrote in message
...
We have a couple of Canon Color Imagerunner c3380/C2880 printers.

When we print black and white it costs us about a cent. When we print
colour its about 10 cents. To reduce costs we want to slow people down
from printing color.

We use active directories, and often several people log onto one
computer. If a person is logged in I can go to preferences in the
printer window and choose black and white as the default for their
setting rather than auto, which would make all their copies print b/w
unless they specifically choose colour. But this means I have to do
this on 100 computers. Seems a bit much. Is there a Global way to
change peoples computers so that they can be set automatically to
print black and white, unless they specifically choose Colour. Does
any one know this printer I have listed above, and know how to do
this. Or is there a script that can be written to automatically do
this on everyones comptuer say when they log in. I DONT want to stop
people I just want to globally change things to b/w unless they
specifically choose colour.

Regards

On Dec 8, 8:12 pm, Arthur Entlich wrote:
Considering how cheap even fairly good networking business black and
white laser printers are these days, I would agree with Woody, and offer
two printer, one for Black and white prints, one for color.
However, make sure the cost of consumables on the black and white
printer aren't ridiculous. Some less costly B&W laser printers may make
up for the cost by charging you so much for the refill toner that it
will end up close to ten cents a copy anyway.

On the server, you may be able to place a warning when the color printer
is selected as part of the printer "name" or some type of pop up window
that says something like: This printer is only to be used for intended
color printing, otherwise please select printer X for black and white
output.

I think Arthur is on to something, though I think there is a better
way to implement it. You don't install a $8000 unit just to be told
to install ANOTHER laser. Even so, the cost per page is going to be
at least double on your average sub $2000 laser printer. Hell, the
black toner cartridge is like $65 for 26,000 pages. Taking fuser and
developers into account it's in the penny range.

IIRC the imagerunner series supports postscript, so in theory one
could use a driver for another printer, say one that didn't support
color, and just direct it to the imageRunner. I've never done this my
self, so I have NO clue if it would work. Alternatively one could use
the driver from a lesser non-color model.

This is presuming that one can't define access to specific functions
like color printing.

Though this is the sort of thing that one should be talking to Canon
about. This is something that SHOULD be included in the admin faq.
"How do I restrict color use" or "how do I default to B&W"

Thanks for some of your suggestions.

It seems a little frustrating. We have a plan so all supplies and
repairs are paid for. However we pay some fraction of a cent for b/w
and 10 cents for color. In a month b/w is 166 dollars and color is
1900. People print color because they can or are too ignorant to not
do it. I Have read much of the canon manual. And they purposly make it
hard to limit color. Anyway I will persever.

thank.s

Follow up question:

Where are the settings saved? They must be saved on the local
computer. Could I not get these settings eg if in registisry or
elseware and then copy them into the various computers using a batch
file when they log in via active directories.

Regards

On Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:12:29 -0800, Arthur Entlich wrote:


He TOP POSTED Again

Considering how cheap even fairly good networking business black and
white laser printers are these days, I would agree with Woody, and offer
two printer, one for Black and white prints, one for color.
However, make sure the cost of consumables on the black and white
printer aren't ridiculous. Some less costly B&W laser printers may make
up for the cost by charging you so much for the refill toner that it
will end up close to ten cents a copy anyway.

On the server, you may be able to place a warning when the color printer
is selected as part of the printer "name" or some type of pop up window
that says something like: This printer is only to be used for intended
color printing, otherwise please select printer X for black and white
output.

Then send out an email notice to all employees telling them they will be
docked bonus pay if they print unnecessary color output ;-)

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

Woody wrote:
You can't. Put in a Laser black only for them to use and restrict who uses
the color printer.

"steve" wrote in message
...
We have a couple of Canon Color Imagerunner c3380/C2880 printers.

When we print black and white it costs us about a cent. When we print
colour its about 10 cents. To reduce costs we want to slow people down
from printing color.

We use active directories, and often several people log onto one
computer. If a person is logged in I can go to preferences in the
printer window and choose black and white as the default for their
setting rather than auto, which would make all their copies print b/w
unless they specifically choose colour. But this means I have to do
this on 100 computers. Seems a bit much. Is there a Global way to
change peoples computers so that they can be set automatically to
print black and white, unless they specifically choose Colour. Does
any one know this printer I have listed above, and know how to do
this. Or is there a script that can be written to automatically do
this on everyones comptuer say when they log in. I DONT want to stop
people I just want to globally change things to b/w unless they
specifically choose colour.

Regards

If I understand correctly, this printer is on contract and so you pay
"per push" as it is referred to, with a set price for each page that
goes through, regardless of the actual cost of consumables.

You may need to "human engineer" a solution, by appealing to people to
change their behaviour.

How about the company offering to donate half of the color savings to
rotating charities each month, or a gift to the employee group that
lowers their color use the most each month, if you can monitor that.

As I stated yesterday, it seems to me some type of pop up message
suggesting switching to black and white per print job may work.

You probably need to explain to the personnel at your offices that even
if the print has no color on it, if it is designated as a color print by
the printer, the cost per page is ten times higher.

Art




If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

steve wrote:
Thanks for some of your suggestions.

It seems a little frustrating. We have a plan so all supplies and
repairs are paid for. However we pay some fraction of a cent for b/w
and 10 cents for color. In a month b/w is 166 dollars and color is
1900. People print color because they can or are too ignorant to not
do it. I Have read much of the canon manual. And they purposly make it
hard to limit color. Anyway I will persever.

thank.s

Oh my God- He TOP POSTED Again!


"measekite" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:12:29 -0800, Arthur Entlich wrote:


He TOP POSTED Again

Considering how cheap even fairly good networking business black
and
white laser printers are these days, I would agree with Woody, and
offer
two printer, one for Black and white prints, one for color.
However, make sure the cost of consumables on the black and white
printer aren't ridiculous. Some less costly B&W laser printers may
make
up for the cost by charging you so much for the refill toner that
it
will end up close to ten cents a copy anyway.

On the server, you may be able to place a warning when the color
printer
is selected as part of the printer "name" or some type of pop up
window
that says something like: This printer is only to be used for
intended
color printing, otherwise please select printer X for black and
white
output.

Then send out an email notice to all employees telling them they
will be
docked bonus pay if they print unnecessary color output ;-)

Art


If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

Woody wrote:
You can't. Put in a Laser black only for them to use and restrict
who uses
the color printer.

"steve" wrote in message
...
We have a couple of Canon Color Imagerunner c3380/C2880 printers.

When we print black and white it costs us about a cent. When we
print
colour its about 10 cents. To reduce costs we want to slow people
down
from printing color.

We use active directories, and often several people log onto one
computer. If a person is logged in I can go to preferences in the
printer window and choose black and white as the default for
their
setting rather than auto, which would make all their copies print
b/w
unless they specifically choose colour. But this means I have to
do
this on 100 computers. Seems a bit much. Is there a Global way to
change peoples computers so that they can be set automatically to
print black and white, unless they specifically choose Colour.
Does
any one know this printer I have listed above, and know how to do
this. Or is there a script that can be written to automatically
do
this on everyones comptuer say when they log in. I DONT want to
stop
people I just want to globally change things to b/w unless they
specifically choose colour.

Regards

On Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:26:52 -0800, Arthur Entlich wrote:

If I understand correctly, this printer is on contract and so you pay


What you need to understand is that you need to get your nose from up in
the air and not top post.





"per push" as it is referred to, with a set price for each page that
goes through, regardless of the actual cost of consumables.

You may need to "human engineer" a solution, by appealing to people to
change their behaviour.

How about the company offering to donate half of the color savings to
rotating charities each month, or a gift to the employee group that
lowers their color use the most each month, if you can monitor that.

As I stated yesterday, it seems to me some type of pop up message
suggesting switching to black and white per print job may work.

You probably need to explain to the personnel at your offices that even
if the print has no color on it, if it is designated as a color print by
the printer, the cost per page is ten times higher.

Art




If you are interested in issues surrounding e-waste,
I invite you to enter the discussion at my blog:

http://e-trashtalk.spaces.live.com/

steve wrote:
Thanks for some of your suggestions.

It seems a little frustrating. We have a plan so all supplies and
repairs are paid for. However we pay some fraction of a cent for b/w
and 10 cents for color. In a month b/w is 166 dollars and color is
1900. People print color because they can or are too ignorant to not
do it. I Have read much of the canon manual. And they purposly make it
hard to limit color. Anyway I will persever.

thank.s