AirPrint Grayscale Toggle Gone From Print Options — Why a Driver Mismatch Is Hiding It and How to Bring It Back

Joe B.

Reviewed for technical accuracy

Specialities: iPhone & iPad, macOS, AirPrint, IPP Everywhere, printer drivers & CUPS queues

Fix missing AirPrint grayscale / black & white toggle — driver capability mismatch, IPP Everywhere, PPD options

Technician

Hey! We’ll track down why the AirPrint grayscale / Black & White toggle is missing even though your printer clearly supports black-only printing.
A few quick questions so we don’t guess: Are you printing from an iPhone/iPad, a Mac, or both? Does the printer print color from other devices? And when you look at the print dialog, do you see any option like Color, Monochrome, Grayscale, Black and White, ECO at all — or is it only showing full color?

Customer

I’m printing from iPhone and a MacBook. The AirPrint printer works, but there’s no grayscale / black & white option anywhere. It always prints in full color. I’d like a real grayscale toggle so I can save ink when printing PDFs and emails.

Technician

Got it — this is a classic AirPrint grayscale toggle missing case.
Under the hood, AirPrint is just IPP Everywhere plus Apple’s UI. Your iPhone and Mac don’t invent options — they read what the printer or print queue reports:
• If the AirPrint / IPP driver says “color only”, iOS hides the Black & White / Grayscale switch.
• If the queue says “mono only”, you only get grayscale and lose the Color choice.
• If there’s a driver capability mismatch (for example, a generic AirPrint or IPP driver that doesn’t expose grayscale mode even though the device supports it), the toggle simply never appears.

Plan: 1) Check what driver type your Mac queue is using (AirPrint vs vendor driver vs IPP Everywhere). 2) Make sure the printer is detected as a color device with grayscale capability. 3) Fix the queue/driver so it exposes both color and mono. 4) Re-test the AirPrint dialog on iPhone and Mac.

Customer

Where do I actually see that “driver capability” thing? On the Mac it just says the printer name. I don’t see anything about IPP or AirPrint, just no grayscale toggle anywhere.

Technician

Step 1 — See what driver your Mac queue is using
On the Mac:
1) Open System Settings → Printers & Scanners and select the printer.
2) Under the name, look at the “Kind” or “Use” line:
  • If it says AirPrint or Secure AirPrint, you’re using the built-in AirPrint driver.
  • If it says something like Generic PostScript / Generic PCL or just “IPP Everywhere”, that’s a driverless IPP queue that may not expose grayscale options.
  • If it shows HP xxx series, Canon … driver, Epson …, Brother … etc., that’s a manufacturer driver/PPD, which usually exposes Color vs Grayscale correctly.
3) Click Options & Supplies → Options and confirm the device is set to Color, not “Mono” or “Black only” — otherwise macOS thinks it can’t switch between modes and the grayscale toggle can disappear from the print dialog.

Customer

Mine says “AirPrint” as the driver. Printer is an HP color inkjet, so it definitely can do black-only. But in the print dialog I still only see color with no grayscale option.

Technician

That explains it. Some HP, Canon, Epson and Brother devices report capabilities differently to AirPrint vs vendor drivers. With certain models, the AirPrint queue ends up advertising “color only” — so the grayscale toggle is missing even though the printer can do it.

Step 2 — Recreate the queue with a driver that exposes grayscale
1) In Printers & Scanners, remove the existing AirPrint queue (minus button).
2) Click Add Printer and wait for macOS to discover the printer.
3) When it appears, open the “Use:” dropdown:
  • Try selecting the manufacturer driver (e.g. “HP xxx series”, “Canon IJ”, “Epson XX driver”) if it’s available.
  • If you prefer to stay driverless, choose Secure AirPrint instead of a generic IPP/Everywhere entry — that often exposes more options.
4) Print a test page from Preview or Safari and open the Show Details section of the print dialog. Look for a Media & Quality, Color Options, or Layout panel. You should now see a Color vs Black & White / Grayscale selector if the driver reports that capability correctly.

If you still don’t see it, we’re most likely dealing with a deeper driver capability mismatch in the IPP/PPD definition — the printer is color-capable, but the queue is marked as color-only with no grayscale mode exposed.

Customer

Re-adding with the HP driver on Mac gives me a grayscale checkbox there. But on iPhone, the AirPrint sheet still doesn’t show a grayscale toggle. It just lets me pick copies and paper size.

Technician

Right, iOS behaves a bit differently from macOS.
On a Mac, the driver can expose a rich panel of options (including grayscale presets). On iPhone/iPad, the AirPrint UI only shows a limited subset of IPP capabilities:
• Some printers expose “black and white” or “monochrome” to iOS, so you see a Color / B&W toggle.
• Others only expose color to mobile clients, so the AirPrint grayscale toggle is missing on iPhone even when the Mac driver has it.

Step 3 — Use a grayscale preset or default on the printer side
On the Mac:
1) In the print dialog, choose Black & White / Grayscale and then save it as a Preset (e.g. “Grayscale only”).
2) Use that preset whenever you print long documents that don’t need color.

On the printer / web interface (advanced but powerful):
• Many printers have an “Eco / Grayscale / Black-only” default you can enable in their embedded web server or driver preferences. When this is enabled as a device default, AirPrint jobs from iPhone will follow that monochrome default, even if iOS doesn’t show a separate toggle.

Customer

I’d prefer the iPhone to show an actual black & white toggle. Is there any way to make the AirPrint capabilities update, or is that fixed by the printer firmware/driver?

Technician

Good question. AirPrint’s list of options comes from IPP attributes the printer publishes — things like print-color-mode and printer-color-supported.

If those capabilities are wrong (for example, the printer or its IPP Everywhere queue advertises only “color”, or always forces print-color-mode=color), the result is what you’re seeing: no grayscale toggle in AirPrint because iOS thinks there is no monochrome mode.

Step 4 — Update firmware and refresh AirPrint / IPP capabilities
1) Use the manufacturer app (HP Smart, Canon PRINT, Epson iPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan) or the printer’s web page to update firmware — vendors quietly fix a lot of AirPrint / driverless capability bugs there.
2) In the printer’s web UI, look for an AirPrint, Bonjour, IPP, IPP Everywhere section. Toggle AirPrint off, apply settings, then toggle it back on. This forces the printer to republish fresh capabilities to iOS and macOS.
3) On the Mac, remove and re-add the printer using either the manufacturer driver or Secure AirPrint. Then restart your iPhone and try printing again — in many cases the Black & White option finally appears.

Customer

What if I’m in an office? We use a central print server and everything is “driverless IPP”. Could that be why we’re missing grayscale on iOS and sometimes even on Macs?

Technician

Yes, very likely.
Many organizations push a single driverless IPP Everywhere queue from CUPS, PaperCut, or another print server. If that queue is configured as “mono-only” or “color-only”, the driver capability mismatch flows through to every Mac and iOS device using AirPrint:
• Users see only Black & White (no Color) or only Color (no grayscale).
• The server may force print-color-mode=monochrome or always default to color in the PPD/IPP settings.

For admins, the fix is:
• Recreate queues with the correct PPD or model-specific driver so both color and grayscale modes are exposed.
• Avoid using overly generic “IPP Everywhere mono” queues for devices that must support both modes.
• For some fleets it makes sense to publish two queues: one forced grayscale (for cost control) and one full color — then tell users which one to pick.

Customer

After switching the driver on the Mac and refreshing AirPrint, I now see a Black & White toggle on iPhone. Any last checks so it doesn’t randomly disappear again?

Technician

Final checklist so your AirPrint grayscale toggle stays put:
• Keep the printer firmware up to date and leave AirPrint enabled.
• On Macs, use either the manufacturer’s driver or a proper color-capable AirPrint/IPP queue — avoid mystery “Generic” drivers that don’t list grayscale capability.
• Don’t force “always color” or “always mono” policies on the server unless that’s intentional — they override the toggle on client devices.
• When you find a combo that exposes both Color and Black & White consistently, save a preset on the Mac and test from iPhone/iPad so you know exactly how the driver behaves.

If the toggle ever vanishes again, we can quickly check the queue and driver capabilities together — just open the chat and we’ll review your AirPrint setup.

Customer

Got it. The grayscale option now shows on the iPhone and Mac, and I can switch between color and black & white. Thanks for walking me through the AirPrint driver mismatch stuff!

Technician

Summary: When the AirPrint grayscale / Black & White toggle is missing, it’s almost always a driver capability mismatch — the AirPrint/IPP queue doesn’t advertise a proper monochrome mode, so iOS and macOS hide the option. Fixes include: recreating the queue with the right driver (manufacturer or Secure AirPrint), updating firmware, refreshing AirPrint capabilities, and adjusting server-side IPP/PPD settings. Once the driver reports both color and grayscale, the toggle comes back and you can actually save ink. Need help matching the right driver to your printer? Open the chat.

Quick answer: the accepted fix

Accepted fix when the AirPrint grayscale / Black & White toggle is missing: on macOS, recreate the printer using a driver that exposes both color and mono (manufacturer driver or Secure AirPrint), confirm the device is marked as a color printer with grayscale capability, then update firmware and refresh AirPrint in the printer’s web UI. For managed IPP Everywhere queues, correct the print-color-mode and queue capabilities on the server so iPhone and iPad see both Color and Black & White in the AirPrint sheet.

FAQ

Step-by-step (AirPrint & drivers)

1. On macOS, open Printers & Scanners and check whether the queue uses AirPrint, Secure AirPrint, IPP Everywhere, or a manufacturer driver.
2. Remove generic queues and re-add the printer using a driver that exposes both color and grayscale modes (vendor driver or Secure AirPrint when available).
3. Update the printer’s firmware and toggle AirPrint/IPP off and back on in the web UI to refresh capabilities.
4. Test from a Mac and then from iPhone/iPad to confirm the Black & White / Grayscale toggle appears and works correctly.

Note for mixed environments (macOS, iOS, and print servers)

1. For offices using a print server or driverless IPP, verify the server’s queue is configured as a color device with grayscale support, not forced mono.
2. Where necessary, maintain two queues (color and grayscale) and publish the correct one for AirPrint so users see the options they actually need on Macs and iOS devices.

Sources

• Apple — About AirPrint capabilities and driverless printing
• CUPS — No grayscale option when using IPP Everywhere (driverless)
• Apple Community — Grayscale printing option missing after driver change

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