How To Print Black & White In Microsoft Edge In Windows 10

Why Printing Black and White in Edge Is Not Always Obvious

Here is the annoying truth: Microsoft Edge can open the print window quickly, but the actual black-and-white setting usually depends on your printer model and driver. That is why one person sees Grayscale, another sees Black & White, someone else gets Monochrome, and one especially dramatic printer offers Black Ink Only like it is making a solemn vow.

In other words, Edge helps you start the print job, but your printer preferences usually decide whether the output comes out in color, grayscale, or pure black ink. Once you understand that, the process becomes much easier. You stop blaming Edge for everything and start poking the right menu instead.

The Fastest Way to Print Black & White in Microsoft Edge

If you want the most reliable method, use Edge to open printing, then jump into the system dialog or printer properties.

Method 1: Use Edge Print and Open Printer Preferences

1. Open the webpage, article, receipt, recipe, or document in Microsoft Edge.
2. Press Ctrl + P to open the print window.
3. Select the printer you actually want to use. Yes, this matters. No, “Microsoft Print to PDF” is not going to spit out paper from across the room.
4. Look for More settings. Some printers show a direct color option there.
5. If you do not see a black-and-white option, choose Print using system dialog or press Ctrl + Shift + P.
6. In the system print window, click Preferences, Properties, or Printer Properties.
7. Find the color setting and switch it to one of the following:
   • Grayscale
   • Black & White
   • Monochrome
   • Black Ink Only
8. Click OK, then click Print.

This is the method that works best because it reaches the printer driver, which is where the real control usually lives. If you only use the basic Edge print pane, you may miss model-specific settings.

When Edge Shows the Black-and-White Option Directly

Some printers are cooperative. In those cases, Edge may show a grayscale or monochrome option right inside the print interface under More settings. If you see it, great. Use it. Do a tiny celebration. Maybe nod once like a person who has won a battle against unnecessary cyan.

Still, do not assume every printer will expose the same control. Two computers running Windows 10 can look completely different if the printers use different drivers. That is why “my friend has the option but I do not” is a very common printing complaint.

How to Make Black & White the Default in Windows 10

If you print from Edge often and want black-and-white output every time, changing the printer’s default preferences in Windows 10 saves you from repeating the same clicks forever.

Set Black and White as the Default Print Preference

1. Click Start in Windows 10.
2. Open Settings.
3. Go to Devices > Printers & scanners.
4. Click your printer, then choose Manage.
5. Select Printing preferences.
6. Under the color or quality tab, switch to Grayscale, Black & White, or Monochrome.
7. Click Apply, then OK.

After that, Microsoft Edge should use those default preferences for future print jobs, unless you manually change them again inside the print window.

Set the Correct Default Printer Too

If Windows keeps picking the wrong printer, fix that as well. A lot of black-and-white confusion is really default-printer confusion wearing a fake mustache. In Windows 10, set the correct printer as default so Edge stops wandering off to another device with different color settings.

Grayscale vs. Black Ink Only: What Is the Difference?

This part matters more than people think. Many users assume all black-and-white settings mean the same thing. They do not.

Grayscale

Grayscale prints images and text in shades of gray. On many printers, especially inkjets, grayscale may still use some color ink to create smoother tones, better photo shadows, or more neutral grays. So if your goal is “print without color,” grayscale is often the right visual choice, but not always the cheapest one.

Black Ink Only

Black Ink Only, Monochrome, or a similar setting usually aims to use the black cartridge or black toner more directly. That can save color ink, but the result may look a bit flatter for photos and gradient-heavy images. For text documents, receipts, school handouts, and web articles, it is usually perfect.

The smart rule is simple:

• Use Grayscale when you want smoother photos or graphics.
• Use Black Ink Only when you want to save color ink and print sharp text.

Best Settings for Common Edge Printing Jobs

Printing Articles and Web Pages

Use black and white, then turn off unnecessary backgrounds if the page is full of giant colored blocks, banners, or stylish design choices made by someone who clearly does not buy printer ink. If the page looks cluttered, open it in a cleaner reading mode before printing.

Printing Recipes

Recipes are notorious for wasting ink with giant food photos and decorative headers. Black and white is usually the ideal choice. If the site is messy, copy the text into a cleaner document or use a simplified page view before printing.

Printing Receipts and Confirmations

Receipts, order confirmations, shipping pages, and tickets usually print beautifully in black and white. In fact, printing them in color is like wearing a tuxedo to buy toothpaste. Technically possible, but wildly unnecessary.

Printing Schoolwork or Research Pages

For text-heavy material, black-and-white printing is almost always the better call. It is easier on ink, cleaner on paper, and usually more readable than a rainbow-colored webpage pretending to be educational.

Useful Edge Tips That Make Printing Better

Use a Cleaner Reading View

If the webpage is packed with ads, menus, pop-ups, or “related stories” you did not ask for, switch to a simplified reading view when available before printing. That often produces a cleaner black-and-white page and avoids wasting ink on junk.

Print Only a Selection

You do not always need the whole page. If you only want a paragraph, chart, or section, select it and print just that part when the page allows it. Your printer will appreciate the reduced drama.

Skip Background Graphics

If the site has colored backgrounds, large blocks, or decorative elements, disabling background graphics can make black-and-white output cleaner and more professional. It also keeps your paper from looking like a newspaper went through a thunderstorm.

What to Do If You Cannot Find the Black-and-White Option

If the setting is missing, do not panic. This is common, and the fix is usually practical rather than mysterious.

1. Open the System Print Dialog

If Edge’s built-in print pane looks too simple, use Ctrl + Shift + P to open the system dialog directly. That often reveals printer-specific settings hidden from the basic browser view.

2. Check Printing Preferences in Windows 10

Go to your printer in Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners, open Manage, and then Printing preferences. If the option exists at all, it is likely there.

3. Update or Reinstall the Printer Driver

If Windows is using a generic driver, the advanced color controls may not appear. Install the full driver package from your printer manufacturer so Windows 10 can expose the right settings. Missing controls often point to a driver problem, not a browser problem.

4. Check the Quality Tab

Some printers hide black-and-white settings in a Quality, Advanced, Color, or Output tab. Printer software enjoys hide-and-seek far more than anyone asked it to.

Troubleshooting Black-and-White Printing in Edge

The Page Still Prints in Color

Double-check that you changed the printer’s actual preferences, not just the preview. Make sure the correct printer is selected and that the setting was saved before clicking Print.

Photos Look Muddy or Too Dark

Try grayscale instead of black ink only. Also check print quality, paper type, and any economy mode. Draft mode can make a serious document look like it was printed during an earthquake.

Text Looks Faint

Turn off toner saver, economy, or draft mode. Choose Normal or Best quality. If that does not help, inspect the black cartridge or toner level.

The Setting Does Not Stay Saved

Change it from Printing preferences in Windows 10 rather than only inside a single print job. That gives the setting a better chance of becoming your default.

The Printer Has No Black-and-White Option at All

That usually means the current driver is too limited or generic. Install the full manufacturer driver and try again. On many printers, the option appears only after the proper software is installed.

A Simple Step-by-Step Example

Let us say you want to print an article from a website in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 without turning your color cartridge into a tragic memory.

1. Open the article in Edge.
2. Press Ctrl + P.
3. Choose your home printer.
4. Click Print using system dialog.
5. Click Preferences.
6. Open the tab called Color, Quality, or Advanced.
7. Select Grayscale or Black & White.
8. Click OK.
9. Print the page.

That is it. Once you know where the preference lives, the task becomes easy. The real challenge is surviving your printer’s menu design without developing trust issues.

Conclusion

Printing black and white in Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 is less about a magical browser switch and more about knowing how Edge, Windows, and your printer driver work together. The quickest path is to open the print window in Edge, jump into the system dialog or printer preferences, and select the correct color mode there. From that point on, you can make grayscale or black-only printing your default and stop repeating the same setup for every page.

The good news is that once you do it once, the process becomes simple. The better news is that your color cartridge may finally stop disappearing every time you print a boarding pass, recipe, or school article. And honestly, that is the kind of happy ending office equipment rarely gives us.

Real-World Experience: What It Is Actually Like to Print Black & White in Edge on Windows 10

In real life, most people do not search for this topic because they are fascinated by printer settings. They search because something mildly ridiculous just happened. Maybe they tried to print a plain airline confirmation and Edge previewed it like a glossy travel brochure. Maybe they printed a recipe and somehow burned through color ink on three photos of soup. Maybe a teacher asked for a hard copy, and now a student is staring at the print window wondering why “simple black and white” feels like an advanced engineering problem.

That is exactly why this topic matters. The experience of printing from Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 is usually fine until you need control. The basic print button is easy enough, but the moment you want to save ink, clean up a webpage, or force black-and-white output, you discover that the important settings are often tucked behind another button, then another menu, then a tab called something vague like Advanced or Quality. It is not impossible. It is just a little too good at pretending to be impossible.

One common experience is thinking the browser is the problem when it is really the printer driver. A lot of users open Edge, hit print, and never see a black-and-white option. That makes it feel like Edge does not support it. Then they open the system dialog or the printer preferences and suddenly there it is: Grayscale, quietly hiding like it had no role in the confusion at all. That moment is both satisfying and deeply annoying.

Another very real experience is discovering that not all black-and-white modes behave the same way. Someone chooses grayscale, prints a handful of pages, and later realizes the printer still used some color ink. Then they switch to black ink only and the text looks excellent, but photos lose some depth. That is not a failure. It is just how many printers work. Once people understand the difference, they usually get better results and waste less ink.

There is also the classic “Why does this setting not stay saved?” problem. A user changes one print job to black and white, prints successfully, closes Edge, returns the next day, and the next page comes out in color again like yesterday never happened. That usually means the setting was changed only for one job instead of in Windows printing preferences. It feels like the computer forgot. In truth, it never fully learned.

My favorite real-world pattern is how often people print things that should obviously be black and white: shipping labels, classroom notes, forms, coupons, lyrics, schedules, invoices, event tickets, and browser articles. None of these need a splash of cheerful teal. They need to be readable, fast, and inexpensive. Once users figure out how to set black-and-white printing correctly in Edge and Windows 10, the change is immediate. Fewer wasted cartridges, fewer strange page backgrounds, cleaner output, and far less muttering at the printer.

So yes, this is a small technical task. But it solves a very ordinary, very recurring frustration. And that is why learning it feels surprisingly rewarding. You are not just clicking a setting. You are taking back control from a machine that keeps assuming every webpage deserves a cinematic color treatment.

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