Jaime Gago Condensing Information Systems From the Vapor Of Data

Modify Default Printing Presets in Os X (10.5 & 10.6)

There you are with some customized printing presets for your fancy new printer and yet for some reason every time you open a new printing box the one showing up by default is not the want you wanted : fail

So you looked all over the OS, read some forums, used your Google-Fu and finally got to this post. Search no more the answer is here as seen on TV!

Well in the end it’s no big deal, it all happens in this file: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.plist

or

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.yourprinter.plist in 10.6

To edit this property list you can use your favorite text editor or just be lazy and use the property list editor that comes with the free X Code environment.

Start by saving your favorite preset through the GUI the usual way, then edit the plist mentioned earlier.

What you are looking for is <com.apple.print.lastPresetPref > the class is <string>, default value is <Standard>. Just replace “Standard” with the *exact* name of your saved preset save the new version of your ~/Library/Preferences/ com.apple.print.custompresets.plist and voila...

On 10.6 you also need to modify <com.apple.print.lastPresetPrefType> in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.custompresets.forprinter.yourprinter.plist (class is <number> ) and play around to find the number that matches your preset. In my case with only one saved preset it was <3>.

Finally if -like me- you manage Macs via Open Directory/Workgroup Manager you can apply your custom printing preset plist to say, a group of computers. I used this trick to set Black and White printing as the default setting for a Sharp MX4100.

Happy Plist editing.