There’s no denying that the quality of the document speaks a lot when it comes to printing. But sometimes, your printer decides the type of print on its own. Changing the printer settings on Mac is as easy as hitting the Print button. Let’s find out “how to change printer settings on mac” in today’s guide.
Even though the printer doesn’t mean any harm to you or your documents, it has its own default settings to save energy, paper, and ink. But you don’t need to panic as you can avoid these mishaps just by changing the default settings on your laptop. Let us guide you how you can change printer settings on mac.
How to Add Printer to a MacBook
We understand how intimidating the thought of adding a printer can be to some people. However, once you’ve learned the steps, it becomes a fairly easy job.
1. Connecting a Wireless Printer to Mac
If you have a wireless printer, you can connect it to your MacBook with the help of a Bluetooth connection or a Wi-Fi Protected Setup. Here’s how you can do it.
- Press the Wi-Fi or Wireless button on your printer.
- Now hit the WPS button on your router.
- Once the WPS is set up, proceed to the Apple icon located at the top-left corner of your screen.
- Click System Preferences and go to Printers and Scanners.
- Select the + sign located below the list of printers.
- Choose the printer that you want to add to the Mac.
- Select the printer’s driver in the Use field.
- Click Add and the new printer will be added to your list of printers.
2. Connecting a USB Printer to Mac
If your printer doesn’t have networking capabilities, you can add it to your Mac through a USB or wired connection. What’s more, even though some printers are capable of wireless printing, they still need to be connected to the USB as a part of their setup process. This is how you can add a printer through USB.
- Plug in the printer’s USB into your Mac. Your laptop will automatically detect the printer and download a driver for it.
- Now go to the Apple icon and click System Preferences.
- Select Printers and Scanners.
- Click the + sign under the list of printers.
- Select the printer that’s connected to your MacBook and click on the Add button.
3. Connecting a Printer via IP Address
This method requires you to know your printer’s IP address. Once you’ve found the IP address, follow the steps mentioned below to connect the printer to your Mac.
- Go to the Apple icon and open System Preferences.
- Select Printers and Scanners and click the + sign appearing below the list of printers.
- Select the IP icon from the top of the window.
- Type the IP address of your printer in the Address field.
- You can also rename the printer.
- Now go to the Use filed and select the driver you’d like to add.
- Click the Add button. The printer will now be added to your Mac.
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How to Change Printer Settings on Mac
You get various options when you visit the printer settings on Mac. Here are some common settings that you can tweak to suit your needs.
1. Changing Paper Size to Print On
You can specify a page size in apps like MS Word or Pages according to your preference. In this way, when you print the document, it will be already formatted to the paper size that you selected. Here’s how you can change the paper size to print on.
- Open the document on your Mac.
- Go to File and select Print.
- Click on the Show Details button for more print options.
- Choose a size from the Paper Size menu.
2. Changing Default Paper Size
You have the option to set a particular paper size as your default option if you usually print on it. In addition to this, the default size will also be used as the page size whenever you create any new document. However, it won’t affect the documents that you previously created.
- Go to the Apple menu on your Mac device.
- Open System Preferences and click Printers and Scanners.
- Select the Default Paper Size menu.
- You can now choose your preferred paper size from the available options.
3. Scale to Fit Paper Size
Mac lets its users scale a document so that it fits the paper size in their printer. For example, you can scale an A4 document to fit on 5.7-by-8.1-inch paper. Let’s find out how.
- Open the document you want to print.
- Go to File and then select Print.
- Click on the Show Details button.
- Now go to the Print Options pop-up menu and choose Paper Handling.
- Next, click Scale to fit the paper size.
- Open the Destination paper size menu and choose your printer’s paper size.
- Select the Scale Down only option if the document is too large for your printer’s paper. (With this option, if the document isn’t too large for your paper, it’ll be printed in its original size)
- Save your settings and close the window.
4. Reducing or Enlarging a Document
Here’s how you can set down a percentage of the original size of your document to enlarge or reduce the size of a printed document.
- Open the document on your Mac and choose File.
- Go to Print and click on the Show Details button.
- A print dialog box will open.
- If you want to print a document larger than document size, enter a value that is greater than 100 in the Scale option.
- Enter a lesser value than 100 in the Scale option to print a document smaller than the original size.
- Don’t forget to preview your documents before you print them.
5. Choosing to Feed Paper Manually into Printer
The MacBook users can select to feed paper manually instead of using the default paper tray to avoid paper jam. For example, this option allows you to manually print on the envelopes by feeding them into your printer. However, the printer must support this feature too.
- Open the document on your MacBook and click File.
- Go to Print and hit on the Show Details button for more print options.
- Select the print options pop-up menu and click Media & Quality.
- Select Manual Feed from the pop-up menu next to Feed from.
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