Inconsistent UI: changing to BW will never get color printing back

[vsessink]

Describe the bug
Changing "Printer Options" - "Print Color Mode" to "Monochrome" (for a Xerox Altalink C8155), also makes "Job Options" - print-color-mode change to "monochrome".

However, changing the Printer Options back to color, the Job Options setting stays monochrome. More unfortunate is the fact that the "printer options" setting is exposed through other interfaces in Gnome, while the Job Options seems not. Hence, if you'd ever change the Printing Options in the Gnome Settings printer dialog, you'll never get your color back.

I'm guessing this is related to OpenPrinting/cups#277 , the request to make it possible to default print monochrome.

However, in my current setting, I wasn't able to print to color anymore, once the "job options" setting had changed itself. There simply seems to be no UI to this.

I hope I'm not barking up the wrong tree - I sort of lost my way in the gnome-settings - cups - cups-browsed - ppd - cups-browsed-options- not sure where to send this bug, I tried my best.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. go to the Printer Properties dialog
2. Choose "Printer Options" to the left. Find the Print Color Mode. Check if it is "Color".
3. Choose "Job Options" to the left. See if there is an option "print-color-mode" verify it is set to "color" (if not: change and click "Apply")
4. Go back to Printer Options, change the Print Color Mode to "Monochrome". Click "Apply".
5. After this, change the Print Color Mode back to "Color". Click "Apply".
6. Go to "Job Options". The print-color-mode there is still set to "monochrome".
7. Try to print something in color. (I couldn't)

Expected behavior
Setting the "Printer Option" to Color should make it possible to print in color.

System Information:

• Ubuntu Linux 22.04.2,
• cups 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.1

Additional context
Follow the instructions from the REPORTING-ISSUES document and provide all information regarding the issue.

[zdohnal]

Hi @vsessink ,

actually how you describe it, it looks you are working with system-config-printer, not with Gnome Control Center. I'll reassign it to the project (which I maintain as well), I was able to reproduce it.

In the meanwhile I recommend to use Gnome Settings - I've made the recent color related fixes based on its input, so the latest HEAD of OpenPrinting CUPS should work in usable way.

[vsessink]

Hi @zdohnal you're right, I actually wrote my bug description around system-config-printer, because that makes it easy to immediately check the job settings.

[ve2tmq]

Hi, I have exactly same issue. Working with Kubuntu freshly upgraded to 23.04. Tried to set CUPS via web interface (port 631) and via KDE Configure Printer interface. I also tried by cli (edit cupsd.conf and printers.conf).

Always same issue.

[G3rb]

same issue with Debian 12 - gnome-control-center printers and system-config-printer.
the "print-color-mode" changed to monochrome but never get back to color mode. I tried on Ubuntu 20.04, it behaves the same way except that the 'print-color-mode' option reverts to color when the printer's color mode is changed via the GNOME printer configuration tool.

[ve2tmq]

I fixed my issue by using: "MakeModel Generic IPP Everywhere Printer"