I have fifth graders and every couple weeks they are required to create some sort of project or report. Thereupon, I’ve been teaching them the finer points of proofing, which requires one or more print outs of the semi-finished work that we edit and mark up the old fashioned way — with a red pen in hand. Needless to say, I’d rather not waste color ink when printing those proofs.

The easiest way to not print in color is to follow the example shown above:

1. Ready your document and then File > Print (Command + P)

2. From the drop down menu labelled Layout, select Printer Options

3. Lastly, tick the Print color as grayscale option

Again, that’s the easiest way to get it done, a method I’ve been using since the ’90s.

However, News.com’s Topher Kessler details how to remove color from images and use Quartz filters (very elegant) to tweak color out of a document before you print.