My prints look virtually the same no matter what settings I use.

[Chuck1701]

My prints look virtually the same no matter what printer settings I use: Print Quality - DRAFT - NORMAL - BEST, Printing Shortcuts - GENERAL EVERYDAY - FAST ECONOMY, Print Grayscale - OFF - BLACK INK ONLY - HIGH QUALITY GRAY SCALE. There is barely a difference between BEST and DRAFT. I do some printing in DRAFT to see what they look like before I send them out or to print receipts for my records so they do not have to be high quality prints. I do this to save ink. If you put a BEST print next to a DRAFT print, the colors on the DRAFT print are VERY slightly lighter but the black print looks identical, even under strong light. Any help or direction would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

To check the settings to confirm it is actually printing with different modes time how long it takes to print a page.  Best mode typically takes about 2X the time of Normal mode, and Normal mode is about 2X faster than Draft.

Draft mode uses about 50% of the ink of Best or Normal modes.

You may want to always use Draft mode if you do not notice quality issues.  In Windows 10 you can set the default as follows:  go to Settings, Printers and Scanners, click on your printer from the list, Manage, Printing Preferences, Paper/Quality, Draft, Apply.