Skip to content

Clone Your Printer

If you routinely print two or more kinds of documents (i.e. draft printing for email, normal for word processing, and high quality with photo paper for photos), each requiring its own printer settings, you’ve probably found it cumbersome to have to re-enter all the printer properties every time you change documents. 

You might find it easier to actually install the same printer twice, but with different names and settings. This way, you can simply select the "printer" (actually the group of print settings) that you like the next time you execute your print job.

  1. To install the printer with new print settings: 
  2. Click Start –> Settings –> Printers 
  3. Double-click the Add Printer icon
  4. Install the printer as you would normally
  5. When you come to the screen where you name your printer, name it something that differentiates it from your default printer and lets you know what the printer settings are like Photo Printer or Draft Printer.
  6. When you finish, RIGHT Click  on your new printer and select Properties. Enter the print settings for your new printer icon and click Apply then OK. 

Now, when you want to print using the new print settings, you can just select the name from your program’s Print dialog box.