if you’re reading this post, you’re likely fed up with Chrome hi-jacking your printing experience on OS X. Personally, every time I “print” something from Chrome, I want to use the OS X interface. That’s because I very rarely print to a physical printer. Instead, I use the PDF menu to save the page I am looking at into an application for such things (Devonthink, in my case).
If you only want to use the macOS system print interface from time-to-time, the easiest way is possibly to just use key combination option–command–P on the keyboard. If, like me, you want to default to the system print interface, here’s how.
You can force Chrome to use the default OS X print window with an easy Terminal command.
- First, quit Chrome completely, including any open Chrome apps.
- Launch Terminal. Just hit command–Space to bring up Spotlight, and type in “Terminal”.
- In Terminal, enter the following command and press Return on your keyboard:
defaults write com.google.Chrome DisablePrintPreview -bool true
There will be no confirmation or feedback from Terminal. So long as you copy/pasted (or typed in) the command correctly, you’re all set.
Close terminal, and reopen Chrome. Hit command–P and see if it worked.
How to disable print preview in Brave
To get the same result in Brave, you this command at the command line in Terminal.
defaults write com.brave.Browser DisablePrintPreview -bool true
You can also use the command–option–P key combination in Brave, to print with the macOS print dialog.
Help! I want to undo this.
Just use the same command, but replace true with false. Done deal.
You are AWESOME. Thirty minutes of trying everything and this tip worked like a charm. Thank you.
Thanks Brenda. I’m glad this tip helped. Such a time-waster trying to get around it, without knowing this “secret” trick! Enjoy.
If for some odd reason I wanted to turn it back on, would I use “EnablePrintPreview” or “_-boot false”?
Yes, you change “false” with “true”. Although please note is it `bool` (with an ‘l’) as opposed to `boot` (with a ‘t’).
Thanks – simple, quick tip that does the business.
Jonathan. I rarely reply/post online but I have to tell you, Chrome hijacking the print conversation was so frustrating and your tip so simple and effective. Thank you! It worked perfectly. Appreciate you sharing your IT wisdom.
Hi Jim. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know this was helpful. Yes, I also got rather frustrated by this Chrome print issue. I’m glad this solution helped you out.