First Create a separate printer icon for each type of print job.
[ Colour Printing & Black&White Print ]
Go to ... Start>Setting>Printers ... to open the Printers folder. Next double-click the "Add Printer" icon to start the "Add Printer Wizard." [ In Windows 2000, make sure the you confirm that the proper port is selected. ] Click "Next", and navigate through the wizard panels as if you were reinstalling your existing printer, repeating the choices you made when you first installed it. Once the wizard recognizes that you're installing a printer already set up on your system, it will ask you whether to keep the existing printer driver or install a new one.
Click "Keep existing driver (recommended) and then "Next". On the next screen after that one, type a name for the new printer icon -- for example My Color Setting. This screen lets you make the named printer the default one. Click "Next", and follow the remaining prompts to finish the wizard.
Now you have two icons for the same printer. Right-click the one you called My Color Settings, and choose "Properties". The next choose the settings to suit your preferences for color printing. When you're done, close that Properties dialog box and open the "Properties" dialog box for the original printer icon. Adjust its settings to handle another printing chore, which will be black-and-white printing. When you're done, press <F2> and rename the icon something descriptive, like "My Black-and-White Settings". Then next press <Enter>. When you've named both icons properly, right-click the one whose settings you use more often and choose "Set as default", if that option isn't already selected. Now close the "Printers" window.
The next time you need to print, open the Print dialog box in your app. Most of the time the dialog box will have a drop-down list of all the printers that are setup on your system. Simply select the more appropriate printer for the task--- for example "My Color Settings" --- set any other desired print settings and click "OK."
I have not used Windows XP or Linux or Mac so if anyone knows the proper way to do this on Windows XP,Linux and Mac. I would really appreciate it if you could show the proper steps on how to do it.
Hope you enjoy this tip and my apologies for making it so long ...