The Unnecessary Printer Clutter
When you connect a compatible printer to your Mac, macOS automatically attempts to provide you with useful information about that device. If your printer supports it, macOS will often place a small printer icon in your menu bar (the bar at the top of the screen). Clicking this icon reveals a dropdown menu displaying the current ink or toner levels of your printer.
While this seems helpful in theory, it is rarely useful in practice. Most people do not need to constantly monitor their ink levels while browsing the web or writing a document. You generally only care about ink levels when you are actively trying to print something, at which point the print dialog box or the printer’s own LCD screen will warn you if you are running low. Keeping a dedicated icon permanently pinned to your menu bar just to show ink levels wastes valuable space and contributes to a cluttered interface. If you prefer a clean menu bar, you should remove it.
How to Remove the Ink Levels Icon
You can hide this specific printer status icon via your System Settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings… (or System Preferences on older macOS versions).
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Printers & Scanners.
- In the list of devices on the right, click on your specific printer to open its settings.
- Look for a button labelled Options & Supplies… and click it.
- In the window that appears, navigate to the Utility or Supply Levels tab (the exact wording varies slightly by printer manufacturer).
- Look for a checkbox labelled Show printer status in the menu bar or Show ink levels in menu bar.
- Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
- Click OK to save the changes.
The printer icon will immediately vanish from your menu bar, giving you back that screen real estate. You can still check your ink levels at any time by returning to this System Settings pane.