CUPS is an open source printing system developed by Apple for MacOS and UNIX-like operating systems.

Before you begin configuring default printer settings, make sure your printers are connected and appear on the Printers & Scanners in System Preferences.

Then, open a browser and navigate to http://localhost:631/printers.

Enable CUPS Web Interface

You may see the error shown below if you have't already enabled CUPS web interface.

To enable web interface for CUPS, using app search and find tool, open Terminal and paste in this command and press enter.

Going back to the browser, refresh the page to see connected printers under the Printers tab. Then, select the printer you would like to configure default options for.

You will see two dropdown options next to one another. Click the dropdown to the right and select "Set Default Options."

Then, configure Media Size, Graphics Quality, etc. to achieve the desired configuration.

Before you click on Set Default options, click on Printer Settings (usually next to General and Banners), if the option is supported for that printer (not supported by some printer drivers. Consider using installing another printer driver.). From the Printer Settings tab, disable Dither, and adjust Print Rate and Darkness. Then, click Set Default Options button.

Next, test print some document to make sure the default settings changes have taken effect as desired. Reconfigure the default options if needed.