C5380 - I want to print using ONLY black ink cartridge. Is this possible?

Hi Folks,
I now understand that this model, HP C5380 and I'm guessing many others too, are programed to use an amount of colour ink even when selected to print in Black.
My question is: Can I somehow program the printer to 'only print using the black ink cartridge' and not use the colour cartridges at all?
I have heard that this is possible with some models but need the specifics.
I am even willing to permanently disable the colour function if needed. The replacement ink catridges are so very expensive, if I'm unable to do this then I'll be looking for another printer and it won't be HP. Thi is unfortunate because I think they make a good quality product - however they need to be on notice that their customers 'good will' and return business will not be forthcoming when they (and other compaines) continue to use money making strategies like this.
Many Thanks in advance for your time, B

Hi berni7 ,
I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post serial numbers and case details.
If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, this post has instructions.
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Jamieson
I work on behalf of HP
"Remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together!" - Red Green.

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HP 7520 -- how to print using large black ink cartridge?

Hi, I've got the HP 7520 with the two black ink cartridges, one small and one large. However, as best I can tell, it's only using the black ink from the small cartridge, even when I print only in black and white (or "high quality grayscale"). Since 95% of the printing I need to do is just black and white (text, mostly) this is kindof annoying -- is there a way to force/encourage it to use the black in the bigger cartridge.
The reasons I believe it's not using the big ink cartridge is
1) I've had to replace the small one half a dozen times in a pretty short time; the big one I haven't not at all, and it still shows up as full when I check ink levels2) when printing in B/W starts to get streaky, I run the "Print qualty diagnostic" page, and the "Black" section shows up as streaky but the "Photo" section (which appears to correspond to the larger blank ink cartridge) looks fine.
Also, when I photocopy in B/W it appears to work fine even when printing in B/W is not, so presumbly that's because it's using the big ink cartridge then.
Thanks in advance for the help/advice.
-Mike

The large cartridge is black, the smaller cartridge is the photo cartridge. There are a few things to check:
Make sure the proper media type is selected in the driver. If you are mostly printing on plain paper make sure to select Plain Paper in the driver rather than Automatic. It is possible for Automatic to misidentify the paper and think it is using photo paper. When printing to photo paper the black cartrdige will not be used, only the photo and color cartridges.
In the driver settings for "Print in grayscale" select "Black ink only".
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
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How can I print using only black with the Lexmark Z810?

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Print Using 810 Series driver
Printer Driver Version: 10.6.4
I want to print using only the black cartridge. I'm out of color ink. However, I see no option to print using black only. Consequently, when I print a document, only the parts of it that are black with show up on the paper. Anything that has another color will not appear on the page. Is there a solution to this problem?

Print Options can be hard to find and sometimes seem to change locations depending on OSX version or printer model. Here is where it is on the print dialog on my mini with HP printer.

How do I setup my printer to print with only black ink in a pages document

How do I setup a document to use black ink only in Pages?

This is a Printer setting, rather than a Document one.
For my Canon Inkjet, it's done in the Print Dialogue:
As you can see from the second pop-up menu, I have saved this setting as a preset.
The setting itself has only a single change from the supplied "Standard" setting—checking the Grayscale Printing checkbox.
Going by appearances, the printer uses only the Black cartridge when printing in this mode, unless I have set "Use color cartridge" in the printer's utility software, a setting intended to allow you to print using only one cartridge when the other is out of ink. Greyscale printing using only the colour cartridge has less contrast, and usually shows a colour cast. Setting the printer utility to specify using only the K cartridge shows results essentially the same as those done in grayscale using the Print dialogue setting and not bothering to change the printer utility setting.
Regards,
Barry

HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 1515 printer wont print after replacing black ink cartridge

Hello.
My HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 1515 printer has been working correctly since a year.
I had to replace both ink cartridges and I changed only the black one since I needed that one most.
But, the lights keep flashing and the printer wont print. Please help?

Hi @RRGS,
Welcome to the HP Forums!
I see that your HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 1515 printer will not print after replacing black ink cartridge, and your lights are still flashing. I am happy to help!
What lights are flashing on the printer?
In the meantime, please see this guide, Blinking Lights on the HP Deskjet 1510 and Deskjet Ink Advantage 1510 Printer Series.
Hope this guide helps!
RnRMusicMan
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos Thumbs Up" to say “Thanks” for helping!

Can I use the black ink cartridge only, & quit replacing the color cartridge when it's empty?

I have an HP Officejet 6210 all in one printer that takes color ink (#95) and black ink (#94). I only want to print in black and white. The color cartridges are more expensive and since I don't want to use them, I don't want to replace it. Can I have the printer bypass the color cartridge (and the notifications that come with an emply cartridge) so it will allow me to use the black cartridge (#94) only and let the #95 sit there empty? (ie it tries to print from there and I get the blank sheets...want to default it to the black ink cartridge 100% of time.) I waste too much money on ink and wish to use the cheaper cartridge (#94) always.

Can't agree more. HP's strategy of getting more sells of its cartrige is notorious. It really drives consumers away. I am ditching my HP printer and getting a Brother instead.

HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One Printer-C309a-new black ink cartridge will not print

i just installed a new black ink cartridge (manufactured by HP) when print quality became poor in the middle of a job. it completed the job fine, but when i have tried to print subsequently, only those parts of the document that are in color/greyscale will print. the black is simply absent from the document. the supply level is showing as fine and all diagnostics indicate there is no probem. i have not received any error messages. i have tried turning the printer on/off. i have tried cleaning the printheads. i have tried uninstalling & reinstalling the cartridge. i do not have any additional black cartridges to try to see if that will solve the problem, but as noted above, it did work initially. i am just printing to regular plain white printer paper. i have tried all the relevant steps in the HP troubleshooting document for poor print quality posted elsewhere on this page. nothing has worked! someone else's post mentioned resetting the printer, but did not say how it was done. any ideas on a solution??? thanks!
This question was solved.
View Solution.

To reset the printer, follow these steps:
While the power is on, remove the power cord from the back of the printer. Wait at least 30 seconds, then connect the power cord to the back of the printer, then turn the unit on. That will complete a power reset.
Now, missing black during printing can be a result of a couple of things. If it is only missing say when printing from Word, then the print settings within Word are set to grayscale only (or something similar) which would exclude the black cartridge. If it is from all programs, then it is either the main print settings set to grayscale only, or the printhead/cartridge is clogged up/dirty. If it is not the print settings, then create a print quality report and follow the steps in this document:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01624986&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...
007OHMSS
I was a support engineer for HP.
If the advice resolved the situation, please mark it as a solution. Thank you.

My mx452 is out of color ink. How can I print with the MX452 using only black ink?

Hi
I have the MX452.
I only use it now to print in black and white.
But I cannot get it to print despite a new b&w cartridge.
Do i have to buy a new color print cartridge or can I overide the error code "Check Color Ink 1688" ??
I dont want to spend $30 on a color cartridge that I will not use.
HELP

I am absolutely disgusted by this; clearly a scam from HP to make more money by selling extra ink cartridges!! I will make sure to never buy any products from the shoddy rip off merchants at HP ever again!!
You should be ashamed!!

Printing with only black ink

when i bought the hp 8600 officejet pro plus, i was toil that you didnt have to replace the empty color catridges to print in black ink only. i have jsut found out that is not true. is there a way to make printer print without replacing collor cartridges?

Most likely the confusion is caused because the Office Depot sales person and the bushiness associate did not distinguish between the different kinds of printers.
There are generally a few different technologies used for inkjet printers - those like the Deskjet 6940 that have printheads and ink supplies integrated together are called Integrated Print Head (IPH) printers.
Another style has separate individual ink supplies and printheads. This style has printheads that may be permanent and non-replaceable, or they may be replaceable after some number of ink supplies. These are called Individual Ink Cartridge (IIC) printers. An Examples are the Photosmart C7280, which has permanent non-replaceable printheads and the Officejet 8600 and 6700 which have replaceable printheads.
Most IPH printers will happily print with one (or even both) cartridges low on ink or empty. Recent models will often allow printing even if one of the cartridges is removed completely, switching automatically to "reserve mode" or "ink backup mode".
IIC printers have long life printheads and generally have plumbing to connect the ink supplies to the printheads. These printers (whether from HP or other manufacturers) generally require ink available in all colors to prevent air bubbles in the plumbing ar printhead. Some ink is also required to keep the nozzles from clogging. Even in the case of printing black only the color printheads are waving around in the air and may dry out. Some ink is required to keep the printhead from drying out.
The document here has some information on how ink is used.
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
If my answer was helpful please click the "Thumbs Up" to say "Thank You"--V

How do i get the 8600 to print in only black ink?

How do I set the HP Pro 8600 Plus to print only in black ink? I have tried the "enable" option for black ink only under Preferences/Advanced but it doesn't seem to work. Still keeps printing in color.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Did you set the Grayscale option to Black Ink Only?
Please mark the post that solves your issue as "Accept as Solution".
If my answer was helpful click the “Thumbs Up" on the left to say “Thanks”!
I am not a HP employee.

How can I print from my ipad 3 to a mobile printer that only has bluetooth? Is this possible?

I have an iPad 3 with the most up to date iOS, and am looking to be able to print directly to a mobile printer. I will be working in a remote area and will not have my computer with me, just the ipad. The printer is an officejet 150 mobile all-in-one with built in blue tooth. I can get it to work great from my laptop, but I need it to work from the ipad, any way of doing this? If so what print app will work? Or can you only print via wireless on select printers.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

You must have WiFi and an AirPrint enabled printer http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4356 check to see if yours is AirPrint enabled or the manufacturer has an update to make it so.

In the C309, How can I use just the regular black ink cartridge only?

Hi
I just bought a HP C-309 a short time ago. I bought a HP reg black cartridge XL quite quickly. This thing is a sweet
machine, works perfectly, but is a terrible terrible ink hog.
Had I known, I would have gone for the Kodak which touts much lower ink costs.
I only use this thing for documents. I do not want to keep putting color cartridges in. They are all on low except for the black XL cartridge. How can I set it up to use only this cartridge for black and white..and just leave the color ones on empty.
I will have to get rid of it if I have to keep feeding it this way. The ink levels seem always low. By the way, the help asks me for model number. They want to know whether it is 309n or 309g. I see no way to find out..no notations on machine or purchase documents. HP, if you need this info...make it easy for the consumer to FIND the info...gheesh!

Hi lyn1360
There are several circumstances when color ink may be used—primarily to improve print quality, and sometimes to improve printer reliability—even if the document appears to be only black text-and-graphics. Many HP printers utilize chemical interactions to improve the quality and permanence of plain paper black text-and-graphics by adding small amounts of color ink to certain black areas. Some dark images which look black to human eye may contain a combination of black and color inks. For black and white images and photos or grey black which we think as black, a blend of colors called "composite black" may be used to achieve significantly better image quality and smoother gray tones than can be accomplished with black inks alone. Some inkjet printers utilize pigmented black ink, which is incompatible with some inkjet photo paper. In this case, dark or black areas are made up of color inks.
For users who wish to print utilizing just black ink (despite the reduced print quality), many HP printers offer options. For example, a driver color setting (by selecting "print in grayscale with the black cartridge only" in printing preferences) specifies printing using only black ink. In addition, many IPH printers can operate in "reserve mode," which allows the user to continue to print with just the black cartridge when the color cartridge is removed or not installed.In HP IIC systems like your printer C309, all supplies are required to be installed in the printer for the printer to function.
To find the correct model number for your printer, you can just open the carriage access door and on the right side you can see the model number. For OJ Pro printers, we need to open the cartridge access door on the front left side to see the model number.
For more info regarding the ink usage, check the below link:
http://h10060.www1.hp.com/pageyield/en-019/articles/howInkIsUsed.html?cCode=us
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Black ink cartridge in my Photosmart c309g-m won't print

I have an HP Photosmart Premium C309g-m printer. The black ink was low so I replaced the cartridge with a brand new HP564 black ink cartridge (not the photo black ink cartridge). The printer will not print the black ink cartridge since I replaced it. I have replaced it with a new black ink cartridge twice thinking that perhaps the first one was bad. I have shut down the printer as instructed and waited. I unplugged the power source and unplugged it from my computer. After waiting the instructed time period, I plugged everything back in, turned the printer back on and attempted to print again. The black ink cartridge still will not print.The color cartridges and the photo black ink cartridge are printing. I have done several clean printhead routines. I even attempted an alignment (this has failed). Now since the alignment procedure has failed, the printer attempts the alignment every time I turn it back on. This procedure continues to fail since the black ink cartridge still won't print! I am wasting all my color and photo black ink! What can I do to correct this problem?The error messages that I received were Oxc19a0007 and Oxc19a00013. I could not find any other solutions for this problem.

I have the same problem as redtailhawk, however no error messages. I have an HP Photosmart Premium C309g-m printer/copier/scanner. The cyan, magenta, and photo black cartridges were all low, so I replaced them with remanufactured HP564XL cartridges from 4inkjets.com, which apparently are from LD Products, which is on the labels on each cartridge. These are what I already had installed, and have been using sucessfully for the past two years or so. The printer will not print using the black ink cartridge since I replaced the other three cartridges. I believe, actually, that I tried to put a document and only the color text printed before I replaced the three cartridges. I tried another remanufactured black ink cartridge, thinking that the one I had installed might have become bad somehow. What I have tried:1. I cleaned the printheads from the printer network page, then did a 2nd deeper cleaning.2. I performed a hard reset by unplugging the printer while it was on, after it got finished performing all tasks, then plugged it back in 30-60 seconds later.3. I verified that all cartridges were properly vented.4. I soaked the printheads in hot water and noticed that quite a bit of ink flushed out of them. However, when I reinstalled the printheads and cartridges, all my ink level went down at least 50%. Before I removed the printhead, I also noticed that there was some black ink on the printhead that looks like it had leaked from the cartridge prossibly. When I run a print quality report or printer status report, I see that the black does not print at all; the other four cartridges all displays their levels. Also, every time I try to align the cartridges, the alignment fails. I do not get any error messages, though. I am running Windows 7 (x64) and printing via USB. I also tried printing via bluetooth as well as using the web services printer, neither of which worked. I also booted into Windows 8.1 (x64) RTM and attempted to print, but I'm having the same problem. Please advise me on what I can do to fix this problem, or if I have to buy another printhead. Thank you greatly in advance. Not sure if these would be useful, but I've include my printer's device information pages and well as the usage report.
Below is my printer's device information page: Below is my printer's usage report:

Photosmart C309a black ink cartridge will not print

Hi.
I am having problems with my Photosmart Premium C309a printer. It will not print using the black ink cartridge. I pulled this printer out of storage and the original cartridges had run out. I replaced these with brand new cartridges. When printing a quality report, everything turns out fine except there is no text and no black square from the black ink cartridge (however the photo black cartridge DOES print). Printing a page of text just results in a blank page. However, images and coloured text print out fine.
I have tried a lot of troubleshooting steps listed on these forums and elsewhere. Soaking the pritnhead seems to be the most effective solution for others but this has not worked for me. However I cleaned the printhead very thoroughly and there is no trace of ink anywhere in it. So far I have discovered that it is a hardware issue rather than a software one as there is no black ink on pages I try to photocopy. I have tried the following troubleshooting steps:
Turning both the printer and PC off and on again
Resetting the printer to factory defaults
Reinstalling the ink cartridges
Automatically cleaning the printhead (several times)
Aligning the printhead (fails - probably due to the absence of black ink)
Soaking the printhead in hot water (twice)
Rinsing the printhead under running hot water
Manually scrubbing the printhead with cotton buds
Making sure the cartridges are vented properly
I'm at a loss as to what to do next. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am having the same problem. I 've soaked the heads, I've put genuine ink in. I've tried everything but cannot get it to print in the Black XL. Prints all other colors and the photo black, but no in text black. So irritated right now !!!
HELP ! ! !
I've even did a hard factory reset.

How can I print using only the black ink cartridge?

I have a officejet 4620 that I need to know how to set up to have the option of using the black ink cartridge only. I rarely ever use color ink and I dont want $30 worth of color ink to dwindle away while printing pages that do not need any sort of quality printing. How can I change this setting? I have a Mac and there are hardly any options when trying to print anything.
Thanks!

Hello @downeyke , and welcome to the HP Forums!
I understand you are looking into black ink options. I would love to try and help you, but I do need a little information first. I am linking an HP Support document below that will show you how to find which version of the Mac operating system you are using. With this information we can provide you with accurate information.
Mac OS X: How Do I Find Which Mac OS X Version Is on My Computer?
Please let me know what you find. Thanks for posting on the HP Forums!
Please click “Accept as Solution " if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks" for helping!
Jamieson
I work on behalf of HP
"Remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together!" - Red Green.

C5380 - I want to print using ONLY black ink cartridge. Is this possible?

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