HP C309a Photo Black Ink

This may be a daft question but when i the photo black ink used. I have printed 4 or 4 photos on photo paper (non branded) but the photo black ink is still full but the normal black ink is going down. Any ideas?
Rob

Are you sure the photo black is being used? Depending on the connection and perhaps other factors the ink gauge is shown in a mirror image. The black cartridge is the one next to the yellow, and shown below with the cyan arrow. The photo cartridge is the one next to magenta and is shown below with a yellow arrow. If the printer really is using the photo cartridge for printing black text it may be that the paper sensor is incorrectly reading the paper type as photo paper. In this case changing the paper type from "Automatic" to "Plain Paper" should resolve the issue.
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
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HP Photosmart 7510 will ONLY use photo black ink

I have a photosmart 7510 printer and I'm printing from microsoft word 2010 on a windows 8 computer. I'm printing a word document with no pictures in it. The printer preferences are set to Plain Paper with Normal quality. I cannot get the printer to use the XL black ink cartridge. It only uses the photo black ink. Is there a setting I can choose to get it to use the regular black ink?
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Hi shirsar,
I understand you have a Photosmart 7510 that seems to be using a lot more of the photo black than the regular black ink. I'm sorry to hear this, but believe I can assist you with a solution.
You can set the printer to use black ink only when printing from the PC and that should ensure that it uses that the black ink and not the photo ink. My instructions will be to set it up in the driver so it does it for all programs (if you want it for just the program please let me know and I will advise further). You will want to start with going to your Start screen, and just start typing Devices and Printers and you will want to open that (if that doesn't work type in Control Panel and then proceed to open Devices and Printers). Once Devices and Printers is open, right click on your Photosmart 7510 icon and select Printing Preferences. You will then want to click the Advanced button at the bottom right of the screen. The next page that opens will allow you to set the printer to use Black Ink Only when printing from the PC (please follow the screen shot below for any clarification).
Hope this helps, have a great day!!
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**MissTeriLynn**
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Using Black ink instead of Photo Black ink

I have an HP Photosmart Premium 309a and would like to know what settings I need to change so that when printing a text document it uses the black ink instead of the photo black ink.
OR
What settings do I need to change so that my 309a uses black ink instead of photo black in not matter what I'm printing?
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See solution here:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-printing-questions/Using-photo-black-instead-of-regular-black-for...

Photosmart D7560 will not use Photo Black Ink

My D7560 will not use the Photo Black Ink. I am going through a lot of regular black ink. I have changed the print quality but it still did not use it. What am I doing wrong?

Try this solution. I hope this helps. Inform me for concerns.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01510629&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3396085
Please click on KUDOS if you find my solution helpful.

Cant load photo black ink cartridge into HP 5520 printer

Hi there,
Cant load photo black ink cartridge into HP 5520 printer.

Hi,
The Photo ink cartridge is not intended for the Photosmart 5520, the printer uses Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow ink cartridges as listed below as an example (The same applies for the US with the 564 ink cartridges):
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03340400&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=uk&dlc=en...
As you may find below as an example, the Photo Ink Cartridge only intended for printers which use 5 ink cartridges:
ONLY for 5-cartridge printers which use Black, Photo, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow inks
Does NOT replace Black ink cartridge
http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PDPStdView?catalogId=10051&productId=502407&storeId=10...
Please let me know if I may misunderstood your intention,
Shlomi
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Stop it from using photo black ink for black text printing and where has the color ink gone?

My HP Photosmart Prem C310 series all in one is using the Black Photo ink cartridge for text printing instead of the XL Black that I put in it for text printing. How can I get it to use the right cartridge for printing? Also, even though I have NOT printed ANY photo's and very few pages of text the new set of color cartridges I put in it a few months ago are almost empty. Why? How could they be almost empty when I have NOT printed anything in color? This is getting ridiculous replacing ink cartridges every few months WHEN I HAVE NOT BEEN PRINTING ANYTHING!!!
The set of ink cartridges that came with it lasted for several months. Since then I've gone through two sets in less than a year. That's 3 sets of ink cartridges when I have only printed 3 photo's when I first set it up. And have only used les than a 1/4 of one package of printing paper. I've only put paper in it twice. Each time it was about a 1/4 inch or 3/8 of an inch thick stack of paper in the tray. I've even tried shutting the printer down when its not being used for a long period of time but the ink is still disapearing. Where is it going? Why is it going there? How do I stop it? This is rediculous. I may as well junk the thing even though it still works because I cant aford to keep feeding it ink when its just sitting there doing nothing most of the time.
Thank you
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I just got another email from HP about this problem wanting to know what I found for a solution to this problem. From all of the suggestions from the HP tec support all of them pretty much kept saying the same thing. That it is my fault that it's using so much ink because I have it on the wrong settings. One tec did slip and say that it doesn't matter what settings you have it on it will always use the Photo Black cartridge for printing plain black text and it doesn't matter if you have a X-Large Black cartridge in it for text printing because it was made to always use the Photo Black for text and even use some of the colors to blend with the black to make it stand out. Why anybody would need this when just printing shipping labels and things like that I don't know.
Any who, The only solution for this problem is,,,, junk the printer and get a different brand & model of printer. Research it before buying to find out how much ink it wants to waste and if it will still print black text if it only has a black cartridge in it. I was going to get rid of mine by giving it to a friend since they don't have a printer. But since I want to keep him as a friend I decided not to give it to him. Since it cant be traded in for a different one even though it still works, Its going to the target shooting range the next time I go out shooting. Maybe I'll take a few video's clips of it getting blasted to pieces with a Ruger 10-22 .22 cal. rifle with 25 shot clips, a Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle shooting .223 cal with a 30 shot clip, a Chinese SKS 7.62 with a 30 shot clip. And maybe use my Ruger P89 9mm pistol and put a couple 15 round clips of 9mm in it. If there's anything left I'll finish it off with a few 3" magnum loads of #2 steel shot with my 20 gauge shotgun. Then I think I'll do the same thing to my Westinghouse 46" flat screen HDTV that just died.
Then maybe I'll come back and post the video's of my "solution to this printers problem". It may not fix the problem, but it will be an entertaining way of getting rid of the problem.

Black vs Photo black ink cartridges

I've watched the threads and their respective comments on HP and other websites for years. At some time or another I myself have probably asked someone somewhere all of the questions posted. Clark Howard, of radio/TV fame has said for years that the profit for printer manufacturers is in the ink cartridge, not the device itself. Ridiculously expensive, to the point that I personally could never with a straight face charge the money that HP and others charge for the cartridges. 500% plus profit per cartridge isn't an over statement. Clark Howard actually used to buy two of the cheapest printers he could find, use the cartridges and donate the brand new printers. He would repeat the process whenever he needed new ink. I don't know if he still does that, the corporate greed has probably figured out a way to prevent that by now.
One question I have, that I have not found addressed specifically, if you don't print photos, do you even need a photo black cartridge? Or is that just another gimmick by the corporate greed to put more money in their bank accounts?

Hi Ken
I presume your printer takes HP564 cartridges and has a 5 slot printhead? If so, yes - all cartridges (inc. the photo black) need to be installed for the printer to work.
Ciara
Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
Twitter: @Ciara_B_HP

Photosmart Plus B209 - Photo Black Ink Question

Hi I just brought the Photosmart Plus and notice that there are 2 types of black for this printer and only one slot on the printhead for the black ink. I am still using the starter black that came with the printer. So my question is if I want to print a photo, do I just switch the regular black out with the photo black and switch it back when finished printing the photo? or Should I finish the starter black first then switch to photo black. TIA!!
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Here's the link that Bob meant to post.
Link
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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!
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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.
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Light black ink

I am getting a "low ink" warning regarding my hp 7520 printer. System Preferences shows "light black ink" to be low ("black ink" is not low). My printer has two black cartridges, one thin (bow tie symbo) and one wide (pentagon). Which one of these carries the "light black ink"?
Do you not think that "light black" is a curious description for a color? Is "photo black ink" the same as "light black ink"?
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The "light black" is likely the photo cartridge, this is the thin one with the bowtie symbol.
I agree this is a poor wording, especially with the confusion between the black and what used to be called photo black cartrdiges (now renamed photo).
Is the wording you refer to on the printer's screen or in the driver?
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

Photo black cartridge life too short

The photo black cartridge in the Photosmart 7525 has a very short lifespan compared to the other cartridges. I rarely print photos. Can this cartridge be bypassed to save on ink?

Hello @MinPville,
Welcome to the HP Support Forums!
I understand that you would like to bypass the photo black cartridge on your HP Photosmart 7525 e-All-in-One Printer. I would like to assist you with this today.
This printer is meant for printing photos with high quality, therefore there is no way to 100% avoid using the photo black cartridge. When you go to print from your computer, ensure that the paper type is set to 'plain' paper. Also, set the quality to 'draft' or 'normal' rather than 'best' and the printer shouldn't use very much if any photo black.
In this model of printer the HP 564 Photo Cartridge will give you a page yield of about 130 4 x 6in pages. This is based off of a 5% page coverage. The 5% page coverage works out to be about 2 paragraphs double-spaced on your page. Also, the photo black, just like the other colour cartridges, are also used for printer maintenance to keep your printhead healthy. Therefore, a small amount of ink will be used during the printhead cleaning process or printer maintenance that will occasionally run.
When printing photos from your computer and certain documents (PDF or Internet Files) your printer generally uses a bit of colour and photo black to enrich those print jobs as they are sent from your computer to the printer as image files. Should you rarely print in colour I would suggest setting your printer to 'black ink only' which would only utilize your regular black cartridge rather than your photo black.
How to set Black Ink Only:
Click on your Start menu
Select Devices and Printers
Right click on your HP Photosmart
Left click on Printing Preferences
Select the Advanced tab and set the printer to 'black ink only'
Hit Apply and OK to save the changes
Should you ever want to print in colour, then open up the colour document you wish to print and go to 'file' and 'print'. Once the Print dialogue window opens, click 'properties' and set the printer back to 'colour' rather than 'black ink only'. This setting will only be changed for this one job and will revert back to black ink only for any new jobs.
Going forward, should you mainly print text documents and rarely print photos I suggest avoiding Photosmart printers in the future. Rather, Officejet printers would suite your needs and ink usage more efficiently and you can still print photos with great quality.
Please let me know if the information I've provided resolves your photo black ink issues. Best of luck!
X-23
I work on behalf of HP
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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:

Epson 3880 - Change Black Ink Problem

I realize that this is not an Epson or Adobe forum, but I'm hoping someone here can help:
I just purchased an Epson 3880 and hooked it up via USB to my 27" iMac that runs OSX Lion. When first powered up, the printer defaulted to the Photo Black ink. I made a couple test prints from Photoshop Elements 6 (PE6) on a sheet of supplied Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster. No problems there. But now I want to get serious and print images on Epson Velvet Fine Art paper. PE6 refuses to let me select anything other than paper that the Photo Black ink works on. The Printer Settings dialog box shows that the Photo Black cartridge is the active one.
So, I got on the 3880's LCD panel and manually made the change to the Matte Black ink. No joy - same problem. AND, PE6 does not realize that I've changed the active ink cartridge - it still thinks I have the Photo Black ink cart active. I thought that maybe it was because I have an "old" version of PE, so I whipped out my credit card and upgraded to PE10. No joy again - same problem. Arrrghhhhhh.....
I have NOT powered the 3880 off and on again, as I understand this causes some serious ink consumption.
Can anyone tell me what I need to do to get the system to recognize that I've swapped over to the Matte Black?

OMG, OMG - I figured it out....! They could not have made this any more difficult to uncover. It is in the - are you ready for this...? The PAPER SIZE dropdown box. Mine had 8-1/2 x 11 selected, as I wanted. But wait, there is more than one 8-1/2 x 11. If one selects 8-1/2 x 11 with Rear Feed, it all works as it should. You have got to be freaking kidding me!?!?!?!!! Who would have thunk to look there? Cripes!!!!!
Anyway, I'm all set so burn up some paper and ink - thanks PAHU and Shootist007 for your suggestions.
Ughhhhh.....

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.

Can't print with just one black ink cartridge on HP Photosmart C309a

I have a relatively new HP Photosmart all-in-one print-scan-copy-fax, C309a. There are 5 ink cartridges, 4 small ones in black, yellow, magenta and cyan, then another XL black cartridge. Today the small black cartridge ran out. I ordered all 4 of the small cartridges. Apparently the small black one is called "photo black", the XL is something different. All are HP 654 ink. Anyway, here's what I don't get: There is still plenty of ink in the XL black. So why can't I print? I even set it to print in only gray-scale, using only black ink ; also set it to always print text in black. But when I print a page comes out barely visible, or blank. Print Test & Diagnostic Test comes out the same way.
In another post I read that some printers can't function of one of the inks is dry, even if you don't need that ink for what you are printing. Is that the case here? I tried the online chat for technical support & could not get anyone. Also e-mailed tech support & got a less than helpful answer in very difficult to understand broken English. Just need to know if there is a way around this, or do I just have to wait for my color cartridges to be delivered? Thanks!

I would like to know the answer to this also... I have a brand new black ink cartridge but my photo black is empty yet when I print it still tries to use the photoblack?

HP C309a Photo Black Ink

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