Vanishing colors in inkjet printers?

Paul wrote:
Hi,

I used mainly black laserjet. Yesterday I tried a new inkjet printer
and I noticed something strange. I printed mostly black and white
yet the the ink levels of the colors are decreasing too. Is this
a normal in inkjet (HP) where you have to use both of them
together or waste losing the colors when only mainly black
is used? Where does the color ink go?

In printers whose design is optimised for colour printing it's not
unusual to find that the best black is achieved by combining the
nominally black ink with some of the coloured inks. The black ink in
colour printers has to be chosen for good mixing and shading
properties, which may mean it's not the best black on its own.

Some kind of drain
below?? Why can't they design inkjets such that only the
black ink would get lessen if the colors is rarely used?

They do in colour printers whose design includes the feature of being
economical for black text printing, which can be done by having not
quite such a good black for monochrome text, or by using a special
text printing black ink.

--
Chris Malcolm

Chris Malcolm wrote:
Paul wrote:
Hi,

I used mainly black laserjet. Yesterday I tried a new inkjet printer
and I noticed something strange. I printed mostly black and white
yet the the ink levels of the colors are decreasing too. Is this
a normal in inkjet (HP) where you have to use both of them
together or waste losing the colors when only mainly black
is used? Where does the color ink go?

In printers whose design is optimised for colour printing it's not
unusual to find that the best black is achieved by combining the
nominally black ink with some of the coloured inks. The black ink in
colour printers has to be chosen for good mixing and shading
properties, which may mean it's not the best black on its own.

Some kind of drain
below?? Why can't they design inkjets such that only the
black ink would get lessen if the colors is rarely used?

They do in colour printers whose design includes the feature of being
economical for black text printing, which can be done by having not
quite such a good black for monochrome text, or by using a special
text printing black ink.

Most printers will also perform "self-maintenance" with a vacuum pump
drawing a small volume of all colours of ink through the nozzles at the
start and/or end of the printing process, or after intervals of non use
when powered on.

There is usually a waste ink absorbing pad mounted in the bottom of the
printer case - that's where it goes.

Chris Malcolm wrote:
Paul wrote:
Hi,

I used mainly black laserjet. Yesterday I tried a new inkjet printer
and I noticed something strange. I printed mostly black and white
yet the the ink levels of the colors are decreasing too. Is this
a normal in inkjet (HP) where you have to use both of them
together or waste losing the colors when only mainly black
is used? Where does the color ink go?

In printers whose design is optimised for colour printing it's not
unusual to find that the best black is achieved by combining the
nominally black ink with some of the coloured inks. The black ink in
colour printers has to be chosen for good mixing and shading
properties, which may mean it's not the best black on its own.

Some kind of drain
below?? Why can't they design inkjets such that only the
black ink would get lessen if the colors is rarely used?

They do in colour printers whose design includes the feature of being
economical for black text printing, which can be done by having not
quite such a good black for monochrome text, or by using a special
text printing black ink.

My HP inkjet printer has a place in the setup dialog where
one can specify that only black ink is used. I imagine that
it is true for other HP printers as well.

Ï "Chris Malcolm" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
...
Paul wrote:
Hi,

I used mainly black laserjet. Yesterday I tried a new inkjet printer
and I noticed something strange. I printed mostly black and white
yet the the ink levels of the colors are decreasing too. Is this
a normal in inkjet (HP) where you have to use both of them
together or waste losing the colors when only mainly black
is used? Where does the color ink go?

In printers whose design is optimised for colour printing it's not
unusual to find that the best black is achieved by combining the
nominally black ink with some of the coloured inks. The black ink in
colour printers has to be chosen for good mixing and shading
properties, which may mean it's not the best black on its own.

Some kind of drain
below?? Why can't they design inkjets such that only the
black ink would get lessen if the colors is rarely used?

They do in colour printers whose design includes the feature of being
economical for black text printing, which can be done by having not
quite such a good black for monochrome text, or by using a special
text printing black ink.

For example, my Canon Pixma iP 4300 has 2 different black ink tanks-one
large for texts, and one smaller for photos. (Of course, it has Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow, too). The worst printer I've seen, in terms of ink usage,
was a Lexmark, in a lab of our local college, which had only one cartridge,
color (combined Y-M-C in one cartridge). So, even on printing black text, it
used colour ink... It needed a new cartridge every couple of days.... (one
of the best I've seen is mine, well done Canon).



--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering
mechanized infantry reservist
hordad AT otenet DOT gr

Tzortzakakis Dimitrios wrote:
snip
For example, my Canon Pixma iP 4300 has 2 different black ink tanks-one
large for texts, and one smaller for photos. (Of course, it has Cyan,
Magenta, Yellow, too). The worst printer I've seen, in terms of ink usage,
was a Lexmark, in a lab of our local college, which had only one cartridge,
color (combined Y-M-C in one cartridge). So, even on printing black text, it
used colour ink... It needed a new cartridge every couple of days.... (one
of the best I've seen is mine, well done Canon).


HP sells black cartridges just for printing photos. It
contains 2 (or 3 perhaps) black inks. The improvement in
printing either B/W or color photos is impressive.