Who to print in black and white when color cartridges are empty

[john-shakib]

I use my HP T120 for black and white prints.  I never print in color.  However, my color cartridages show empty and that will shut my printer dows.  Howdo I specify to print in black and white only so color cartridges never get uses and will never interfere with my printing black and white prints.

[JeanJAB]

Hi john-shakib,

Your printer may need some color ink for printer maintenance tasks.  You may need to replace the color cartridges before you can print in black.  

I found the following information on page 48 of the user's guide for your model:
Printing in grayscale or black-and-white
You can convert all colors in your image to shades of gray in the following ways:
● In your application program: Many applications provide this option.
● In the Windows driver dialog: Go to the Color tab and look at the Color Options section.
Select Print in Grayscale. Only the black ink will be used for printing, except if the paper
loaded is glossy, in which case colored inks are used to compose the gray shades. You can also
select Print in pure black and white if you want only black and white output with no gray
shades. In this case, only black ink will be used for printing. The Print in pure black and
white option is not supported when printing on glossy paper.
● In the Mac OS X Print dialog: Go to the Color Options panel and select Grayscale from
the Mode drop-down list. Only the black ink will be used for printing, except if the paper loaded
is glossy, in which case colored inks are used to compose the gray shades. You can also select
Print in pure black and white if you want only black and white output with no gray shades.
In this case, only black ink will be used for printing. The Print in pure black and white
option is not supported when printing on glossy paper.

I hope this information helps you out.

Jean

[billjbvv]

I have the exact same problem. I have no interest in color printing, only black and white. This response is not acceptable. I have read elsewhere about this alleged maintenance feature that requires ink in all cartridges. Apperently, ink is used periodically to keep cartidge print heads clean and not dried out. However, if one never wants to use the color cartidges in the future, then maintenance on the color cartidges is unnecessary.  They should be allowed to go bad at the owner's discretion. Can HP please come up with a method to permanently disable the color cartidges and any maintenance that they require?

[JeanJAB]

Hello billjbvv,

I'm sorry to hear you are not liking the fact that your printer does periodic maintenance of both color and black cartridges.

The feature change you describe is something that may be adopted in future printers but cannot be made to work with the printer you currently have. 

If you have no interest in printing color you may want to look into a Mono printer next time - one that is designed only to print black. 

I'm very sorry this printer has not met your needs.

Jean