Colored ink being used to make black

[dallasazcat_1]

I regularly print pictures and the color cartridge is emptying very quickly and the black never has. I talked to the company that refills our cartridges and they think the colored cartridge is being used to make black, instead of using the black cartridge. Additionally, when printing items with a black background, they don't appear very black.

Is there a way to check if this is a setting of fix it?

[Jeet_singh]

Hi @dallasazcat_1,

Thanks for engaging in HP support Forums! This is a wonderful location to converse with the community, get assistance and find tips! I came across your post and want to help. I understand you seems to have an issue with the color catridge on your HP Envy Printer. Don't worry I'll be glad to help you with this.

After going through your post, I understand you regularly print pictures and found that the color cartridge gets over quickly and not the black cartridge. The reason being color cartridge is also used to give better print quality. 

If you wish, you can try to print in black only, this will not use the color cartridge, for more details, please follow this link: HP Inkjet Printers - Printing with Black Ink Only (Windows)

I hope this answers your question. Let me know if you need any further assistance. 

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts,

mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,

[dallasazcat_1]

I appreciate the reply. I don't need to print black only, but I need to figure out why the black isn't being used and the colors are "making" black. How can that be done?

[Jeet_singh]

Hi @dallasazcat_1,

As I understand you are still having concern with the color ink cartridge being used to make black, this is just to ensure you get a better picture quality. 

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 may contain a combination of black and color inks. For black and white images and photos, 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. Page yield testing is conducted with all cartridges (black and color) installed in the printer. For more information see Inkjet page yields .

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, all supplies are required to be installed in the printer for the printer to function.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need any further assistance. 

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts,

mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,

[dallasazcat_1]

This isn't a help. I am trying to figure out what setting can be changed so when there's black in a picture it uses the BLACK cartride and NOT the colors making a black. First off it empties the color cartridge way too fast, and secondly it's not as black as the black cartridge. 

Last week I had a black and white picture so I took out the color cartridge so it wouldn't use the color cartridge at all.