How to Print pure B/W

[blueman541]

I have a Canon Pixma MP780 printer and it has 5 cartridge, 3 color, 1 black dye, and 1 black pigment. The black pigment is used for text, while the dye is used for photos.

How can i force the printer to use the Pigment black only for b/w prints?
Like printing webpages online? Or b/w photoshop/illustrator artwork?

I called canon support twice, and both reps said that this can't be done. Even with the grayscale option enable in the printing preference. The printer will still use a composite of the color cartridge to simulate grayscale tones, mostly the blue ink will be used in neutral gray. The pigment base ink will only be used on ASCII text they said, anything else would be a composite gray if grayscale is enabled or just color.

So the Rep said i am better off just printing in color and setting it as draft mode. Since printing in grayscale would use more colored ink to simulate the dark graytones than just using color from the start. Hmm....

There has to be a way right? like forcing it to halftone and dither? Im not sure. Anyone with any ideas on this or thoughts?

 

[fotofreek]

Try the plain paper setting.

 

[blueman541]

Try the plain paper setting.

I did try plain paper setting.

 

[jackson]

I have no idea, but what would happen if all the carts contained black ink and I tried to print a b/w pic?

 

[blueman541]

I have no idea, but what would happen if all the carts contained black ink and I tried to print a b/w pic?

If you put in all Dye based black ink, then the shades of gray-tones will not come out as it would have.

For the Pigment based ink carts(BCI-3eBk), i can only fit 1 of those in, as it is thicker in size as the.

Reason i want pigment base to print out at pure b/w is because it is more fade resistant than the dye based. Also it is cheaper to replace than the dye base.

 

[misterinkjet81]

There should be some settings under the printer properties buttons. Most have either a draft setting or pure black mode of some sort.

 

[Nifty]

If I understand correctly you want to print only B/W but using only the BCI-3ebk cartridge?

Fotofreek is correct that putting the printer in plain paper mode will make your printer use the BCI-3ebk instead of the BCI-6bk for black (verified here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/difference-canon-bci-3-bci-6.php ) But as was also pointed out this doesn't stop your other colors from kicking in to print their respective colors, even when you select the 'greyscale' setting.

I've wondered if printing with only the BCI-3ebk cartridge installed would work. I'm not brave enough to try this because of the potential damage to the print head, but am curious non the less.

So, I agree with Canon reps that it isn't really possible. This was defiantly an issue before I was refilling / using non OEM cartridges, but now that I refill I actually would rather print stuff in color to keep all my inkjet nozzles active.

Please keep us posted if you do find a way to pull this off.

 

[blueman541]

Yea. I bet canon can edit it's printer driver to print just the pigment black, but chooses not to.
I have given up trying to print just b/w pigment for everything.
Oweo, i wanted to do b/w print to save ink, but looking at ink refills, cost isn't a factor anymore.

 

[ghwellsjr]

The Canon printers that have a pigment black BCI-3eBK cartridge will use ONLY that cartridge if you tell it you are printing on plain paper in grayscale. For the best printouts, use the high quality.