Printing black only on Canon inkjet

I have used my Canon Pixma iP3000 inkjet (CMYK) printer as a black-only
printer for the past 2 years or so. I never use color, and indeed, have the
empty CMY cartridges in there, never having been replaced.

The printer driver complains, regularly, that one or more are empty, and I
simply remove and reinstall the empty cartridge and the printer goes right on
printing black.

Using the Canon driver, under Quality & Media I click the Grayscale checkbox,
and I get a grayscale output.

Using the same driver, if under Duplex Printing & Margins I check the
Automatic Duplex Printing checkbox the resulting output is not grayscale, and
any color elements on the page are missing.

(I tried the Gutenprint driver for this printer and I can get no black-only
grayscale output regardless of single-sided or duplex selection.)

(I presume that the ability to print grayscale using black only is a bug in
my printer's driver.)

Is there any current model printer (well, sold in the last few years) that
uses (or allows you to use) the K cartridge for black rather than compositing
black from CMYK?

This would be a great utility for someone to write! A program that would
modify the printer driver that would allow for a selection of "grayscale
using black only". I, for one, would pay for such a utility.

(This is not about per-page cost -- it's pretty negligible: original cost:
$50; ink $15 for a large-ish black cart. So, no, I don't want to trade this
for a laser, thanks -- It's about how to get grayscale duplex printing using
black only.)

Ideas? Comments?

Thanks,

--
John English

On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:51:28 -0400, John E. wrote
(in article <0001HW.C52AC110023A0AABB04B99AF.RemoveThis@news.sf.sbcglobal.net>):

> I have used my Canon Pixma iP3000 inkjet (CMYK) printer as a black-only
> printer for the past 2 years or so. I never use color, and indeed, have the
> empty CMY cartridges in there, never having been replaced.
>
> The printer driver complains, regularly, that one or more are empty, and I
> simply remove and reinstall the empty cartridge and the printer goes right on

> printing black.
>
> Using the Canon driver, under Quality & Media I click the Grayscale checkbox,

> and I get a grayscale output.
>
> Using the same driver, if under Duplex Printing & Margins I check the
> Automatic Duplex Printing checkbox the resulting output is not grayscale, and

> any color elements on the page are missing.
>
> (I tried the Gutenprint driver for this printer and I can get no black-only
> grayscale output regardless of single-sided or duplex selection.)
>
> (I presume that the ability to print grayscale using black only is a bug in
> my printer's driver.)
>
> Is there any current model printer (well, sold in the last few years) that
> uses (or allows you to use) the K cartridge for black rather than compositing

> black from CMYK?
>
> This would be a great utility for someone to write! A program that would
> modify the printer driver that would allow for a selection of "grayscale
> using black only". I, for one, would pay for such a utility.
>
> (This is not about per-page cost -- it's pretty negligible: original cost:
> $50; ink $15 for a large-ish black cart. So, no, I don't want to trade this
> for a laser, thanks -- It's about how to get grayscale duplex printing using
> black only.)
>
> Ideas? Comments?
>
> Thanks,
>
>

Why should anyone go to that kind of trouble when there are monochrome lasers
available for under US$120? See
<http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=hl2140> for
one example. The lasers are faster, their carts can print vastly more pages
at under double the price of an inkjet cart (black ink for my inkjet: US$25.
Toner cart for my laser: US$42) and for another US$30 or so you can get
built-in networking, wired and wireless.
<http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=hl2170W>

The _only_ reason to have an inkjet is to be able to print in colour... and
even there lasers are closing in for the kill. US$400 gets you this:
<http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=HL4040CN>
which is colour, a laser, _and_ does networking. There are inkjets out there
which do less and cost more.

--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.