I’ve got an HP 810C Deskjet, which works fine for text, graphics, etc. – but when it comes to black & white photos, either scanned or from the Net, it will print them out as blue, even on greyscale. If I’m “lucky”, I’ll get bands of b/w, then blue, then pink. Sometimes, nothing at all.
I don’t want the colour cartridge working when a b/w photo is being printed. Help! Anyone out there know what I can do?
HP over the Internet virtually (forgive the pun!) threw their hands up and said “I dunno”.
while I don’t know your printer especifically, most will have a setting at the control panel to use only Black ink. I would suggest you play around with the settings there as some may have effect on this (dithering, etc). Also, have you tried reading the manual?
Thanks for trying to help, sailor, but yeah – I looked in the manual first, scratched my head, then tried asking HP.
And there aren’t any “Black Ink” controls for the printer under “Control Panel” under “Settings” – was that what you meant?
Guys, I’m being driven up the wall with this. Short of trekking back to the dealer – anyone else with any ideas? Please?
Oh, man. That was cold.
For you to get attempted color mixing or output for a “purely” black and white photo either:
1: The printer is defective (semi-rare)
2: The printer drivers are corrupted or you have the wrong drivers
3: The usb or parallel data cable is defective (rare)
4: The B&W image is being interpreted as having color
content and your B&W cart is running out of ink.
Does the test page black text print correctly?
The regular suspects in these cases are typically defective cartridges or corrupted drivers. Remove all print drivers for ALL printers n your PC if you have multiple printers attached then re-install the 810 with the latest downloaded HP drivers.
Before you print, on the print menu, you get an option box. Click on that, find the option to print in monotone. Click on that. Use that to print BW.
May I piggyback onto the OP? Cool. Well, I’ve a Epson Stylus Color 880 and the thing just won’t print webpages, either on or off line, unless they’re in Adobe PDF. It prints everything else just dandy. What’s the cure?
When you print grayscale some printers make the gray by combining the colors, others by dithering black sounds like yours is the former. If you have a color out (either you are out of it or have a clogged nozzle or a bad electrical contact) they the other colors will overpower the gray to make that blue you described.
The problem may not be with the printer, but in the format of the image file. Although the scanned photo may be b&w the imaging software may have saved it as a colour document. If this is the case there should be a convert_to (or similar) menu item that would allow you to convert to b&w or grayscale and then print.
Well, I guess the "read the manual"thing sounded kind of silly but I hava a knack for overlooking the obvious. I’ll get all involved in the problem, search the Net for hours, and forget I have the manual right there.
I just spent a couple hours tinkering with the CD writer. When i assembled it I forgot to connect a wire which I had made a mental note needed connecting. When it didn’t work I spent a couple hours looking in the register and here and yonder… two hours later i sigh and decide to open the thing up again… then I saw the unconnected wire dangling there. It never ocurred to me.
So… k2dave. you just reminded me of the FIRST thing which should have been obvious to me but I completely overlooked. I just got a new Canon color printer and I made a point to not get one of the cheaper ones where you cannot have the Black and color cartridges in at the same time because they are a PITA, waste ink, and quality is not so good. So I should have known full well not to assume Ice Wolf has a similar one… Just goes to show you I am getting more absent minded every day.
well, sorry I couldn’t be more useful… I need to test that CDwriter now… I’m sick of it.
k2dave could be onto something with one/more of the colours possibly being exhausted in the colour cartridge. Hey, the thing’s lasted nearly a year, which is damn good going. I’ve just taken it out of the cradle and (unscientific experiment here) felt the weight. Could be on the light side, so I’ll try a new one over the weekend.
Weird, how colours are used in a b/w – oh, well…
My 810C Deskjet isn’t one o’ those printers where you swap the b/w with colour, an’ keep the cartridge not in use in a plastic case, an’ hope like heck it doesn’t dry out on you. This one has both b/w and colour side-by side. Bugbear is, I have to align the carts every time I replace one.
I’ll keep you all informed. Oh, and Monty? Feel free to talk about your printer on the thread. If the wonderful, intelligent GQ’ers can help us out – well, go for it!
Ice wolf, if that is the case it should not use color when you are printing in B&W. See if you can find a setting for B&W only in the control panel. Mine has it and maybe yours does too.
Monty, I would say the problem is with the browser, not the printer. If a PDF file prints and other programs print, then it musyt be the browser program. See what you can configure from the browser.
Maybe so but still a credit to these boards
Monty - what happens when you try to print web pages? Epsons ususlly have a printer icon that pops up in hte tray during spooling and sometimes a small window that shows the progress - do you have these things?
Okay guys, it’s official: k2dave is my Hero Of The week. I now have b/w photos again. (YAY!!!)
sailor, where’s the control panel setting you spoke of? If I can find the thing, my future troubles are over 'fore they begin.
Excuse me while I celebrate …
Ice wolf, you have resolved it? So it was one ink color? Your printer uses color ink to make grey?
By control panel I mean the window that comes up when you print and you can also get to it from Start - Printers then rightclick on the printer in question and select properties. Then you get a dialog window with all the configuration options. Mine has several printing options (draft, photo, etc) and a checkbox for B&W. I would think you would have that option so you could print in B&W a document that had color.
In general I prefer to use black only as the ink is cheaper and use color only when i want color.
k2dave, thanks for the compliment. I do appreciate it
Yeah, sailor – I have one weird printer. And there’s no b/w control on the Control Panel under Printers Properties, either – just greyscale, which didn’t do diddly about the problem.
Well, seeing as I only need the photos for the history project I’m doing, it won’t be too much of an issue for too long now. Just a weird one. Matches the owner (HA!)
Icewolf
You might not have the controls if you did not install all the utilities that came with your printer. Try re-installing the printer utilities via the CD or downloading it from web.
If you just used win-9x (or me) cd to install your printer without using the manufacture’s cd you are missing the utilities.