MX920 using PGBK - grayscale or not

[AdamAJP]

Hi there all and especially Canon tech’s...

I am happy overall with my MX925 as I enjoy the option for occasional colour photo prints on photo paper but am finding it frustrating that my colour ink is being used up on day to day printing where I would expect my PGBK to be used instead. I always set the printer to Greyscale and do not select duplex.

Please could someone with détaillés technical knowledge help me with the above and especially the following...

I have looked through the forums and become somewhat confused regarding use of the PGBK ink ONLY (whilst minimising it’s use) on my MX920 series printer (MX925 all in one). One recommendation from a Canon-avatar was to just let the printer decide in colour mode (assuming single-sided and plain paper with quality option at lowest reasonable level) and a second was to use greyscale.

The confusion lies in that the post suggesting allowing the printer to decide (i.e. set to colour settings & standard paper) also mentioned that grey cannon be made from black as this would require white ink which is not an option. It mentioned that grey is therefore made from the colour ink.

A caveat mentioned in one of the posts was that the printer would default to embedded settings within documents or web pages. Does anyone know what proportion of documents (Word, Pdf, excel etc.) or web pages have settings that would “force” my printer to use colour ink for what appears to be black text. Is there an option to “force the printer to ONLY use PGBK. I ask as my colour ink has been disappearing at an alarming rate whilst using the grey scale option mentioned. Am I doing this wrong? Am I printing embedded colour settings which appear black but use colour.

With thanks in advance

Adam

[Patrick]

Hi AdamAJP,

The PIXMA MX920 series printer will use color ink tanks to print colored text.  Even if the grayscale option is checked in the printer driver, if the original text is in a color other than black, the printer will combine the cyan, magenta and yellow ink tanks together to make a composite black.  This is why your color ink cartridges are still being used.

To use only the black ink tank, the original text must be black and the paper setting must be set to Plain Paper.

[AdamAJP]

Thank you Patrick,

to confirm my understanding therefore - if i wish to use PGBK as a priority should I be checking the greyscale box or printing using standard settings? I.e. does the greyscale always use colour as grey may not be made from black?

With thanks

Adam

[Patrick]

To only use the PGBK ink tank, the original text must be black and the paper setting must be plain paper.

If the original text is a color other than black:

If grayscale is checked, the color ink tanks will be combined to create the shade of gray

If grayscale is not checked, the text will be printed in the color of the text

[AdamAJP]

Thank you Patrick,

Sorry to labour the point but I do like to understand things fully...

So if greyscale always uses colour, I would be better off printing in standard colour settings to use less black ink (assuming plain paper and text is originally black). Is this correct?

With many thanks once again.

Adam