PIXMA MX922 How Do I Turn Off Color Ink?

[ryevick]

I have the MX922 and it is using up color ink fast even with the preferences set to grayscale printing. How do I disable use of color ink and monitoring? I'm sick and tired of having to buy color ink cartridges when I am only printing black text documents!

[Patrick]

Hi ryevick,

The PIXMA MX922 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 PIXMA MX922 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.

[ryevick]

It is and has been set to Plain Paper, I am not printing color text as I stated in my original post.

I am printing BLACK text documents only. There is NO coloer to them but the printer uses up my color cartridges the forces me to buy more because it locks down the printer. This is outrageous! No wonder all over the internet people talk about the scam being run by ALL printer manufacturers.

How do I disable the use of the color cartridges or the monitoring of them??? If they run out and I have black in in my TWO required black cartridges, I should not have the printer lock up and stop printing BLACK text on PLAIN PAPER!

[ryevick]

I am sick of this. I can at least post reviews so other people don't buy this piece of junk. An Amazon review will be posted within the next 5 minutes.

[BillS]

Hi ryevick,

You stated in your original message that you were using grayscale printing.  I would like to reiterate that grayscale is not black, but a simulated black using the color cartridges.

You can disable the ink sensor by pressing and holding the red Stop button for 5-7 seconds.  This should allow you to continue printing, although printing with an empty ink cartridge will damge the printer over time.

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[ryevick]

So you are saying this printer goes against everything printers have always been setup to do in grayscale? See the following video.

[BillS]

Hi ryevick,

At the risk of stating the obvious, black ink is not gray, it is black, and it cannot be made to look gray.  You may be confusing grayscale with monochrome or black-and-white printing, which does only use black ink.  In grayscale, up to 255 gray tones (including simulated black) can be rendered, using various mixtures of cyan, magenta, and yellow.

I understand the purpose of the video, but it is not persuasive in that prints before and after the settings change are not shown, nor does it provide any evidence that ink usage changes.  I regret the misinformation.

This didn't answer your question or issue? Please call or email us at one of the methods on the Contact Us page for further assistance.

Did this answer your question? Please click the Accept as Solution button so that others may find the answer as well.

[ryevick]

I made the suggested changes and the printer is still using up color cartridges. I only print black text.

[step]

This is utter rubbish. I printed using only a black cartridge for years on my previous Canon printer. Shameless. 

[eMuni]

So I guess the real question here is...How do I print documents, which may contain colors, in only black?  Can you let us know as I am having the same expensive problem.