Best way to save ink

[toyboy]

I'm printing a 216 page (108 leaves) book on my Pixma Pro 9000. It is a comic book, all images (any words part of the image). All the images are drawn with graphite pencil (and thus grey/black in tone) and have been scanned as RGB 400dpi (originally thought I might do a large run offset, thus the high DPI).

I've only run one book as a test, and the images print quite well as either standard or high quality. High quality of course gives me a more complete tonal range, so I will choose that. But I would like to know if there is anything I can do to save ink as I will be printing an edition of at least 25 books, (25 x 216 runs through printer) possibly 50 (50 x 216 runs).

These questions are strictly in terms of wondering what the most economical printing will be, in terms of amount of ink used, NOT in terms of any "color" accuracy.

Does printing an image that is set as greyscale (as a file) use only the black cartridge?

Does printing in greyscale as a setting of the printer use only the black cartridge?

Or, is there any choice in the matter?

Does using all the cartridges for printing a black and white/grey image use less ink than if one were using only the black cartridge? (i.e. using RGB & black to produce a greyscale tonal range vs just black)

[jrhoffman75]

The Pro 9000 is a dye printer, and black dye inks are not pure black, so the color inks are used to get a black print. 

The grey scale selection should be used to print a color image in black and white. Should not be used when you are starting with a greyscale image. 

Thats a a lot of printing for a home printer. Have you considered a print shop or Staples?

[toyboy]

Thank you for this John. I realize it's rather mad, but considering the fact that I've owned the printer for close to ten years and hardly used it, I might as well make some use out of it! But seriously, even if I break it through overuse it will be less costly for me, and certainly better quality than I'd get through Staples. And I will have more control over it.  And a print shop needs such large minimums that I couldn't rationalize. I'm roughly figuring an ink cost of around $4 to $6 a book. Not too bad really. I think the worst part will be all the time spent slaving over the printer.

Spoiler

[ebiggs1]

Starting and stopping uses more ink. Turning the printer on and off.  Once you start your print job try to finish it.  I agree that is a lot of printing for a home printer.  I certainly would look to a print shop to do this job.

I know the one I use will print one or a dozen or 10,000 for me.  It is better if I have everything ready for them to print which I do.  They have high speed printers that will do that job in minutes.

[toyboy]

Thank you for your response ebiggs.

I did come across already the tip about turning the printer on and off and how that runs a cleaning cycle. So I will certainly be careful about that now.

The printing has to be done either by myself on this printer or through a very high end offset. The latter will do a very good job, but I just can't meet his minimums for a first run. Believe me, I've worked with printers for over 25 years. I know what I need in this regard. A "print shop" is going to do a hack job (and then tell me they've done a perfect job) and not allow me of the choice of paper I want to print this on. And again, will not allow me much control.