Canon TR8520 - PGBK vs BK Ink

[broncoalbert]

Hello,  how can i force my Canon TR8520  printer to use the BK ink cartridge instead of the PGBK ink cartridge.  I'm printing text and the printer is out of PGBK.  I rarely print photos (which I think is what BK is used for).

[Patrick]

Hi broncoalbert,

The bigger black ink tank contains pigment based black ink.  This ink provides dark and sharp black text on plain paper.  The bigger black ink tank is used when the paper type is set to plain paper.

The smaller black ink tank is a dye based ink.  This ink provides greater contrast when printing photographs.

The printer heats up the printhead to put ink on the paper.  It uses ink to keep the printhead cool.  If there is no ink in the ink tank, the printhead would overheat and become damaged.

This is why the printer will not print until an empty ink tank is replaced.

Each ink tank has its own purpose.  You cannot switch to one when the other is empty.  The black ink would need to be replaced.

[tracyduh]

For those who may stumble upon this in the future. Canon doesn't want you to use work arounds because they set it up to try and force you to buy more ink. If you have a full BK, but an empty PGBK, buying more ink if it's not needed is an irresponsible waste of resources, a company should be concerned with all the cartridges that end up unnecessarily in the dump.

I'm not sure why Canon did not answer your post honestly. Try this link, it's from their own Knowledge Base:

https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART170082

If that doesn't work, another method that has worked for me:

https://superuser.com/questions/751420/how-to-disable-pgbk-ink-on-a-canon-printer-and-use-bk-for-bla...