Do colors and black share the same print head?

[BOYNTONSTU]

Cannon, Epson, and Brother have built in heads.

Is there a portion of the head for Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow separate from the holes used for black?

IOW Can you block the color heads and continue to print black? (Assuming you trick the empty color signal)

 

[qwertydude]

Yes. Generally in Canon's the photo inks, dye black is a photo ink by the way, are separated from the pigment black heads. And no you really can't block the print heads from operating, you'll probably burn out the print heads. Even on plain paper I do notice that unless you specifically select greyscale AND plain paper you'll end up using color because the color inks seem to be used to balance out the tone and gradients of the pigment black

 

[ghwellsjr]

Click on the Inkjet FAQ's link at the top of this page and click on the question regarding greyscale printing for more information.

What exactly are you trying to do? Print on plain paper using pigment black ink or print on photo paper using dye black ink?

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

Click on the Inkjet FAQ's link at the top of this page and click on the question regarding greyscale printing for more information.

What exactly are you trying to do? Print on plain paper using pigment black ink or print on photo paper using dye black ink?

I have a brother MFC-210C and I use it for everything.

This cheap printer has served me well for a few years.

Occasionally I need to use a cleaning cartridge to open the clogged print head.

When the printer produced an empty yellow signal I saw that there was a lot of ink in the cartridge.

I taped the cartridge to fool the printer and it is working fine.

I was wondering what would happen if the yellow became empty.

Would the yellow printhead holes get clogged or would the black suffer?

That question indicated my lack of knowledge about separate heads.

I am pondering whether to purchase a set of refillable cartridges, or to upgrade my printer for one with better ink refilling capability.

BTW Are Brother LC-41 cartridges vented?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I don't know anything about Brother printers or cartridges. My answers applied to Canon printers. I don't know how taping a cartridge can fool the printer. Sorry, I'm partial to Canon printers.