Is this a rip off or what?

[lpmann]

Maybe I just don't understand everything I need to about printers but.......It really gets me that even though I hardly ever print with color, the color cartridges still run out at about the same time the black cartridge does. What gives are we just getting ripped off or is there a good reason this happens?

 

[jtoolman]

Depending on the printer, some will use a special pigment ink dedicated larger Black Cart for text prints. Otherwise they use ALL your colors to produce a composite black. So even if you are printing so called only black, you are actually really using all colors. No, it is not intended to rip you off. That's the way most printers are designed unless they include a dedicated Pigment black like on some Canon printers.

 

[stratman]

In addition to what jtoolman posted, printers will do maintenance at power on and periodically thereafter which use up ink from all the cartridges. This is intended to keep your printer functioning properly, though some suspect the manufacturers waste too much ink in order to make customers buy ink more often. I doubt that is much of a consideration, but to each their own.

 

[ghwellsjr]

Make sure you are not telling the printer you are printing on any kind of photo paper including matte. These will use only the three colors to approximate black. Always make sure you are telling your printer that you are printing on plain paper, one-sided, not borderless (unless, of course, you aren't printing on plain paper).

 

[The Hat]

Maybe I just don't understand everything I need to about printers but.......It really gets me that even though I hardly ever print with color, the color cartridges still run out at about the same time the black cartridge does. What gives are we just getting ripped off or is there a good reason this happens?

Why do people think that using three colours to produce black is wasting money.
If a printer uses one black cartridge to print black text then that seems to be alright and
using three colours to do the same job is not, but I totally disagree with that.

The same amount of ink is used whichever way that the printer chooses to prints in black,
so it uses the large cartridge for black 100% that why its the large cartridge and when
using the colours cartridges its only 33% usage approximately of each so they are smaller, to me its horses for courses.

If the price of ink is the real issue then switching to using 3rd party inks makes this argument null and void anyway.
Happy Printing..

 

[lpmann]

Hey thanks for the info.
I guess because I print with plain paper and black 98 percent of the time I thought the color ink should last longer. I understand that the print does need to use a little ink to keep things moving, I just believe that the printer companies may be a little heavy on ink use.
Again thanks for the discussion.

 

[panos]

so it uses the large cartridge for black 100% that why its the large cartridge and when
using the colours cartridges its only 33% usage approximately of each

I think OEM black pigmented ink comes cheaper (especially in XL cartridges) than an equal amount of colored ink.

 

[The Hat]

so it uses the large cartridge for black 100% that why its the large cartridge and when
using the colours cartridges its only 33% usage approximately of each

I think OEM black pigmented ink comes cheaper (especially in XL cartridges) than an equal amount of colored ink.

That maybe so but the difference is minuscule besides the printer doesnt use as much colour ink when printing text..