Is it possible to print in black when the color ink is empty? i have BROTHER DCP 130C. i know that this prob is in the HP printers 2. so is there a way to "fool" the printer, so that she would "think" that there is color.
thanks in advance

no. you'w wrong. the printer won't print in black(even if i tell it to print in black and in draft mode) when any of the color cartridges are empty.
i think that i should put a paper on the sensor/ that way the printer would "think" that the cartridg is full.

Ya, it's all part of the income model. It's why you can buy a $150 piece of kit for $50. The ink they sell for $20-35 is worth what, like 50 cents?

Have a look at www.zink.com as a possible alternative. I'm not spamming this. Just I had this idea last April of embedded ink and I was pleased to see it actually happening. Will make printing so much simpler and cheaper.

no. you'w wrong. the printer won't print in black(even if i tell it to print in black and in draft mode) when any of the color cartridges are empty.
i think that i should put a paper on the sensor/ that way the printer would "think" that the cartridg is full.

I've had a similar problem with my HP printer. I figured out that I could take the empty cartridge out, wipe off the printing head and stick it back in, after which it would work. Its stupid, but sometimes thats the way the things are.

My Epson does the same thing its very irritating and no changing of the settings resolved it, until I changed the culprit cartridge, thats one feature I wish I'd known the Epson carried in its bag of cons.

My older Lexmark didn't do that, but it appears from this thread theres quite a few newer brand named printers on the market today that do exactly the same thing.

I've wondered from time to time if this was a way that companies are fighting back against people who were getting cheap refills of their cartridges instead of buying new expensive ones. I never underestimate companies and their greed for my dollars.

no. you'w wrong. the printer won't print in black(even if i tell it to print in black and in draft mode) when any of the color cartridges are empty.
i think that i should put a paper on the sensor/ that way the printer would "think" that the cartridg is full.

Probably wouldn't print if you covered the sensor, as it'd think you didn't have a cartridge in at all.

With Epsons, if the one of the ink cartridges is empty it's supposed prevent you from starting print jobs until it's refilled, but I've seen times where it does continue to let you print anyway.

You more than likely nailed it right there!

It depends on the brand and model of printer you have.

Some will allow this, but most won't. As was noted in other posts it is all about the money. I don't know of a printer manufacturer that doesn't force you, one way or another, to buy ink cartridges either prematurely or regardless of the nature of the print job you are doing.

I have a Lexmark Z53 and if I don't explicitely specify B&W printing, it will use the colour cartridges even for a job that is B&W / grayscale only. And so it goes.

There was a test done about 2 or 3 years ago on THG that demonstrated that the official ink cartridges from various manufacturers would show the cartridge was empty when it still had enough ink left to print at least 100 pages. This effect was shown to be the result of programmed settings in the firmware of the cartridges and printer. Draw your own conclusions here. You may want to look into the less expensive cartridge refill kits, especially in the case of printers where the cost of replacement cartridges exceeds the cost of a new printer with a complete set of cartridges.

You should also seriously consider the environmental impact implications of this fact of consumer life. Not just from the landfill impact when it is "cheaper" to discard a functional printer and buy a new one, rather than replace the ink cartridges, but from a greenhouse gas generation and consumption of non-renewable resource perspective. Remember, plastic is made from oil. As are parts of the inks used. But the amount of oil used in the plastic of the body of the printer is much grater than the oil in the ink cartridges. Oil used to manufacture plastics is not available for gasoline, etc. And then there's the global warming / climate change issue to consider.

All very nice environmental talk, but I really don't see any solution to the problem in what you've written. If you know of a printer that doesn't cause prblems, tell us what it is.

Just a lil humor here.. Thread kinda reminded me of a commercial for that easy button.

Where the guy says, hey, the printer is out of ink.

The other guy says, well shake it.

So he turn around, places the ink cartridge on the table, picks up the printer and shakes it.

I do recall HP being picky when one of it's colors starts to run out. Ever since I switch to a cannon printer, it has separate black, the 3 colors, and 2 photo cartridges. I've been out on all the color, and been running off just the black.

Though I did have to switch it to grey scale, and the printer would start up warning me, but I was still fortunate to be able to print black/white pics/documents.

I do recall an HP I used to have, and remember going out to buy ink when it got to a certain point, and even couldn't print in grey scale.

Printing black when color is empty is not possible on my HP DeskJet 3535 (Its a cheapo). The other way round is possible though: when the black is empty it will combine all 3 colors from the color cartridge to put out a (very dark greenish) black. It works even when the black cartridge is not present.

I simply exhausted the color cartridge and refill it (all 3 partitions) with black marker ink using a syringe. I've got it professionally refilled about 8 times, but now the holes are widening I think, so the precision and quality of output is affected.

The black one rests in friend's printer.

Many printers will use all four colors to print black. If the ICC profiles of the printer are set to to build black out of process color, then you have to have ink in the color cartridges to print even black. You MAY be able to get around by first printing the document to PDF, setting the document for grayscale only, and creating a grayscale PDF, then send that to the printer. It might work it, it might not.

All very nice environmental talk, but I really don't see any solution to the problem in what you've written. If you know of a printer that doesn't cause prblems, tell us what it is.

Well dude, there are three responses to your "observation"

1) I can only legitimately discuss equipment that I have actually used / own. Anything else is an outright lie. I'm sorry, but I am not interested in lying.

2) read the Fu**ing Manual. Both printed and online versions. For good measure, go to the manufacturers web-site. Odds are, none of these will address the issue raised by the OP. I know that