How do i use only black ink in this printer? its asking me to put the color ones in there and i dont want to do that bc it keeps wanting to print color and im out of color ink?

Try to reset color ink level ,see how in the following link
http://atta-metro.blogspot.com/2010/03/reset-ink-level-printer-hp.html
after you complete , reset make sure your file free form colors , other wise print will ask you for change color , hope this help you

Mohamed Hejazi
Afaqnama - Tripoli Libya
[email protected]

Hi there

Sorry but printer will know that ink is missing and will not print with just the one .
All the best Pineworks

The problem you are describing is with the black ( BC-10 ) print head and not with the printer.

1. Check your black ink tank and be sure it is not dry.

2. Run the printer through one DEEP cleaning cycle and see if that improves the print.

If your black ink tank is full, and the deep cleaning cycle produces no improvement, you will need to replace the BC-10 print head.

The Kodak printers are designed in such a way so as to work with combination of Both color and black ink..In other printers,the prints are not that sharp,but In kodak printers color are awesome because even if we print black and white,the color from the color ink is also taken to give you those lifetime prints.Unfortunately There is no way to overcome this ink indicator.You cans et the preferences in the printer settings to print in black and white in your computer .

So for now, you can change the print settings to only print in black.

Change the print properties/ colour to grayscale.

You can purchase Canon cartridges directly from Canon here. The BC-10 is a cartridge that prints with black ink only. The BCI-10 is the replacement ink tank for this cartridge (a new cartridge comes complete with an ink tank). The BC-11e is a cartridge that prints both black and color, and has two ink tanks, the BCI-11 black and BCI-11 color. A new BC-11e cartridge comes complete with two new ink tanks.

the absorber should be cleaned and sometimes you have to set the print heads in just right or get no color at all
there is also a solution called priming your print head a little rubbing alcohol on the print head with cotton swab to see if the ink runs on swab

sure..go to your print settings, and tell the machine to print in black only. That's a usual trick for when the color runs out, which is not unlike when it's missing. Of course, you might just want to replace the color cartridge, just to keep your printer happy, no?

Got backup?

I just got off the HP help line.  After changing my black ink cartridge a test page was printing each time I turned the machine on.  This is very costly, in both time and ink as the cartridges themselves for this machine hold very little ink.  I tried to learn from HP tech how to turn off the test-print while keeping my color cartridge empty.  It turns out that you cant do it.  HP requires you to keep buying and using cartridges whether you need them or not.If you buy the color ink it will use it up in its testings.  And if you dont buy the color cartridge it will use up your black ink by printing the test each time you turn on the printer.  The printer was inexpensive sure, but I'm paying for it in wasted ink. 

The BJC-55 takes 2 different types of print heads. And also a scanner head, that snaps into the same place and turns the printer into a scanner.

One print head is a Canon BC-11E. It has 2 ink tanks in it. 1 black and 1 tri-color. It prints in full color or black

The other print head is a BC-10. It prints only in black. But the ink yank holds 4 times the black ink of the BC-11E. It is very popular with business travelers who print only documents. The printer works about twice as fast with it. And replacing ink is a lot cheaper.

The scan head is called an IS-12.

Prices range from 40 to 60 dollars in supply stores ( Staples, etc)

Ebay is a good place to look for them