Printer problem why is my printer not printing the black and colored?

Hi,
The inkjet printers print colors as they combine the major 4 colors contained in the cartridges CMYK (or said in words cyan, magenta, yellow and black) in some proportion.
If you print black the printer gets ink from the black cartridge only. If the black cartridge is empty some devices start to print black as a combination of the colors in the color cartridge - for example gets some of the cyan, gets some of the magenta, gets some of the yellow.
In your case maybe some of the other colors are empty too (or the nozzles are clogged) and the printer cannot prepare the correct mixture of colors to start printing black.
I suggest you to change both black and color cartridges.
Hope this helps.

The 3550 won't print in any color if any of the colors are out. You'll have to replace the color ink that's empty to get it to print.

In the future, if you're just printing black and white, you can select "Print in Grayscale" from the print properties to just use the black ink cartridge, which will help the color cartridges to last longer.

Hi judysimeon

Goto the printer settings page and change the settings to print in black . Normally it is set for color - when color and black will print - You will find the question Print in Color Or Black Each has a check box. Check the box for black. With this setting, everything will print in black including the color text and graphics.
Most printers let you do this. However, some printers keep telling you to replace the color cartridge.

Hope this will work for you.
Good Luck
luciana44

1. Take out the black cartridge once you've determined that you are completely out of black ink. You'll have to rely on the dark hues from the color cartridge to print in black.
2. Adjust the printer software settings. Once you take out the black cartridge, your printer's software will typically warn you that you are missing a cartridge. Follow the instructions for your printer to allow the printer to print without the black cartridge. Then set the printer to print in black and white, not color. This overrides the black cartridge and allows the printer to access the dark hues of the color cartridge.
3. Print a test page to ensure that your printer now prints black using the color cartridge.
4. Print your documents. Bear in mind that your documents may not appear as black as normal. Still, they should be dark enough to pass for black, depending on how much color ink you have and the strength grade of the ink.

The color cartridges print text that appears black by mixing the three primary colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) to make composite black. To achieve a realistic black, large quantities of colored ink are used. Because black cartridges use much less ink to create a similar shade of black, they print more pages in black than the color cartridge.
If the color cartridges on the printer are next to empty, you will not be able to get perfect prints at all.

Please have the cartridges replaced to do the printing jobs again.

when you print and the print box comes up,go to properties/preferrence.graphics and select greyscale.will print black/white.

In the printing preferences you need to select Black and white.

1. open the document you want to print
2. click file
3. click print
4. select printer from list, then click on preferences
5. look around the pages.

In Color tab I found a print in Grayscale - this setting will print the document in black and white colors, the pages may be diffrent on diffrent printers. look for black and white setting or Grayscale.

picture: printing preferences, color page on a hp printer, select grayscale with black cartridge only.

Printer manufacturers design their printers to print some color mixed in with the black when you are only printing black. That is why your color cartridge is running out when you only print black and why it prints "weird colors" when the color cartridge is empty. Printer manufacturers sell the printers at a loss and make up the profit on the cartridges.

Reinsert the color cartridge. Give print command for page. Open Preferences in print window. Open the Color tab. Click on Print in Color. (It may have been set for black only.) Try printing.

Make sure the printer settings are set properly to print in color on the PC. Even if there is a color cartridge, if the PC only tells it to print black ink it's not going to use the color cartridge.