Printer question

[Orrex]

I have an HP Deskjet D1455 that has served us quite well since we bought it in March. We're about to replace the color cartridge, and I suddenly recalled hearing somewhere that certain printers, by default, print "black" by using the colored ink, rather than just using the black. Is this correct? Is this one of the printers that does this?

How can I tell? And, if so, how can I correct this?

[NJmaverick]

1. I can't swear to it

but I believe most inkjets use the colors to print black and the black to suppliment this and make it darker and a truer black.

[Orrex]

2. That sounds consistent with what I've heard

Kind of annoys me, because if that's true they should be more up front about it. Otherwise, we'll be burning through our color cartridges wondering what's up.

Also, it doesn't thrill me that the cartridges that come with the printer are often only half-full. But I guess that makes me an optimist, at least!

[NJmaverick]

5. I think with some printers if you select the black and white option

on a print job, it may skip the color. However, I can't swear to this.

[applegrove]

3. I just know that the printer companies sell their printers at a great discount

so you will have to buy and rebuy their cartridges.

[meegbear]

4. Unless there is a Walgreens around ...

you can get black ink cartridges refilled for $10 and color ones for $15.

[applegrove]

6. Yes but you need to have extra cartridges to do that. You have to hoard

them and then leave two in the inkjet printer because the computer chip will not work on the cartridges if the printer has been without a cartridge for any amount of time.

[meegbear]

7. I've filled the black and the color ones at different times ...

so I've never had a problem like that.

[NJmaverick]

8. the down side to that is the loss of quality

and longevity. I just read an article on using off brand inks. At their very best the quality can almost be as good, at their worst it significantly degrades the performance of your printer. On top of that almost all the after market inks suffer much worse fade than the manufacture's inks.