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Why does my Epson printer need color ink to print a page that is black and white?

I have black ink, and I want to print sheet music, but no, my printer needs red, blue, and yellow in order to print black. Do i need color ink, or is this some glitch that can be solved?

Public Comments

1. Nope, you need to have color ink to print in black and white. Stupid? Absolutely. But it is their prerogative, all printer companies do this and I think it is a travesty. What is worse is that the ink cartridges cost almost as much as a new printer.
2. The justification used is that small amounts of colored inks are used to avoid the colored ink heads drying out and clogging during long periods of black ink only use. Left unsaid is that printer manufacturers make far more money on ink than they do the printers. I.e. anything to legally encourage purchase of more ink is in their best interests.
3. Clean ink heads with alcohol and clean rag and try again. Look at test page to see what colors are missing.
4. there is a good reason why you need all the colors. it would destroy the printer to run out of a color. it would also destroy it if you wait too long to replace it. here's an article on the subject http://ccs-digital.com/inkjet-care.asp With free ink available for your printer at http://ccs-digital.com/free-epson-ink.asp don't waste time.