Alternative to Black for Printing Text?

joebert

184 4

Asked: 15 years ago
Updated: 2 years ago
Viewed: 14.6k times

I don't do much printing, but from what I understand the first ink everyone always runs out of is black, unless they do mostly photos. Makes sense, I'm pretty sure every contract, document, etc I've had to sign or print out has been black and white with the exception of maybe a one inch square color company logo or something of the sort.

What if I changed the color of my text before I printed it though, to say brown, which I believe would use all of the colors in the cartridge. A dark blue maybe. What colors could I use to get the most out of my ink ?

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A couple weeks ago I had a network user get upset with me because she tried to print the color white on blue paper, but when her white parts were blue she couldn't figure out why. — kc0tma
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Is it that teacher that always gives you a hard time kc ? 🤣 Can white even be printed ? 🤔 — joebert
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Twas a different teacher this time, thank goodness. She finally figured it out when I told her that there just simply wasn't the color white in ink jet printers. I think on some of the more expensive printers and large format plotters there is the color white. — kc0tma
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This is sort of how to get around it, but you waste a heck of a lot of black ink https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-print-white-onto-black-paper — Mark Bowker
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I wouldn't worry. Most printers now use colored ink to make black if you run out of black. Also, it leads me to think that wasting black ink is cheaper than wasting colored ink. — Bogey

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Mark Bowker

2.5k 29

Answered: 15 years ago
Updated: 2 weeks ago

I would think something like a dark slate gray, which is color-safe RGB 49-79-79 and hex #2f4f4f.

I would have to think that would force the use of all three cartridges and be close enough to black to print legibly.

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That does look like a good alternative, it's like an inverted chalk board. 😁 — joebert

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Todd Charske

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Answered: 15 years ago
Updated: 2 weeks ago

I'm not the computer guru that these guys are but I do sell into the ink industry and Black is the least expensive color to make. Carbon black is the main pigment in black inks which is a commodity although those in the business like Cabot Corp etc would tell you that the porosity and size of the molecules make a huge difference in the inks which they do but the bottom line is carbon black is made from combustion (the stuff that you see on the side of the road during a snow storm that makes the snow black).

While the other colors used are made through different chemical processes and are much more costly. I know this isn't what you were looking for but my guess is the cartridges of the colors that are not black hold much less ink. I do not know that as a fact but this leads me to believe that black will ultimately be the lowest cost option regardless. Are even a shade of gray that really is just less black.

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As far as cost it depends on the manufacturer. In most cases if your printer has 1 cartridge for black and one for color, the cost is nearly equally and in many cases you can buy them packaged together. In the case of manufacturers like Epson where they have four separate CMYK cartridges, the price per cartridge is also very close but you're paying quite a bit more for color. However, you gain at least twice the volume of color too. The whole printer thing is a ripoff really. The printers are nearly at disposable prices. They obviously make their profits off of ink cartridge sales. — Mark Bowker
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if you want a good print to print black, buy a hp1100 off ebay for $15, toner is like $20 and you can print 2500 some pages with a single toner. My friend picked up an old one from our high schools surplus sale with a used toner that they threw out. shaked it up a bit and he used it his entire college career. hp1100 are the best print I swear. The only thing you have to worry about is the paper feed. They get old and have a hard time feeding a single sheet. Easy fix is to just take the rubber wheel out and wipe it down with a damp cloth. — SpooF