Black inks - Canon i865

  • Thread starter Thread starter Arthur
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A

Arthur

My i865 printer has two black ink tanks. Could someone tell me please
under what conditions each is used? Is the small one only used to darken
colours, or is it used for text printing as well? Is the big one only
used for low-res text printing?
 
The link supplied below has a very good explanation, but you must go to page
5 and not page 1 to find it. I have an iP4000 which uses the same printhead
setup as the i860/865. What I've found is that the pigmented black from the
BCI-3eBK tank is only used in plain paper mode. It doesn't matter if it's
text or graphics, it will use the pigmented ink. In any other mode, that
tank isn't used. For all modes, the photo black or BCI-6BK is used. Use this
test to see the difference. Print a photo in grayscale or b/w. Print it once
using a setting other than plain paper. Then print it again in plain paper
mode and note how much faster it prints. If you can open the cover to view
the print you'll see the ink is applied in wide passes with the pigmented
inks and in smaller passes with the photo inks. You can also see this effect
when printing color photos and using plain paper settings. The pigmented
black will be a wide pass that's quite visible until overprinted with the
photo inks.
 
The link supplied below has a very good explanation, but you must go to
page 5 and not page 1 to find it.
Click to expand...

Thank you both for the information! I had already read this review, but
when it says "The i865 also has a pigment black for text printing only"
this confused me because there is no printer setting for text printing as
such. I didn't know whether "text" was defined by the Print Quality
(High/Standard/etc) or by the paper type, and you have now answered that
one.

I've had the i865 for some time and this hadn't been an issue, but I have
just been printing a large batch of black only text documents (on plain
paper) and found to my surprise that the *small* black tank was throwing
up an ink low message when I was expecting the large one to run out.
Could this be because the tanks/inkjets are all 'cleaned' at intervals?

I have been in the habit of ignoring the ink low messages because they
seem to happen when there is plenty left. I ignore them until the empty
message come up. Is this the right procedure?

Thanks again for your help!

Arthur
 
It's hard to say without knowing the actual ink level prior to the text
printing batch. Are you refilling? If so, I recommend that you don't let the
tanks run dry as that can shorten the life of the sponges (as well as the
printhead).
 
It's hard to say without knowing the actual ink level prior to the text
printing batch. Are you refilling? If so, I recommend that you don't let
the
tanks run dry as that can shorten the life of the sponges (as well as the
printhead).
Click to expand...

Thanks Ron. I have been buying replacement Canon cartridges so far, but I
think I will try refilling at least the large black ink as I will be doing
a lot more text docs.

Arthur
 
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