HP Deskjet 722 B&W print

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lorraine
  • Start date Start date
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Lorraine

Is there a way to print quality B&W pictures with this printer? It uses the
color cartridge to make Black and the pictures come out tinted green or red.
Also I have some pages with both color and B&W pictures which can’t be done
because of the tint problem. Yes, this is an outdated printer but up to this
point it served its purpose. TIA,

Change notme to LOCATED and nowhere to ATT dot NET
 
Thanks for replies herbeez and Tony.

Yes I tried to use Grayscale, lso tried with and without ICM setting.

The printer will not print without the color cartridge. It uses color ink to
enhance the B&W image the results are OK but that tints the image. I tried to
fool it by using an inoperable color cartridge. But that way it will only print
in normal mode without the ink provided by the color cartridge and the B&W
result is not good. If I try setting printer to Best or Photo Paper options it
prints B&W extremely poorly. The only thought I have left is to clean out a
color cartridge and refill it with black ink. Maybe that would work? I do not
know if there is a setting in the HP printer program, I looked but did not find
anything. Guess that is just a glitch with this printer? Lorraine.
 
as underneath my scribble :

Problem is that the original full drivers will not work on anything
later than Windows 98 - HP refuse to provide updated drivers as a
matter of policy which encourages new printer purchase. (As a result
we have now moved over to Canon printers having used exclusively HP
for years.)
From memory now - your HP7xx series will print in proper greyscale
even with the W2000 or wXP built in cut down drivers, but only on some
settings of quality, you will have to experiment and check with a
microscope or loupe to see what is actually being used, but if you
want the quality the printer is really capable of - especially in
graphics and photos mixed with text - you have no choice but to run a
W98 system and the original drivers and use that for your quality
printing! Can we interest you in a gang of 6 and 7 series HP printers
they are headed for the skip!!
Charlie+
 
Thanks Charlie+ for your input. I forgot to mention that I use W98se. I have a
Dell puter, which I purchased 6 years ago along with the HP722 printer.
Previously used Mac to enter the computer world. I have updated the Dell except
for the 100mHz FSB that I'm stuck with. You are correct about HP; they have not
updated the driver's (v10.3) since I purchased it. This is my home computer and
I print mostly text, letters and such. I am doing a home project requiring many
photos both B&W and color. I think I used a ream of paper trying various
combinations to improve the pictures. The following is what HP had to say about
it, which is not exactly true and will result in terrible picture quality.

"When printing with Normal or Best as the print quality setting, the HP Deskjet
720C series printer will use the color ink to improve print quality output, even
when printing a grayscale image. Select EconoFast as the print quality setting
in the printer properties. This will prevent the color cartridge from being
used.
- Or -
Try another color cartridge. The color cartridge is used to print grayscale
images in Normal or Best print modes, so if one color has run out, the printout
will have the wrong tint. With a full color cartridge, the colors can be
properly combined to create a composite black." (NOT TRUE!)

Thanks for the offer of a gang of 6 and 7 series HP printers they are headed for
the skip! I'll pass on that!

Lorraine
 
as underneath my scribble :

Under W98 and the latest drivers for that - you should not be having a
problem with this, if you tick the greyscale box the colour cart
should not be used at all on any quality setting unless the
printer/cartridges have a physical problem. Have you tried changing
the halftoning/dithering settings under greyscale to get what you want
under B&W? On mixed printing we always used the Normal, Colour
setting , if you choose the Best setting then text would be printed
with colour input as well. All this from memory so maybe not 100%
reliable! The problem was that the colour carts don't have the
resolution of the B&W cart. so this wrecked the crispness of the black
text. A trick we had to resort to occasionally was to print the text
under Normal greyscale and a second pass to print the
pictures/graphics using the Normal or Best colour setting, of course
you have to have software capable of doing this.
I assume that all the pens are working with your carts and you have
aligned the carts properly - out of alignment could be a problem - 4
presses paper feed button with the on/off button held depressed gets
you a rudimentary pen test printout. I assume you are using HP carts
and inks not refills etc.! Good luck with it!!
Charlie+
 
Thanks again Charlie+ for taking the time to reply.
Click to expand...

Under W98 and the latest drivers for that - you should not be having a problem
with this, if you tick the greyscale box the colour cart should not be used at
all on any quality setting unless the
printer/cartridges have a physical problem.
The color cartridges are used automatically with the grayscale checked, when
Click to expand...
using the "Best" setting. I have a jeweler's loupe and I can see the Red and
Green dots. I found the normal setting to be the best compromise for tint but
the detail is compromised.

Have you tried changing the halftoning/dithering settings under greyscale to get
what you want
under B&W?
I have not tried messing around with the dithering. I'll give that a go today.
Click to expand...

On mixed printing we always used the Normal, Colour setting , if you choose the
Best setting then text would be printed with colour input as well. All this
from memory so maybe not 100% reliable!
That could be correct but I can't tell, as the black is too dense to see any
Click to expand...
color dots.

The problem was that the colour carts don't have the resolution of the B&W cart.
so this wrecked the crispness of the black text. A trick we had to resort to
occasionally was to print the text under Normal greyscale and a second pass to
print the pictures/graphics using the Normal or Best colour setting, of course
you have to have software capable of doing this.
I do not have a good printing program other than the HP driver software. I got
Click to expand...
around this by using the Word program. I set up the page and make two copies
deleting B&W from one and color from the other. One contains the text and B&W
pictures. The other contains color images. B&W prints OK at Normal setting and
the color at Best. I tried all the printer options for types of paper, Plain, HP
Photo etc. I also tried various types of paper, bright white looks the best.

I assume that all the pens are working with your carts and you have aligned the
carts properly - out of alignment could be a problem
Thanks but yes I am aware of those features, the nozzles are all functioning
Click to expand...
and cartridges aligned.

I assume you are using HP carts and inks not refills etc.
Yes I have two new correct HP cartridges installed.
Click to expand...
I know how to get into the *.INI files and tried the three different settings
Click to expand...
for printing black, but did not see any difference.
Also, today time permitting, I plan on using the color only option for B&W
Click to expand...
under various conditions to see what that looks like.

Lorraine
 
sOK!
Under W98 and the latest drivers for that - you should not be having a problem
with this, if you tick the greyscale box the colour cart should not be used at
all on any quality setting unless the
printer/cartridges have a physical problem.

using the "Best" setting. I have a jeweler's loupe and I can see the Red and
Green dots. I found the normal setting to be the best compromise for tint but
the detail is compromised.
Click to expand...
Yep - I could be wrong as I said - I tested all these things rhight at
the start and those printers are years old now!
Have you tried changing the halftoning/dithering settings under greyscale to get
what you want
under B&W?


On mixed printing we always used the Normal, Colour setting , if you choose the
Best setting then text would be printed with colour input as well. All this
from memory so maybe not 100% reliable!

color dots.
Click to expand...
Even with a X10 loupe you would see the colour on the edges, we used a
microscope as it was there!
The problem was that the colour carts don't have the resolution of the B&W cart.
so this wrecked the crispness of the black text. A trick we had to resort to
occasionally was to print the text under Normal greyscale and a second pass to
print the pictures/graphics using the Normal or Best colour setting, of course
you have to have software capable of doing this.
Click to expand...
CorelDraw etc and Im sure many other progs will allow you to print
only what you specifically select on a page. Old CorelDraw3 has
appeared free on cover disks. Probably publishing packages at any
level would do it even better.
around this by using the Word program. I set up the page and make two copies
deleting B&W from one and color from the other. One contains the text and B&W
pictures. The other contains color images. B&W prints OK at Normal setting and
the color at Best. I tried all the printer options for types of paper, Plain, HP
Photo etc. I also tried various types of paper, bright white looks the best.

I assume that all the pens are working with your carts and you have aligned the
carts properly - out of alignment could be a problem

and cartridges aligned.

I assume you are using HP carts and inks not refills etc.


for printing black, but did not see any difference.
Click to expand...
Knowing how to and knowing exactly what you are doing are different
things - I would leave .ini files alone, you have all available
options with the W98 HP driver software.
under various conditions to see what that looks like.

Lorraine
Click to expand...
Checking out now - good luck with it!
Charlie+
 
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