I have a Canon PIXMA MP160 with an empty color cartridge. Can I print a picture in Black & White?

Question

My color cartridge is empty but I want to print a picture in black and white. In the printer options, I selected the Black Ink Only option but the printer really wants to use color. I tried selecting the print in grey scale option when I click print photo. I also tried to just take the color cartridge out, but my printer says I have to put it back in before I can print. How do I fix this?

This is the exact message my computer gives me:

The following ink cartridge will be used for the specified printing.

Color

The Settings in the Ink Cartridge Settings on the Maintenance tab of the printer driver will be disabled.

If you want to continue printing, click OK.

If you want to change the setting and print over again, click Cancel Printing.

Answer 1

You cannot create a high quality print without using colour, it is just impossible.

What happens when you print a photo in just black and white is in order to create lighter and darker toner the printer will use halftone, which although a neat effect does not look like a photographic image.  The can only be done on a lower quality setting as well.

When you are printing in greyscale the printer uses different saturations of your cyan, magenta and yellow along with black to create various shades of grey.   This gives you a true black and white photo.

Answer 2

No. Usually, for image printing, colour  automatically taken from colour cartridge. Dark area is produced by colour combination first, then black will be applied for pure black area (such as black hair). All brownish black produced by composite black (combination cyan,magenta,and yellow).

In this condition, you can just print black text and need to replace colour cartridge with new one.