# Black and white printing



## monkey44 (Aug 21, 2016)

Shot a series of B & W (monochrome setting in 5DM3 and 7DII -- then, when I began printing, I checked B & W print box ... 

I bought an extra black cartridge -- Now, after about twenty prints, the black ink is stable, and the Canon 100 Pro is using my color inks to print instead of black ink cartridge ...

What did I miss? It seems it should use Black cartridge for B&W, and maybe some gray?

Sure makes sense to use up black ink, not the color batches to print black?


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## LDS (Aug 21, 2016)

monkey44 said:


> Shot a series of B & W (monochrome setting in 5DM3 and 7DII -- then, when I began printing, I checked B & W print box ...
> 
> I bought an extra black cartridge -- Now, after about twenty prints, the black ink is stable, and the Canon 100 Pro is using my color inks to print instead of black ink cartridge ...
> 
> ...



AFAIK the B/W settings just makes the printer driver turn color RGB data into B/W data (still in RGB - it can also "tone" them) - more or less what your camera already did when you applied the B/W style.

It doesn't mean it will only use black and gray inks, they would be not enough to deliver good quality images. How much black and gray will be actually used depends on your images.

BTW, I'd suggest you to take images in color and turn them into B/W later, in post production. It will allow you to obtain the same effects you would do using classic filters with a B/W film (and even more). it's much easier when the color information are not lost.


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## monkey44 (Aug 21, 2016)

OK -- will try that - this was a mini-experiment to see how it functions. 

The other thing I noticed - just playing around, sorta. When I checked the B&W box, the printer used the color cartridge (almost like mixing the colors to make black) and used everything BUT black. When I unchecked the B&W print box, the black cartridge engaged and used itself to write the black parts. 

In that first instance (the color) the black cartridge remained FULL ... and the color emptied. But when I used the color on monochrome shots, it then started using black, and nearly NO color ... surely a lesson learned here ...

Thx for the response - will continue experimenting ...  B


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## Donnewany (Sep 14, 2016)

Everything is changing very fast. It makes me have to learn all the time.


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