Printer not printing black? No problem. If your HP printer is out of black ink there's a good chance you can still print with it. The same goes for other brands of printers. I'll show you how. But first let's eat a cookie.
I ate 9 cookies this week. That might not sound like a terrible amount when you first hear it, but that's because I haven't yet disclosed the fact that each chocolate chip cookie was the size of a dinner plate at the Olive Garden. And it wasn't a full week. It was 3 days.
Stress brings out my back fat. So from here on in I'm going to have to work at not eating clown sized cookies and walking even more than normal. I assume your situation has been similar so in an effort to minimize the stress you're dealing with I have a tip on a big stressor everyone has experienced at least once in their life.
I want you to search far back into the depths of your memory for a time when - your printer actually printed. When you could click "print", tapdance your way over to the printer and it would spit out a a beautiful white page filled with black text.
Wasn't it nice back in the olden days when your printer worked?
If your printer is working and is printing, I suggest you read this post anyway as a form of preparation for the inevitable day that will come.
Printer Not Printing Black?
You can fix that. Here's how.
- Turn the printer on and open up the door so you can get to the ink cartridges.
2. You found the ink cartridges. Good.
3. REMOVE THE BLACK INK CARTRIDGE. Now you can print black. Honestly!
As long as your printer also has a colour cartridge, all the colours from the colour cartridge will print together to make ... BLACK.
I figured this little trick out when I was preparing for a screen printing course that I was taking at my local art school. (you can learn how to screen print at home here)
I was supposed to bring a half tone screen printing image to the class. But an hour before the class when I printed my image a sad kind of faded blue image printed out. I needed BLACK for the screen printing process to work properly.
Probably something just got screwed up. So I tried printing it again and again until eventually nothing printed out onto the page. Not even the sad, faded blue.
Not to be deterred (I am the one who brought you How to remove sharpie from your walls, after all) I kept trying.
I tried the thing where you fill up your old ink with even older ink you bought at Costco 10 years ago but ... it didn't work. (you can learn how to refill your old ink cartridges here)
So there I was. An important almost-graduate from a highly esteemed small town night course about to walk into class without her assignment done. In high school I could have talked my way out of it, but at night school?? No, no night school is serious stuff I'd never get away with it.
So I did what any desperate girl looking for a way out would. I ate a cookie. And then I got to work figuring it out.
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Nadia
Best hack ever! Thank you!!
Karen
Hey! I'm glad it worked for you and thanks for the review! ~ karen
Ralph D
Jesus christ, you're amazing. Thank you. You saved my life.
Regi
Lucky lucky you guys... my Epson Stylus knows the cartridge is empty and keeps saying replace black ink. So sad. Wanted it to work.
Karen
Booooo. I take it you still tried to print even though it said "no black ink" and it wouldn't let you. Some printers do that. It's infuriating. ~ karen!
Jessie Tan
Thanks a million for the tip!!
JamesJamesJames Castaneda
ahahaahaa THANK YOUUUUUUU! I spent hours doing tons of different tech fixes on forums with HP customer support and tech wiz mofos getting shut down hard at every turn. I was trying to figure out how to change my eBay label in Adobe Illustrator and then was going to try and hack the default colors in my computer print settings THENNNNN I SAW THIS when I woke up today. Great ARTICLE THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! You are funny
Ahmed
You my friend, are a life saviour!!!!! Thank you so much!
Lor
so...dont you have to change settings in the printer settings in order for the printer to combine all the colored inks to produce black?? i think so. you didnt talk about that here.......
Karen
No. You don't. ~ karen!
Nick
Can't believe it was this easy. Thank you!
Karen
You're welcome, thanks for coming back and letting me know it worked for you! ~ karen
tamara
thank you!!! this is such a valuable life tip. also i really enjoyed reading this lol. i so relate with the impulsive cooking-eating.
Karen
This tip has saved a LOT of people, lol. ~ karen!
Imran Sadiq
keep having cookies. It's awesome.
many thanks for sharing
Amir
I was trying to do this forever! Nothing worked but this. Thank you so much
Karen
Excellent! That's great, thanks for letting me know. ~ karen!
Emily
thank you so much!
Karen
You're welcome! ~ karen!
Jane P
I guess that makes you one smart cookie!
Tessdubyah
Unfortunately, this didn't work for my "smart" dumbass printer:( Thanks anyway.
Karen
Booooo. I'm wondering if you can may be reset your printer and try again. NO idea if that would work but it's something I would try. ~ karen!
JJ
Wow, you helped someone again! Saved me a trip to the store (that's probably closed for now anyway), and allowed me to print out my daughter's project from home while the schools are closed. Who knew a google search of "how to print in blue ink when out of black" would lead me to a post with comments going back to 2015!
Karen
Excellent! Happy printing. ~ karen!
Anna Charmantzi
Thank youuuu!!!! You are a life saver!!!!
Karen
You're welcome! :) ~ karen
Stefano
Excellent solution, in this period of coronavirus I cannot find anymore in any shop the HP black cartridge, so I bought many colour ones, and thanks to Judit I survived and print for my kids in tele-school with no issues.
Karen
Great, glad to help! ~ karen
Ahhh
Does it work without pulling the cardridge?
Ahhh
Does it work without pulling the cardridge?
Karen
Nope, you have to take it out. ~ karen!
Homer S.
Will remember this when worse comes to worse. Great work 👍🏻