Black is not printing with the Black Cartridge. Black is printing with the Color Cartridge. (Bravo II or XR, BravoPro, LX800)
Bravo II
Make sure you have the Ink Cartridge set to Color + Black, Color Matching set to PrimaColor, Print Black using only Black Cartridge set to Yes.
Note: "Print Black using only Black Cartridge" is not available using the Macintosh Bravo II driver.
BravoPro and LX800
Make sure you have the Ink Cartridge set to Color + Black. In order to use the Black Cartridge, Disc Surface Quality cannot be set to High. (Print Black using only Black Cartridge is automatic.)
Important Note for All Printers: Original Image format can have a large effect on whether black will print with only the black cartridge. In order for the printer driver to use only the black cartridge to print black it must recognize that color as true black (#000000, R=0 G=0 B=0) There can be no gradation in the image. Gradation may not even be visible on screen. Gradation, pixilation or artifacts can occur if the image has been compressed. JPG, GIF, PNG, and PDF are typically compressed images. For example, imagine that you have created an image in Adobe Illustrator that has black text and areas of black. If you print this image from Adobe using the original AI file format the black areas would print with just the black cartridge if you were using the settings noted above. However, if you export this image to JPG, then import it into SureThing or NiceLabel (LX800), and then print, the black areas will most likely not print with the black cartridge only. The black areas are no longer true black because they have (1) been compressed by Illustrator into JPG and (2) been imported and reinterpreted by SureThing or NiceLabel (LX800).
There are several ways to fix this problem.
1. Export images from other programs in noncompressed formats like BMP or TIF. However, even this sometimes does not solve the problem if you import these images into SureThing or NiceLabel (LX800). The true black color can be lost in the importation process.2. Do not export images to other formats. Instead create an PRN file of the original file format directly printed from the original source program to the printer. Click here for instruction on creating PRN files.
3. If the black areas you are attempting to print with the black cartridge are made up of text try importing only the background image into SureThing and then create the black text in SureThing.
Finally, understand that printing black with black cartridge only will almost never look better than the same image printed with just the color cartridge. The reason to make it print with just the black cartridge should be for ink consumption reasons not quality reasons. The only exception may be when you are printing black text or barcodes to the LX800.
Related Articles:
Black and white images are printing with poor quality. Black areas are printing gray or with color cartridge instead of black. (Bravo II or XR, BravoPro, LX800)