[darko2021]

I Have an Epson stylus c66. I only use it for printing text documents and it's driving me insane that it uses color ink for a black and white printout and won't allow me to print if a color is empty. Is there a third party driver I could download that would let me just use the black ink? It is really starting to cost me to much money to have to buy new color ink when all I use is black. Thank you.

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Printer manufacturers make the driver use colour even for black to make it more vibrant.

Check if there's a setting in the printer-driver (may be in the 'Advanced' section) for printing in "Grayscale" only. This setting uses only black on some printers or certainly less of the other colours anyway, but there's still no getting around the fact that the printer won't work if any cartridge is empty I'm afraid.

Also, there's some software called 'InkSaver' which forces your printer to use less ink each time it prints. There's a free trial. May be worth a try. $35US (about £18 Sterling) to buy. Get it here: http://www.inksaver....view/index.html

Since you seem to print only text (not photo images) you might also consider buying 'compatible' cartridges not made by epson, but the cartridge is identical in size and shape and a whole lot cheaper. Epson has taken legal steps recently to curb this cartridge-copying (we all know why!) but they are still being manufactured. Online suppliers are your best bet if you decide to try them.

Edited by pip22, 07 November 2007 - 05:15 PM.

[pip22]

Printer manufacturers make the driver use colour even for black to make it more vibrant.

Check if there's a setting in the printer-driver (may be in the 'Advanced' section) for printing in "Grayscale" only. This setting uses only black on some printers or certainly less of the other colours anyway, but there's still no getting around the fact that the printer won't work if any cartridge is empty I'm afraid.

Also, there's some software called 'InkSaver' which forces your printer to use less ink each time it prints. There's a free trial. May be worth a try. $35US (about £18 Sterling) to buy. Get it here: http://www.inksaver....view/index.html

Since you seem to print only text (not photo images) you might also consider buying 'compatible' cartridges not made by epson, but the cartridge is identical in size and shape and a whole lot cheaper. Epson has taken legal steps recently to curb this cartridge-copying (we all know why!) but they are still being manufactured. Online suppliers are your best bet if you decide to try them.

Edited by pip22, 07 November 2007 - 05:15 PM.