Wondering why you always run out of black ink and the other cartridges don’t?

[Dottonedan]

Wondering why you always run out of black ink and the other cartridges don’t?

Using ink jet printers to print film.



Even though you may be using all black inks in all ink cartridges, the prints are getting printed out of CMYK slots. Just some more than others depending on how you set your color conversions in your color settings preferences.



Art is generated to print with CMYK printers in mind,

When you create art, in a vector program, your program should give you two black ink output options.



IN the program, this is a viewable/visual option. At output, it’s literal. One is a regular black (can look washed out on paper) because it is only using 100% black. No cmy with that.



The other is a Rich black. Visually, this looks (and is), more saturated or more opaque or “rich".



When you print a separation of any color, it is thinking you are printing CMYK and I gives you percentage output through Yellow, Cyan, ect. So it does use those cartridges even though you are using all black ink. The difference is, you use black far more, when printing films than any other color. I replace my black like 3 times a month, while I only replace the CMY and light C and Light M about once every 8-12wks.



Think of it, often times, when printing films, if the art is one color, yellow, you create black in the art and print instead of telling it that it is Yellow Pms 123. That sep and all Seps are generated based on your color preference rgb/cmyk conversion. It will even print a 1 color black ink Greyscale photo (using cmyk ink percentages, but one yin lesser amounts than the black ink. This may be for example, 90% actual black, 65% yellow cartridge, 48% of this and 75% of that. Literally. That’s what makes you a rich black.





Now, The actual real numbers that comes out to your machine, is based on your RGB to CMYK color preference conversion. This “should be linked or set universally with Photoshop and Illustrator or each using Adobe Bridge to that you have the same color conversion across all platforms. However that is set up to output CMYK and handle rich blacks, is where your ink is going.

In most cases, it’s more likely mostly to come from the black cartridge.



I also use more black (3X more) than any other color). We all use more black from the black cartridge. Some more, some less, based on the color preference and how much you have going to each color to make a rich black in CMYK.



Think of it, what one do you refill most?



Dot-Tone-Dan Campbell

Dot-Tone-Designs

Art@designsbydottone.com

#dot-tone-separations