My black and white printing has a color tint to it. How do I change this?

Question

My black and white printing has a color tint to it. How do I change this?

It seems like whenever I print anything that is supposed to be just black and white, such as a word document, the black is not a true black--it has a colored tint. I originally thought this was a printer issue and contacted tech support for the printer, but they identified it as a computer issue once we hooked up multiple printers to the iMac and the same thing kept happening. There is no setting I can find in the computer to change this because I don't know what its called. Any help would be appreciated!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on May 3, 2011 2:43 PM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

May 3, 2011 2:59 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

It would obviously be really useful to know what printer you are talking about!

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Answer 2

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

May 3, 2011 3:25 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

& what application are you talking about.

Robert

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,123 points

May 3, 2011 3:50 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

Depending which App your using, when the Print Dialog comes up, look for either Colorsync>Grayscale/Black & White, or maybe Printer Settings>Mono/B&W.

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Answer 4

May 3, 2011 6:03 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

the first printer it did it on was a canon mp460, the second it did it on was an HP 4400 series, the third it is currently doing it on is an HP officejet 4500. I have tried changing the settings in the print dialog box to the b&w or grayscale, it still does the tinted black.

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Answer 5

May 3, 2011 8:41 PM in response to BDAqua

I can do that in Pages when I'm creating and printing a document now. However, the problem is if I am printing something, say a letter and there is a logo that is in color, so I don't want to turn off the color, if I leave the color option on, the words that should just be black print with that tint to them.

I have verified that the font color is black and there is no special formatting happening within the app itself. The problem is system-wide on the computer because it also does it from Adobe viewer and a couple of other apps that require printing of documents or webpages.

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

239,123 points

May 3, 2011 10:28 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

I'm pretty sure the problem is the Printer/Printer Driver, many mix colors to make Black when printing in color, a very few have a Utility to tell it to use only Black for Black.

You could likely eliminate most of the tint by using ColorSync Utility or Calibrating the Monitor & Printer.

A silly workaround is to Print just the Pictures/Logos in Color, reinsert & print the Text in B & W. 😟

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Answer 7

May 4, 2011 6:02 AM in response to BDAqua

Ok, so once in ColorSync Utility, what will I be looking for specifically? is it going to be one of the filters or a specific printer set? and then how do I make changes to it? I have looked at it on my macbook (not the computer having the color printing issue) and I don't know what would be considered a standard preset for this or what would need to be changed...thanks so much!

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Answer 8

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

May 4, 2011 11:12 AM in response to angryantaloupe82

angryantaloupe82 wrote:

the first printer it did it on was a canon mp460, the second it did it on was an HP 4400 series, the third it is currently doing it on is an HP officejet 4500. I have tried changing the settings in the print dialog box to the b&w or grayscale, it still does the tinted black.

I had the canon mp180. I have the HP psc 1209 now. I haven't seen this problem with 10.4.11.

Curiously, I heard of this problem with some Ubuntu drivers. Turned you their conversion program GhostPrint could only convert to either black or color. The color convert resulted in grey black. It was with an HP printer. Ubuntu & Mac OS X share some of the same print technology.

I see you have iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.9). I suggest you upgrade to 10.4.11. Pick one of the combo updates referenced on this page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24901?viewlocale=en_US

Regardless of the print problem, you should upgrade. Do you have wireless, if so you will need to reconfigure.

Robert

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Answer 9

May 4, 2011 12:04 PM in response to rccharles

I seeyou have iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.9). I suggest you upgrade to 10.4.11. Pick one of the combo updates referenced on this page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24901?viewlocale=en_US

Regardless of the print problem, you should upgrade. Do you have wireless, if so you will need to reconfigure.

I actually just yesterday updated the OS to Leopard and the same problem happens still, so its not the OS or the printer. When I print the printer's alignment page or something that is generated from any other source BUT the iMac, I get true black and white. So its definitely coming from the iMac.

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Answer 10

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

May 4, 2011 12:37 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

Bummer!

I think you are going to have to try a clean install. Get an external harddrive ( for a PPC , you will need a firewire drive ) & install Leopard on that. I am guessing that some preferences / settings have gotten messed up. If you have an intel precessor, you could try installing on a flash drive. I am suggesting this as a test. It is a lot of work, I know.

Robert

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Answer 11

dora4141

Level 1

0 points

Dec 10, 2013 1:22 PM in response to angryantaloupe82

HP Officejet 4500 / G510g HP Officejet 4500 Software Drivers

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