[weremichael]

Greetings,

The manual for this printer is lacking in it's description of custom settings. I know that the Canon iP4000 has a special ink cartridge just for text as well as ones for printing photos. When I went to replace the black cartridge I noticed that I have been using the photo black for text (my wife is in graduate school). What are the custom settings that everyone has setup to print:

a. photos (3x5)
b. black and white text


Michael

[weremichael]

I sent off an email to Canon's support page about my questions. I will give their reply to this thread, as it appears that I am not the only one that doesn't know the answers to these questions.

Michael

[bbales]

I'm not down at the computer to which my IP4000 is attached. HOWEVER -- for a photo (I do 4 X 6 ones, though, so I'm not sure if that will change things -- I first select the Pixma as the printer, obviously. (I also have an Epson.) Even before that, under "page setup," I have selected that I'll use the Pixma, and that the size is a 4 x 6 photo. Then under "media," or something like that, I select the glossy photo paper -- I use the Canon brand. Under, I believe it's "special effects," I sometimes select vivid noise reduction and "printing a top-quality photo."

In the "print dialog" box, then, I have saved these settings by -- after making all my various selections, in terms of media, "printing a top quality photo," etc., I hit the "save as" option and named it something like "Pixma photo." Then, when I'm printing photos, I switch the printer selection to my Pixma and my other option as Pixma photo. It works great.

I BELIEVE that for text, you just go through some of the other options and find the one that has to do with "printing text," or something like that. I am not sure if that will force it to use the other tank or not. To be honest, I use the Pixma primarily for photos, and for greeting cards and things like that. I have an older Epson I use for text purposes.

HOpe this helps, even a little.

[weremichael]

Thanks bbales, that is roughly what I have been doing.

I recieved a reply from Canon tech support today and here is what David said:

Thank you for your inquiry. We value you as a Canon customer and
appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

You are right that the BCI-3e black is used mostly for text and the
BCI-6 black is used mostly for graphics and photo printing. However,
for various types of printing, composite black ink is used instead of
just black ink. Composite black ink is formed by mixing the color inks
proportionally, including the BCI-6 black ink. There is no setting to
disable composite black ink and use just the BCI-3e black ink.

We hope this information is helpful to you. Please feel free to contact
us again if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

David
Technical Support Representative

I got about as much info as I could desire out of a tech support email. It just makes me mad that the "text" ink well doesn't even look drained at all (after probably 600 pages printed). For the fun of it here are my settings for text:

Under ColorSync I choose Quartz filter Black and White; Quality and Media: Type, Plain Paper, Gray Scale Printing Checked, Detailed Settings and I made a setting for fast, medium and high quality.

I hope these settings helps me save ink.


Michael

[bbales]

I am a trifle irked that it's not possible to just use the text ink. To me (and I could well be not knowing enough of the facts) this is just a way for the companies to sell more ink. It's hugely aggravating.