Ink Supplies Troubleshooting

The printer consumes more gray ink ink than M, C, or Y

This is not a problem, and no action should be taken to “correct” this attribute of the printer.

In general the higher frequency of change is because Matte Black ink is the one that is used for lines and black objects in technical papers (bond, coated, HW coated, natural tracing paper, etc.), which are the types of contents that are more commonly printed with this type of printer.

About gray ink

The T Series Printers are the first HP Designjet technical products to include Gray ink. One thing that users may notice is that Gray ink is used in higher quantities than Cyan, Magenta and Yellow inks. This happens because of the following reasons:

1)Gray areas (which are very typical in technical drawings) can now be printed by using only Gray ink. In the past, these areas had to be printed by combining Cyan, Magenta and Yellow inks. This means that Gray ink is used more frequently than the rest of the inks (C, M, Y) which are now used less frequently, so the difference in consumption is noticeable. However overall the T Series Printers will actually need to use in total less ink to print gray areas than previous Designjet products.

2)Soft colors can now be printed by combining C, M and Y inks with Gray. The addition of Gray ink softens the color, improving transition areas. It also allows printing soft colors by using less C, M and Y. These two types of contents are very typical and make the consumption of Gray to increase and the consumption of C, M and Y to decrease.

Conclusion

However, no matter the combination of inks that are used, when the total cc’s of ink are added up, the T Series Printers will always have a lower ink consumption than the HP Designjet 500, 800 and 1000 series for equivalent contents with equivalent levels of print quality.

Changing an Ink Cartridge

There are two occasions when you need to remove an ink cartridge:

„The ink cartridge is very low and you want to replace it with a full cartridge for unattended printing (you can use up the remaining ink in the first cartridge at a more convenient time).

„The ink cartridge is empty or faulty, and you must replace it to continue printing.

Do not try to remove an ink cartridge while printing. Remove an ink cartridge only if you are ready to insert another one.

Make sure the printer wheels are locked (the brake lever is pressed down) to prevent the printer from moving.

Change an ink cartridge using the following procedure:

HP Designjet T Series — Service Manual

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