Canon IP4700 and monochrome printing

[The Matt]

Stop me if I am going wrong at any point here.
I'm told the reason my monochrome prints have magenta and turquoise colour casts to parts of them is that my printer uses a mixture of coloured inks to get a fuller range of tones rather than the hundred or so it could get out of the black cartridge alone. My brother (who works in graphic design and would never use anything so pedestrian as the ip4700) tells me the way he'd sort out the cast is with an additional grey ink, allowing a greater range of tones to be produced. Is this the best way to do it?

7day shop have a grey ink cartridge that says its compatible with my printer but I don't see a slot marked for it in the printer, or any mention of it in the manual. Can I use one of these? Should I? if so, how?

Confusedly yours,
Matt

 

[greylensman]

hi matt i have a canon 6700d printer in the printing options have you ticked the box for greyscale printing only for black and white have not noticed a cast when i use this option

 

[The Matt]

I think so, but shall try it to make sure. Thanks.

 

[POAH]

if you want to try a profile let me know

 

[The Matt]

Monochrome mode still leaves a general purple hue with some turquoise. Examining a colour print closely there's actually the samne problem there. Hmm... I will have to try to find an idiots guide to colour profiles & correction...

 

[phototuition]

I think the only way to achieve a bromide quality mon print is by using 3 shades of neutral ink as used by some of the a3plus printers.

I've looked into a4 options and there appear to be none currently available.
The old HP 7760 series that uses the HP59 cartridge is still available used and we currently have one set up for B/w only. It produces fab images on Ilford classic pearl paper (black box).

As the printhead is in the cartridge there's little risk in buying this old printer, there are possibly newer but not current models that use the HP100 3 shades of grey cart.

Another way around casts is actually to create a strong cast that you like, typically sepia (red plus yellow) this prints v well with CYMK inks.
John