Useful Information About Ink - Canon PIXMA MG5500 series Online Manual

Useful Information about Ink

How is ink used for various purposes other than printing?
Ink may be used for purposes other than printing.
When you use the Canon printer for the first time after you install the bundled ink tanks, the
printer consumes a small amount of ink in the amount to enable printing by filling the
nozzles of the Print Head with ink. For this reason, the number of sheets that can be printed
with the first ink tanks is fewer than the succeeding ink tanks.
The printing costs described in the brochures or websites are based on the consumption
data from not the first ink tank /ink cartridge but the succeeding ink tank /ink cartridge.
Ink is sometimes used to maintain the optimal printing quality.
To keep printer's performance, Canon printer performs cleaning automatically according to
its condition. When the printer performs cleaning, a small amount of ink is consumed. In this
case, all colors of ink may be consumed.
[Cleaning function]
The cleaning function helps the printer to suck air bubbles or ink itself from the nozzle and
thus prevents print quality degradation or nozzle clogging.
Does black-and-white printing use color ink?
Black-and-white printing may use ink other than black ink depending on the type of printing
paper or the settings of the printer driver. So, color ink is consumed even when printing in
black-and-white.
Why does the machine have two black ink tanks?
There are two kinds of black ink in the machine: dye ink (BK) and pigment ink (PGBK).
The dye ink is used mainly for printing photos, illustration, etc., and the pigment ink is used
for text-based documents. Each has different purposes so that even if one runs out, another
will not be used instead. If either of them runs out, the ink tank replacement is required.
These two inks are automatically used depending on the type of printing paper or the
settings of the printer driver. You cannot change the usage of these inks yourself.
The ink lamp indicates when ink is running low.
The inside of the ink tank consists of (A) the part where ink is preserved and (B) the sponge
with absorbed ink.
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