Printer won’t print black? Read the nozzle check’s black band

1. If the nozzle check is missing black

Print the nozzle check from the printer's own maintenance menu rather than from a document, and look only at the black band. A black section with gaps, broken lines or nothing at all means the black nozzles are clogged, and head cleaning is the correct response — this is the case where cleaning actually helps.

Clean, then print another nozzle check and compare the two patterns rather than comparing documents. Improvement between cycles means keep going. Epson's guidance sets the endpoint clearly: if the nozzle check is not printing completely and head cleanings do not help the pattern print completely, try replacing the ink cartridge. Cleaning a channel that is empty rather than blocked will never work.

Black clogs more readily than colour on many printers because black is used most and, on pigment-based models, dries harder. If the printer has been unused for months, an overnight rest before a further cleaning cycle is worth more than another immediate clean — dried ink softens, and a channel that resisted three cycles often clears on the first attempt the next day.

Some printers have two blacks — a pigment black for plain paper and a photo black for glossy. A missing band on one of them explains black failing on one paper type while working on another.

2. If the nozzle check is fine, it is the driver

A perfect nozzle check and black-free documents means the hardware is working and something is telling it not to use black. Epson names the cause directly: the Ink option in the printer driver may be set incorrectly, or a setting in the software may be forcing a particular ink. Open the printer's preferences from the print dialog and look for an ink or colour option before changing anything else.

Canon exposes this as an explicit feature rather than a fault. It publishes instructions for printing with black or colour ink only, and a machine left in colour-only mode after someone used it deliberately will keep excluding black indefinitely. That setting can live in the driver, in a printer utility, or occasionally in the application itself, which is why it survives a driver reinstall.

Check the application as well as the driver. Word processors, PDF readers and image editors each have their own colour and grayscale options that override the driver for that job, and a document set to print in colour on a printer that is out of colour will behave differently from the same document set to grayscale. Test by printing the same page from a different application — if one works and the other does not, the setting is in the app.

3. An empty colour cartridge can stop black

This is the cause that produces the most frustration, because it makes no intuitive sense: a printer with a full black cartridge refuses to print black text because a colour cartridge is empty. Epson publishes a page on why colour ink cartridges are needed even when printing in black only, and the underlying reason is that the printer uses ink from every cartridge for maintenance operations, and on some models composites its black from colours.

The practical consequence is that replacing the empty colour cartridge is the fix, even though you have no intention of printing anything in colour. Many printers simply refuse to print at all in this state, and the message they show is often about the colour cartridge rather than about black, so people do not connect the two.

Some printers offer a black-only or forced-black mode that lets you keep printing with an expended colour cartridge, and where it exists it is worth knowing about. Canon documents printing with black ink only as a supported option on many models. It is a stopgap rather than a fix, and print quality on plain paper is usually unaffected.

This is also why a colour cartridge empties even if you only ever print black documents. It is being consumed by head maintenance rather than by your pages.

4. Black that prints, but grey or muddy

Black that appears as dark grey, brown or slightly green is composite black — the printer mixing cyan, magenta and yellow instead of using the black cartridge. That happens when the driver is set to use colour ink only, when the black channel is clogged and the printer is compensating, or on photo settings where composite black is deliberate for smoother gradients.

Check the paper type setting, because it changes which black the printer uses. A printer told it is printing on glossy photo paper may select photo black or a composite; the same document on plain paper uses pigment black and comes out properly dense. A media setting left on photo from a previous job is a common cause of text that suddenly looks washed out.

If the black band on the nozzle check is complete and text still looks grey, work through the driver's colour management and quality settings. Draft or economy modes deliberately lay down less ink, and one left enabled from an earlier job produces exactly this — faint, greyish text on a printer with nothing wrong with it.

5. Laser printers fail differently

None of the nozzle logic applies to a laser printer, which has no nozzles to clog. A laser that will not print black on a colour machine is usually the black toner cartridge itself — empty, not seated, or with its shipping seal still in place on a newly fitted one.

Remove the black cartridge and check for the plastic seal strip, then rock it gently side to side to redistribute settled toner and refit it. A cartridge that is low rather than empty often produces several hundred more pages after redistribution, which is worth knowing before buying a replacement.

If the seal is out and the cartridge is not empty, the black drum unit is the next suspect on machines with separate drums per colour. Colour lasers usually have four, and a failed black drum produces exactly this symptom while the other three colours print normally.

6. When to replace, and what to tell support

The endpoint for a clogged black channel is the same as for any other: cleaning that has not improved the nozzle check across two or three cycles, plus an overnight rest, means a hard clog or a failed channel rather than a soft blockage. Epson's own guidance at that point is to replace the cartridge, and if a new cartridge does not restore the black band the print head itself is the problem.

Use genuine cartridges while diagnosing, at least as a test. Epson's guidance names using a genuine cartridge with the white label and warns that one without it may damage the printer. Whatever your view on aftermarket ink generally, a refilled or third-party black cartridge that will not prime is a common cause of exactly this fault, and fitting a known-good original settles it quickly.

When you contact support, lead with the nozzle check. Say whether the black band prints and whether it improved between cleaning cycles, whether the driver's ink option is set to colour only, whether any colour cartridge is empty, whether the same document prints black from a different application, and whether the cartridges are genuine. Those five answers separate a clog from a driver setting from an empty colour cartridge from a failed head.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and review notes

Checked on September 8, 2026. Compiled by Glitchary from Epson and Canon support documentation. Driver options, nozzle check patterns and black-ink-only settings vary by printer model and manufacturer — check the manual for yours. Guidance on laser toner and drum units reflects general practice rather than a single vendor’s documentation. Glitchary is independent of Epson, Canon and the other manufacturers named here.

• Epson: my printouts are missing colour and/or black print
• Epson: printouts missing colour or black print (Stylus series)
• Epson: why do I need colour ink cartridges when I print in black only?
• Epson: the colour ink cartridge is expended even though I print in black only
• Epson: incorrect colours
• Canon: print with black or colour ink only (Windows)
• Canon: how do I print with black or colour ink only?