Canon PIXMA Inkjet Printers: Print using Pigment Black cartridge only

Fairly recently I bought a Canon PIXMA MG5320 all-in-one unit.  Like most (if not all) current PIXMA printers, it includes a "Pigment Black" cartridge (which contains pigment ink) in addition to the "Photo Black" cartridge (which contains dye ink).  Unfortunately, printing a document or photo using only the Pigment Black cartridge is not intuitively obvious using the driver settings, and Canon's documentation is poor on this subject.

After a lot of searching and finding a couple of random old forum posts on much older PIXMA, as well as some testing of my own, I think I've figured it out :)  Read on...

Background

Pigment ink is like laser printer or photocopier toner, suspended in a liquid for printing with an inkjet printer.  The main advantages to printing using pigment ink vs. the standard photo black ink are:

• The pigment ink renders a relatively "truer" black (the difference on a freshly-printed document is subtle, but if you compare a pigment-printed document or photo to a dye-printed document or photo under a bright light, you can see the difference).  Note, however, that you can't mix the pigment black with dye colours in a colour print out - the print driver won't let you, and the pigment and dye wouldn't mix properly on the page anyway.  Pigment Black printing is for black and white only printing.
• As per Canon's documentation the pigment ink is designed to be more UV-resistant, which means (at least in theory) a document or photo printed using pigment ink will last longer and won't fade as quickly as one printed with photo black ink (although with Canon's ChromaLife dye inks this point may be negligible in one's lifetime as they suggest the current dye inks should last 100 years).
• The Pigment Black cartridge is larger than the photo black cartridge, so if you can guarantee you are printing using only the Pigment Black cartridge, you will get more life out of the Photo Black cartridge.

The Problem

Ostensibly Canon intended black and white documents to be printed using the Pigment Black cartridge.  However, if you don't select all of the correct options in the print driver, even with an all-black text document it will still print using the Photo Black cartridge.  This seems to be defeat the purpose of having a Pigment Black cartridge.

 

How to Print a 1-Page Document or Photo Using Only Pigment Black

So, what printer driver options do you need to have selected or deselected for proper printing with Pigment Black ink only?  For a simple 1-page document or photo, you need the following options.  To set these options, you need to get to the print properties page.  For example, in Adobe Reader XI these would be set by clicking on File > Print, and click the "Properties" button.  In Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, these would be set by clicking on File > Print, click the "More Options" button, then select "Color Management", then click the "Printer Preferences" button:

• Under "Commonly Used Profiles", click on the "Standard" profile (it may work with other profiles as well, but I haven't tested them).
• Make sure "Duplex" is NOT selected
• Select "Grayscale"
• Under "Media Type", select "Plain Paper" (it doesn't matter what kind of paper you're actually printing on, select "Plain Paper" regardless)
• Under "Print Quality", select "High"

That's it - click OK.  Click "Print" in your application.  (Of course, you can also select your desired tray to print from and the paper size in the printer properties as well - that's up to you and whatever you require for your specific application.)
 

How to Print a Multi-Page Document on Both Sides of the Paper (Duplex) Using Pigment Black Only

As above, you need to have automatic duplexing disabled for the printer to print using Pigment Black only (a post I found indicates Canon may have been concerned the Pigment Black ink would stick to the rollers and make a mess - it's possible, I don't know if that's actually true or not).

So, if automatic duplexing needs to be disabled, how do print on both sides of the paper?  The answer is, you need to do it manually (sometimes referred to as "manual duplexing").  How do you do this specifically?  Here is how I've done it with my printer (MG5320) and Adobe Reader XI.  You can extrapolate for use with other applications - the process will be similar.  Once you have your document, set the printer properties as above with the 1-page option and click "OK".  Back at the main print dialog screen, configure the print job as follows:

1. In the "Pages to Print" section, expand "More Options", select "Odd Pages Only" from the drop-down menu.  Also select "Reverse pages".
2. Click "Print".
3. After all the pages have printed on 1 side:
1. Re-insert the printed pages into the paper tray as follows:
• face up
• in the same page order as the printer ends up with (ex, pick up the printed pages, put them back into the paper tray, do not re-sort them at all)
• with the top of the pages to the back of the printer
2. At the print dialog screen (File > Print), in the "Pages to Print" section, expand "More Options", select "Even Pages Only" from the drop-down menu.  Also DE-SELECT "Reverse pages".
3. Verify the print properties haven't changed - click "Properties", verify "Grayscale" is selected, "Duplex" is de-selected, "Print Quality" is set to "High", and "Media Type" is set to "Plain Paper".
4. Click "OK", then "Print".

Paper Notes for Duplex Printing

The standard multi-use paper in North America is weighted at 20 lbs.  I have found this may not be heavy enough for duplex printing - some bleed-through is visible with the Pigment Black ink.  I haven't tested heavier papers extensively, but it seems 28 lb-paper is less of a problem.

Hope this helps :)