• One factor that will affect your color ink consumption is the cleaning cycles of the machine. The machine is designed to automatically flush and clean ALL of the ink jet nozzles on a programmed schedule. A periodical cleaning of all the ink cartridges occurs approximately every twenty days. During the cleaning process, the machine draws out a small amount of ink to remove air bubbles from the cartridge and to remove dust and dried ink from the ink nozzles and channels. This not only ensures premium print quality but also ensures the life of the print head. Because of the ink jet technology, this process is common to all ink jet machines.

• Another factor that could be affecting your color ink consumption is the amount of printing from a computer, even if the print jobs are black only. Because this machine offers full color printing, the default setting in the print driver is COLOR. This means the machine will automatically mix ALL the colors to produce a selected color, even black. If you would like to print from the computer using the black ink only, change the printing preferences to GRAY SCALE. To check it, follow the steps below:
  
  For Windows® users:
  
  
  1. Windows® 95/ 98/ 98SE/ Me/ NT/ 2000 users:
     Click Start, Settings, Printers.
     
     Windows® XP users:
     Click Start, Printers and Faxes.
     
     
  2. Select Properties.
     Windows® 95/ 98/ 98SE/ Me/ NT users:
     Open Advanced tab.
     
     Windows® 2000/ XP users:
     Click on the Printing Preference button and then open Advanced tab.
     
     
  3. Select Grayscale at the Color/Grayscale section.
     Windows® 2000/ XP users:
     Click OK.
     
     
  4. Click OK.

(Screen layout varies by model and O/S)

1. From application software, click the File menu and select Print.
   
2. Select Grayscale at the Color/Grayscale section.
   

For Mac OS® 9:

• One more thing that could be affecting your colour ink consumption is the number of faxes your machine is receiving. Even if the received fax is black only, your machine prints the fax with black, cyan and magenta ink to improve the reliability of fax message reception. For example, in case the machine has trouble with black ink, you will still be able to read the fax.