In today’s day and age, printers have become indispensable in work, school, and home settings. One of the best printer brands is HP. Although users don’t have much problem with its printing and scanning performance, sometimes issues like HP printer not printing color restrict them from carrying out their tasks. Common troubleshooting for it includes checking the level of ink cartridges, cleaning the printhead, and enabling the color printing setting. You can also update your HP printer driver to fix this issue. Keep reading to know how to make your HP printer print in color again.
Why Won’t My HP Printer Print in Color?
When the printer stops printing color, the reasons can range from simple to complex. Given below are some of the major problems you need to troubleshoot.
- Faulty or out-of-ink cartridges
- Unclean printheads
- The color option is not turned on in the settings.
- The printer driver has problems.
- HP printhead is not aligned.
Also Read: – HP Print And Scan Doctor
Steps to Fix HP Printer Not Printing Color
Don’t worry if your printer is not giving you print outputs as you desire. We’ll go over some basic to advanced fixes so you can eliminate this problem from the root.
1. Inspect the ink cartridge
If your HP printer’s cartridge is out of ink, you will naturally face this issue. Check the cartridges by following these points.
- Open the printer’s front cover.
- Next, remove the printer cartridge.
- Now check if the cartridge has expired. You can find the date on its package. If you hardly use color ink, the ink is bound to expire. This old ink causes the printer not to print properly.
- Purchase a new cartridge if it’s faulty or has passed its expiration date.
The process of installing a new ink cartridge in an HP printer
- Firstly, purchase cartridges compatible with your printer model.
- Load some sheets on the main tray of the printer.
- Remove the packaging from the ink cartridge.
- Do not touch the copper electrical contacts of the ink cartridge.
- Open the cartridge access door.
- Remove the ink cartridge that has expired.
- Shake the new replacement cartridge slowly for the ink particle to mix well.
- Match the color letter on the cartridge’s slot and the color dot present on the cartridge before you fit it in the slot.
- Place the black ink cartridge in the left carriage slot and the tricolor one into the right carriage slot.
- Place the cartridge into the slot slowly and move it till it snaps in the opening.
- Check that the cartridges are firmly fixed.
- Now shut the cartridge access door.
- Go to the HP Solution Center software and to ‘Settings.’
- Now choose the ‘Printer Toolbox’ option.
- Click ‘Align the Print Cartridge‘ followed by ‘Align.’
2. Clean the Printhead
Printhead cleaning is widely recommended to those who complain that ‘my HP printer won’t print in color.’ Printhead functions to inject ink on the paper and so is an integral part of the printer. You can easily clean the printhead automatically through a built-in cleaning tool. Follow these points to clean your HP printhead.
- Navigate to the ‘Start‘ icon and choose ‘Control Panel.’
- Now, tap ‘Devices and Printers.’
- Tap ‘Print server properties’ in the window that appears.
- Right-tap on the icon of your HP printer and click ‘Printer Properties.’
- In the new window, select ‘Hardware‘ followed by tapping the ‘Clean ink’ button.
- To confirm your action, tap ‘OK.’
3. Enable the color option
You must check whether the color option is enabled if your HP printer isn’t printing in color. To check and turn this option on, follow these steps.
- Select ‘Settings‘ from the ‘Start‘ menu.
- Now, tap ‘Devices.’
- Right-tap on your printer and select ‘Properties.’
- On the ‘Properties’ page, tap ‘Printing Preferences.’
- Navigate to the tab of ‘Paper/Quality‘ and click ‘Color.’
- Tap ‘OK‘ and close the window.
4. Update the driver
Is your HP printer driver updated? If not, HP won’t print in color. So, suppose you find yourself regularly asking why your HP printer is not printing black ink. In that case, the answer may lie in an obsolete driver. Update it by following these steps.
- Open the ‘Run‘ dialog box.
- Input ‘devmgmt.msc’ on it.
- On the ‘Device Management’ window, tap the arrow to increase the size of the ‘Print Queue’ category.
- Right-tap on a specific printer in this category.
- Now opt for the ‘Change Driver’ option.
- Choose ‘Search‘ to find the updated driver.
- You will know when the driver is updated when the message ‘The best driver software for your device is already installed’ is on the screen.
- Now restart your computer so the changes can be applied.
5. Align the Printhead
It is essential to align the printhead of the HP printer to find quality output. Many users who see that their HP printer won’t print in color have not aligned the printer’s printhead. If your printer is not printing black, you must try to align the printhead and see if the problem resolves.
- Load some plain paper into the tray.
- Now adjust the document till the width guide touches the document’s edge.
- Head to ‘Control Panel’ and open the ‘Printers Maintenance’ menu.
- Select the ‘Align Printhead’ option.
- You should adhere to the instructions on the alignment page in case you have a scanner in your printer.
- Now restart your printer and print a document.
6. Fix HP printer printing black and white instead of color
If you find that your HP printer won’t print in color but only in black and white, you might need to replace the photo or color cartridge. Purchase the requisite color cartridge and follow these steps.
- Remove the existing cartridge.
- Take away the tape from the new cartridge nozzle and insert it into the carriage.
- Now, close the latch and printer door and take a test print.
- You can also check the print settings. Go to the software application you use to print and tap the ‘File‘ menu.
- Tap’ Print.’ Ensure that the name of your HP printer displays in the print dialog box.
- Tap’ Properties‘ to open its dialog box. Check the options on this tab to ensure that you have chosen the relevant color options.
- If you notice a checkmark besides ‘Print in grayscale’ tap this box to clear the checkmark.
- Click ‘OK‘ and print again.
7. Use appropriate paper
Are you wondering, “Why won’t my HP print in color even though it has ink”? Well, you may be using the wrong paper for the print job. If you are using the right paper, you must not have loaded it properly. Follow these steps to check the document you are using.
- Use only wrinkle-free and clean paper.
- Load the paper in a way that the print part is down in the input tray. The side with the logo of the paper manufacturer is the non-print side.
- Use the right paper type. For usual text documents, paper with ColorLok technology works well. If you want to print papers with dense printing like high-contrast photos, use HP Advanced Photo Paper.
8. Fix HP printer not printing cyan even with a new cartridge
Many HP printer users have complained of HP printer not printing color cyan even after they put in a new ink cartridge. This issue arises because of the printhead for the cyan ink being clogged and an unclean cartridge chip. Here are the measures you should take to fix this problem.
- Head over to ‘Control Panel.’
- Now double-click ‘Devices and Printers.’
- Right-tap your printer’s icon and select ‘Printing Preferences.’
- Find the tab for cleaning under ‘Maintenance.’
- Tap’ Nozzle Check‘ to commence the cleaning process.
- Now check the print quality.
- If the problem doesn’t resolve, open the device’s top cover.
- Allow the carriage to shift to the right and become static.
- Uninstall the cartridge.
- Using a damp issue, clean the copper chip. Let it dry.
Wrapping up
This article has provided detailed solutions to the HP printer not printing color problem. You must now be significantly familiar with why your printer behaves in this manner and how to resolve it. If you need more support fixing the problem or have some additional queries, connect with expert printer technical support services. The experts are available 24/7 to troubleshoot your printer concerns quickly and effectively.