monochrome color instead of greyscale

[droid]

We are trying to print 40-1 inch square greyscale images on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper. But our printers - a HP Deskjet F300 and a HP Deskjet 882C - fail to print most of the images in greyscale.

The first row of 5 images and about 80% of the second row print correctly in greyscale. But the botton portion of the second row and the other 6 rows are rendered in a monochromatic reddish brown.

Of course we have "Print in Greyscale" checked in Printer Properties. We have also tried removing the color cartridge, but this produces greyscale images that are too light.

The file was taken from a MAC computer and we are printing it from Windows XP. We get the same results if the file is in the original AI (Adobe Illustrator) format or a JPEG.

[cs_steve]

If removing the color cartridge causes the print to be too light, then the printers are not truly printing greyscale ... they may be attempting to "imitate greyscale" by mixing the black & color cartridges ...

Is it only this particular file that does not print greyscale accurately?
If you open up another image and print it in greyscale, does it come out fine?

That way you at least know whether you're dealing with a file problem or a greyscale problem ...

If the greyscale feature works fine when printing other files, then you might want to redownload/reinstall the drivers for these printers ... or (wild guess) the file might be "too complicated" for these printers to render in greyscale (40 images on a single page?) ...

[droid]

Is it only this particular file that does not print greyscale accurately?
If you open up another image and print it in greyscale, does it come out fine?

No - at least the F380 seems to do it whenever attempting greyscale - be it an actual
greyscale image or a color image with "Print in Greyscale" checked in Printer Properties.

It always prints about the first 7% of the image in greyscale and the remainder in shades
of pink and brown monochrome.

[cs_steve]

Here's a trick that may work: Convert the image to greyscale in your photo editing software, THEN print the image... instead of printing the image in greyscale ...

[droid]

Here's a trick that may work: Convert the image to greyscale in your photo editing software, THEN print the image... instead of printing the image in greyscale ...
I tried your suggestion but there was no change. Then I printed a color image - in color - with an expanse of grey in it and - even though the other colors looked right - the grey area was rendered in monochrome! So I replaced the color cartridge and voila! - greyscale now prints properly.

Hope others find this useful. Thanks for your help, cs_steve!