@nixCraft@mastodon.socialspeaking of printers. credit https://www.instagram.com/system32comics/
@nixCraft My printer did this to me last week. And I was out of cyan cartridges. 
@nixCraft This is funny, but not so much irl.
@nixCraft But it needs cyan to make the black ink darker!
@loadhigh This brings back a memory. when I was broke, I bought an old HP Inkjet in early 2000s. I really didn't pay attention at first, I got it used and it came without the cartridges, so I bought some and just printed black and white documents on it.
Much to my surprise it ran out of all colors pretty quickly. It was only then I realized it did not have black at all. It made it from the colors it had. Explained the kinda faded look it had.
@aamurusko79 That's just terrible. So it can print black & white without a B&W cartridge but not without a color one.
@loadhigh Yeah, leave it to HP to invent something like that.
@loadhigh @aamurusko79 I had an Epson inkjet years ago (it had a nice feature where it could print on CDs and DVDs), and unless you went into settings, it would mix grey shades from CMY instead of using black.
@jernej__s They knew what they were doing.
A technically unsavvy consumer is always at the business end of corporate scamming.
@aamurusko79 @loadhigh Very, Very old Joke: HP=HighPrices, generated second half 70ties(around).
@nixCraft I feel like this comic existed for half my life and is still just as accurate as the day it was created (except that subscription models have made some printer services arguably worse)
@nixCraft I love how we're desperately concerned about mars, the metaverse and AI but we still can't make basic video meetings and printers work
@ElectroFetish
I haven't followed the project, but as an former printer service technician (thats how I started) I think there are a lot of stone old Xerox, IBM, HP,... patents and THEY are just waiting to sue someone ^^ 
@nixCraft another thing that's very broken today.
Is there a Bugzilla for world problems? How can we submit this as a bug report for printer makers globally?
@khleedril @nixCraft I'm glad you are onboard with the idea :)
@khleedril @nixCraft if I recall right this is @stevoooo@emacs.ch 'sidea. Not mine.
@nixCraft So many times. I’m always grateful for having bought the Epson with the tank system.
@nixCraft you know... Theres all These smart Tech people, talking about netcode and Linux and such. I Wonder why there isnt a bigger Community all around hijacking printers so they finally fucking Work without greedy Firmware inside makeing you buy ink.
So strange that inkjet printers are still so popular in some parts of the world.
@nixCraft
I also love my HP multipurpose device that refuses to scan when low on ink.
@nixCraft This is why I never use color printers.
@britishtechguru @nixCraft Sadly, it's getting hard to find non-color inkjet printers.
@Dervishpi @nixCraft Inkjet, sure. Who says you're stuck with inkjet? Citizen still makes a dot matrix printer and I might be after one of those. Laserjet printers are pretty good value too.
@nixCraft That's why I switched to simple laser Brother 13 years ago. Great quality, no fake issues :p
@nixCraft the tracking dots must always be printed
@nixCraft
Printers are the less cooperative peripherals ever. I've been cursing them left and right since the '80s. Including when fixing printer issues made me money ;) They're EVIL!
I intentionally don't have a printer.
I only need to print 3-4 times a year. I put my stuff on a thumb drive and take it to FedEx where I pay a pittance.
I keep my desk space.
I let FedEx handle the costs and frustrations of maintainer printers.
@nixCraft Thats why I have a B/W printer.
@nixCraft You should never have dropped my Citizen120d in the trash bean
@nixCraft
That's why I only have a black and white laser printer, problem solved.
@nixCraft "I can't make black and white without cyan, are you some kind of dumbass?"
@nixCraft yeaaaa...
@nixCraft because preparing the document for printing is a thing. If unprepared, blacks are printed by combining cyan, magenta and yellow inks. If cyan is missing, red will be printed instead.
@nixCraft Yup...
@nixCraft This near-exact experience (mine was out of magenta) was what drove me to purchases a black and white grayscale laser printer. The decision was like 45% spite--it was practical, too, but man that was a frustrating experience.
@nixCraft printers are hellspawn with the only purpose of making sys admins miserable, but at the same time they are insanely cool, especially inkjet models. The precision, speed and control over materials they have is astonishing
@nixCraft I see that someone else had an Epson printer.
@nixCraft
alternate:
"hey multi-function printer, can you please scan this document?"
"Low on Cyan"
"Don't worry, it's just a scan"
"No fuck you, low on Cyan"
@nixCraft The funny thing is.... modern printers dont do this
has moved 
@nixCraft So, an HP printer, then. 
@nixCraft And that's why I have a laser printer now.
@nixCraft also
Printer: low on cartridge
Me: how much can you print before you won’t work?
Printer: 1000 pages
Me: why you low then?!
@nixCraft So what I do might help people , Without a printer conected you can select "print to pdf" then you can change setting before it goes to the printer to take out all the greys.
Im also stubornly holding onto a printer where even if they stop making the black cartridges you can just refill the cartridge yourself. Good luck every one.