I believe you have a color printer that is out of one or more colors. Some of the color printers just have 3 colors and get black by mixing colors (more expensive than just having a black ink cartridge but it works without changing cartridges. When the ink runs low it prints only with one or two colors at first and eventually only with one color or none at all. suggest you change ink cartridges or refill or get a pure black cartridge. I like pure black as they are easy to fill and much cheaper than color. Charles Severs