CompuServe Messages

John; I think I was clear on that, but not being positive…. The 550 has both black and color carts mounted at the same time. Thus is does not try to print black by mixing colors, a vast improvement when printing a color image that needs black. The 500 takes either cart but will not ask for the black cart when printing in color. For my own use, I just design whatever it is that I am printing so that the color work does not use much black and will not look bad (now that's an opinion for ya) if the black is not quite black. I switch drivers to do black only printing (and the printer will then ask to have the color cart replaced if it is still in the machine). As I said before, I use an HP-4M for the vast majority of my work but do not have any problem with running a little job through the DeskJet. It really is a very nice printer and particularly so for black and white stuff if you choose your paper with care. Indeed, I really have had trouble determining which was which a couple of times. It was actually necessary to get a magnifying glass to determine whether a particular page was printed on the DeskJet or a laser (not the HP-4M of course but another 300 dpi laser). It is my opinion that if you need to do high quality work, don't need real high throughput and either your originals do not need to be particularly durable or you can copy the originals on a very good quality copier then the DeskJet 500 will be an excellent choice. -bill