Hp designjet 500 (42'')

the answer to your question is yes,it can still print with only one cartridge installed.
If you do not have a replacement cartridge, and the quality of your printouts is not a concern, you can still print in ink-backup mode. Consider the following guidelines before printing in ink-backup mode:

• If you remove the tri-color cartridge, printouts will be in grayscale.
• If you remove the black or photo cartridge, the product will print more slowly and the colors in the printouts will vary.
  press OK button to clear the error message like cartridge missing after removing one cartridge.
  
  

Black printer ink in HP Printer may fail to be recognized by the printer. Most times an error message will be sent indicating that something is wrong with the black print cartridge. Sometimes the printer may accept to print with the black ink, but the printouts may have horizontal lines and very illegible letters. In such a case a manual cleaning of the print head should be carried out. In doing the manual cleaning, one should spray Windex heavily on paper towel and wipe off the surface of the print head.

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-40171-printer-not-printing-black

That happens if you put photo cyan where the plain cyan ink should be, also photo magenta is too weak to be used in the magenta slot. I've also seen generic inks that weren't the right colors.

YOU NEED TO REMOVE THE CARTRAGES AND THEN UNPLUG THE PRINTER. CLEAN THE INSIDE WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL AND SOME Q-TIPS.YOU HAVE EXCESS INK ON THE INSIDE OF PRINTER. THIS IS WHY IT IS GETTING ON THE BACK SIDE OF YOUR PAPER. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU.

green is a combination of Yellow and Cyan, it is possible that you are missing magenta, depends on the file you are trying to print, if you can print one of each color this time print only magenta it would be helpful to isolate w/c is w/c from there you can find out what is the problem

hope this helps

did you do a clean cartridge and re alignment first?

http://tinyurl.com/6qcpgy

Your question is not clear.

Please give some configuration info. e.g

Operating system?

Explorer Version?

You could be set in draft mode in your printers properties, or, you could be using ECONO Mode.

Sometimes People use PCL Fonts for their printers, and other use PS Fonts. PCL is the typical font type. PS is post script, which Adobe type fonts are used.
If you are set to PS Fonts using MS Word, you might try PCL Font types instead.

Maybe an obvious answer, but have you cleaned the print heads several times? You can also remove the cartridges, remove the entire print head and clean it with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip.

Try cleaning your ink nozzles or ink jets. It sounds like you have a plugged nozzle or two. Your printer program should have maintenance options that allow you to test for plugged nozzles and clean them.

In control panel, open the printing/fax icon, right click on your printers icon, left click properties, then on the bottom of the page the panel that opens you will see a button that says printing preferences, and that should open your print program.

This will work for all printers, not just hp.