By ARTHUR H. BLEICH No matter how great your images may look after you shoot and edit them, all may be lost if your inkjet printer isn't in shape to output them accurately. Here’s how to make sure that it always is. If you begin to experience blots of ink, blurry lines, streaking and smudges, they are most timely to be caused by problems with your printer’s ink delivery system. This can usually be fixed by running the printer’s cleaning routine. Although this function may be automatically run from time to time by the printer itself, it sometimes needs to be initiated by the user, especially if the printer has been idle for more than a week. BLOCKED NOZZLES CAUSE MOST PROBLEMS Uneven results can be due to ink drying in the printhead nozzles through the ink is squirted onto the paper. Some printer manufacturers have attempted to minimize this by incorporating Teflon coatings into their print heads but here’s a time-tested way to avoid having to deal with this problem. Make it a habit to use your printer at least once a week. This is especially important if you live in a dry environment such as wintertime in a cold climate or in a warmer environment where air conditioning is usually running all the time to keep humidity low. If problems persist, start troubleshooting by printing a nozzle check using plain paper. The results will show if there is any blockage in the printhead nozzles that are preventing an even distribution of the ink. If there are gaps in the lines that are printed out, run a cleaning cycle which will attempt to dissolve any dried up ink blocking a clear flow. Then do another nozzle check to see if there’s an improvement. Bear in mind that cleaning cycles use ink to dissolve the blockage so if you can't clear things up after three cycles, let the printer rest a few hours or even overnight to give the dried-up ink time to soften. Then do another nozzle check to see if they are all firing. A perfect nozzle check pattern for a four-color printer shows no gaps in the lines for each color. You may find that after a cleaning, your nozzle check shows most nozzles now working perfectly except for one or two. Instead of running continuous cleaning cycles (which use a lot of ink) print a purge color or colors just for those nozzles that are still blocked. These are available for free download for different printer models and include colors for each ink cartridge your printer uses (See Resources below). Make sure to use the quality setting on your printer that you normally use when printing images. In most cases, a couple of cleaning cycles and, if necessary, printing some purge colors are are all you need to restore your printer’s capability to print well. SOME BLOCKAGES MAY REQUIRE STRONGER MEASURES However, in some stubborn cases, following the steps above may still not give you a satisfactory nozzle pattern . Before you take your printer in for a possibly costly repair, there are still a couple of other remedies available. Both require that the printhead be able to be freely moved by hand. However, your printer is turned off using its power button, it becomes locked in place to one side. To allow it to move freely along its track, turn the printer on and then remove its plug from the electrical outlet. TO CLEAN THE PRINTHEAD MANUALLY , dampen a few thicknesses of paper towel with a commercial printhead cleaning solvent (see Resources below) or make up your own solution by mixing a 50-50 solution of isopropyl alcohol and distilled water. Place the towel pack on the printhead rail and slowly slide the printhead over it, leaving it in place for the solvent to dissolve the caked up ink. After a few minutes, you can move the printhead gently from side to side before sliding it off the toweling. If the toweling is heavily caked with ink, you can repeat the process with fresh towel pack. Then run a nozzle check. Commercial printhead cleaneers are available if you don't want to mix your own and most work quite well. TO FLUSH THE NOZZLES DIRECTLY , place dry paper toweling under the printhead as explained previously. Then remove each ink cartridge from the printer and give the now-exposed opening on the printer (where inks would normally flow from the cartridge to the printhead) an injection of liquid cleaner. A commercial printhead cleaners usually come with an injection syringe. Then replace the cartridge and repeat the process for all the other cartridges. By the way, modern cartridges have chips that "marry" to the printer, keeping track of ink levels even when removed and then inserted again so that function will usually not be affected. When you’ve finished, run a couple of cleaning cycles to re-fill the printhead with ink, and follow that with a nozzle check. OTHER ISSUES THAT CAN CAUSE BAD PRINTS You may also want to perform a few other easy, routine maintenance procedures because print output can be degraded by dust and other debris that can build up in the printer and on its paper path. A mini-vacuum or canned air can quickly clear it out. Paper rollers may also need a cleaning as there might be some build-up on them. You can do this by hand with a lint-free cloth and alcohol but it’s simpler to order a package of roller-cleaning paper from Red River Paper and run a few sheets through the printer from time to time. (see Resources Below) There may come a time when you turn your printer on and it will not allow you to print. The first thing to do is check your cable connections. I once had a problem with a printer that seemed unsolvable until I realized the family cat had been playing with the USB cable that ran from the printer to the computer and had loosened it just enough to make the connection unstable which caused the printer work sometimes and not at others. In most cases the preventive maintenance procedures we’ve discussed will keep your printer humming along. But if you need to clear a bad paper jam and can’t get to all of it, you’ll probably have to get some professional help. Likewise if your strange clicking or grinding noises, it’s best not to tackle these unless you have the skill to do it. However, most Inkjet printers are made quite well and usually do not have serious mechanical issues; most problems are can be prevented by doing the easy periodic maintenance we’ve discussed. If you make it a habit to do that regularly, every print you output will shine. RESOURCES : The site below offers free color purge test images for your printer, printhead cleaning kits and excellent vodeo tutorials that will guide you through various maintenance procedures. https://www.marruttusa.com/printer-maintenance/inkjet-printe... Red River Paper Roller Cleaning Sheets https://www.redrivercatalog.com/accessories/inkjet-printer-c...