Most print quality problesm involving Epson inkjet printers can be minimized by simply following three simple guidelines:

1) Do not change or take out an Epson printer inkjet cartridge unless it is showing as EMPTY in the ink level indicator. Change only the cartridge which is shown as empty and not the other ones until they are also EMPTY (Empty means not low or half full...etc. but EMPTY). It can cause an air bubble to get in the ink line if the cartridge is taken out of the printer early. If an air bubble gets in the line it can cause the ink to not flow freely and therefore cause a print quality issue to occur.

2) If you ever have a print quality problem check to see first if there is a paper jam or something stuck in the paper path to keep printing to occur normally. If that is not a problem run the software "Print head cleaning utility" in the printer driver to clean the print heads and restore normal quality. You can learn more about this utility by looking in your printer manual but if you do not have that available you can just tell the printer to print a document and usually a small box comes up which we call the "properties" menu. Click on the box labeled as "properties" and a submenu will come up which usually will show "utilities" or a "maintenance" button you can click on to locate this utility. Run the print head cleaning utility until normal print quality is restored.

3) Once you change a cartridge at the appropriate time do not take it out again until it is empty or it may cause the air bubble to get in the line. Note: If you change the cartridge at the appropriate time (i.e. when EMPTY) it generally (always as far as we know) will restore the cartridge ink level indicator to full. Even if the cartridge you put in is empty it will cause the ink level indicator to go to full for that cartridge. Therefore, yet another reason to change the cartridge at the right time or you will be off cycle with the ink level indicator.

If for any reason the ink level indicators are not accurate or a major print quality issue occurs which cannot be restored by the above steps and 3-4 print head cleanings at most then you can try a full system recharge by:

1) Take out the cartridges which are not printing properly (you can print a nozzle check to see which colors are not printing properly - usually it is only one).

2) Turn off the printer and computer.

3) Turn the computer and printer back on without the cartridge or cartridges in the printer which are not printing properly.

4) Tell the printer to print something.

5) Change the cartridge then to get the air bubble out of the ink line, recharge the ink line with ink and restore the ink level indicator to accurate operation. After doing this check the print quality to see if it is restored and if not run the print head cleaining utility until ideal print quality is restored.