If there is only partial improvement, try running the process again another one or two times. Then you run a head clean and a nozzle check (maybe twice if necessary). In the morning, you take it out, cut another piece, put Windex on that, put it under the head and move the head over it for twenty or thirty seconds. In short, you cut to size a sheet of the superwipes, spray some Windex over it, put it under the printer head and leave overnight. Alternatively, you can use a commercial solution instead of the Windex. It involves Blue Windex and Chux Superwipes or paper towels. I have tried it and it worked for me but please note you try this entirely at your own risk. If the printer is not under warranty there is another procedure you may like to try. If you have a blockage and it doesn’t come good after say three head cleans, then further cleans will probably just deposit ink on the head and make it worse. It’s always better to use genuine Epson ink. Third party ink can also be the source of problems. So that my inks are more recent, I also now buy them singly as each runs out rather than a whole set at a time. I had a blockage last year that required an expensive replacement of the ink delivery system and I had cartridges that were five years out of date. I suspect two or three years past the use-by date is still OK. They will last longer than the use-by date but how long that might be is a matter of judgement and will depend on your printing conditions. You can get clogs if your inks are too old. I haven’t experienced this with subsequent printers and suspect that this is a problem of the past. If I waited until the ink ran out to replace a cartridge rather than replacing it at the first warning light, I could get air in the lines and need extensive purges. Some years ago, I experienced “clogging” due to air in the lines on an R800 printer. As a cheaper option, this is essentially the same as the old method of having a fan with a bowl of water underneath it.
My house has evaporative cooling but it doesn’t work so well in my study where the printer is so I also use a portable evaporative cooler. Try and have your printer in a cool humid environment. This makes ink dry more quickly and can lead to blockages. In Canberra we live in a climate that is hot and dry in summer.
Actually, Geoff Schewe suggests every week and using an image that uses more ink than the nozzle check pattern. Opinions vary on how often that should be but at least every month is probably a good starting point. It can happen if you don’t print for a while so you should periodically print or run a nozzle check. “Clogs” are usually build up of excess ink on the heads blocking nozzles. (You run both a nozzle check and a head clean through the printer driver). You should really run a nozzle check before each printing operation to avoid wasting expensive paper. Then you run a head clean and usually that solves the problem. You can tell if you have a “clog” if you run a nozzle check and there are broken lines. Now, they are usually very reliable but “clogs” still can happen. Up till around seven years ago, “clogging” could be a chronic problem with Epson printers. T he question remains whether they are committed to such powerful and easy to use products for the serious photographer or whether in future they will be focused on more superficial products for the mass market.
There appears to have been no updates since Google took it over and Google may not be prepared to maintain it for future operating system changes. The bad is it may have a limited life expectancy.
Silver Efex Pro in particular is an easy and powerful method of monochrome conversions.
The good is that it is a great product and if you do not have it you should download it and use whichever modules work for you. When Google took it over eighteen months ago, they reduced the price to $US150. I think I paid $US450 for it some years ago. This is a powerful yet easy to use suite including Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Vivesa, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine.
Google has announced that the Nik software suite is now free.