My printout is blurry or smeared. What should I do?

• If your printouts are blurry or smeared, try these solutions:

  • Make sure your paper is not damp, curled, old, or loaded incorrectly in your product.
  • Slide the edge guides to the edges of the paper.
  • Use a support sheet with special paper, or load special paper one sheet at a time.
  • Make sure your paper meets the specifications for your product.
  • Use Epson papers to ensure proper saturation and absorption of genuine Epson inks.
  • Make sure the paper type setting in your product software matches the type of paper you loaded.
  • Make sure you loaded the printable side of the paper correctly for your product.
  • If you are printing on thick paper or envelopes, make sure you select the appropriate settings. In Windows, you can also try selecting Short Grain Paper in Extended Settings.
  • When manually printing 2-sided, make sure the ink is completely dry before loading the paper.
  • Remove each sheet from the output tray as it is printed.
  • If you print on both sides of a sheet of paper, smudges may appear on the reverse side of heavily saturated or dark images. If one side of a sheet will contain a lighter image or text, print that side first. Adjust the density and/or ink drying time settings.
  • Run a nozzle check to see if any of the print head nozzles are clogged. Then clean the print head, if necessary.
  • Clean the paper path.
  • If you have not used the product for a long time, run the Power Cleaning utility.

    Note: Power Cleaning consumes a lot of ink, so run this utility only if you cannot improve print quality by cleaning the print head.

  Note: Your product will not operate properly while tilted at an angle. Place it on a flat, stable surface that extends beyond the base of the product in all directions.

  Related concepts
  Print Head Nozzle Check
  Related tasks
  Loading Paper for Documents and Photos
  Selecting Extended Settings - Windows
  Selecting Printing Preferences - Mac
  Cleaning the Paper Path
  Power Cleaning Using a Computer Utility
  Related references
  Paper Specifications
  Compatible Epson Papers