In short – don’t use it unless a tech suggests it. Why? Because if the Normal & Medium don’t show improvement – the Powerful won’t as well – and it wastes ink and possibly does harm to the head. But be aware – a well tuned machine will not need any of this – so any cleanings you do are a stop gap until a technician can come in and tune the machine up.Īs a last comment: the Powerful Clean is mostly useless for users unless a technician suggests it. If there is a great deal of dropout you might try a Medium Clean. If you do have some dropout – a Normal Clean should show improvement each time. A test print that has dropout regularly can inform you that it may be time for a Preventive Maintenance – and specifically time to replace the cap tops that help keep the ink filled into the heads. If you regularly print a test print you will also see the condition of your machine. The Test print prints the head twice – so the gap inbetween the two printings is showing the feed calibration is a bit wide (where the knockout in the middle on the black is also showing.) This is a two head SP machine – and we can tell this from the test print as well. The test print at the left shows the Magenta with one nozzle knockout and the black channel showing deflection. Consider the “test print” the heartbeat of the machine. In short, a test print usually shows us not only what the problem is, but what we need to suggest to correct the issue. We can also see if the feed calibration is tight or weak (not usually related to printing problems.) What do we see? We can see lost nozzle firings (knockout ) we can see crooked nozzle firings (deflection ) and we can also see some wavyness that may indicate an electronically spent head.

Take a picture of that and send it off to us. How do you print a test print? On most newer machines you use the FUNCTION button – FUNCTION-CLEANING-TEST PRINT.

The test print shows us the condition of the nozzles and much more. And – a real “test print” will show us what we really need to see. This has the same problems as your job print. A test print is not the “Test Print” in VersaWorks. A test print is not a picture of your job showing… Often these pictures are not clear enough to see the problem and we have no idea what the file is supposed to look like anyway. If you have ever called us for service you will always be met with, “Send us a picture of your test print and we will get back to you.” What is a “test print” and why do we insist on seeing one before we continue?įirst and foremost – what a “test print” is NOT.

Black test print