# Epson Printers printing black spot



## eleeaspire (Nov 3, 2014)

I have Epson c88+ printer and Artisan 1430 printer. Whenever, I print out my artwork onto sublimation paper, the result would have black spots on the top edge of the paper or in the middle of my artwork for sublimation to the heating press. I get this issues since when I had a few paper jams. I never had a problem with printing from non sublimation ink onto regular print paper. 

How do I get rid of black smudges when the printer is printing onto a dye sublimation paper? 

Thanks!
Eric


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## Gecko Signs NT (Aug 3, 2012)

Hi,
I have Artisans for Pigment, Dye Sub and Solvent inks.

To me it sounds like you have a build up of ink on the exterior of the print head that is dripping off then you print.

The marks at the start of the paper are quite normal as the paper will curl a little as the inks change is structure until it gets into the pin wheels to keep it flat. I maintain a 20mm margin at the top of page and then cut it off.

I have found that the lower grade cheaper inks have this problem.

Paper jams always caused the problem and would require prob 2 head cleans to clean them up properly ( Hope you have a waste ink tank installed) and i usually run the head lightly over a folded piece of paper towel to dry off any excess ink on the heads.

I now use high grade german inks and have not had the problem since.

I buy all my inks from an Asian supplier and have not had any issues.

Hope this helps


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## eleeaspire (Nov 3, 2014)

Thanks for the information. I brought mostly my sublimation inks from eBay for the Artisan printer.


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## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

As you're getting your inks from eBay, maybe you got your paper from there, too. Sub paper from eBay is real chancy. Lots of it is inferior, and it can "cockle," a fancy term meaning it can get ripples in it when wetted by the ink. The cockling would explain the smears in the middle of the page. As the paper ripples and rises, the underside of the printhead can brush against it, picking up ink that's just been laid down.

Try a higher quality paper, like TexPrint or my all-around favorite, ImageRight. The heavier papers, like TexPrint, tend to cockle the least.

As others have said, when you get this a lot, you should do a cleaning.


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## eleeaspire (Nov 3, 2014)

GordonM 
Thanks for the information. 
By the way, I brought my sublimation paper from Conde.com and the sublimation inks are United States based sublimation ink-made in the states from eBay.


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## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

So it sounds like the inks and paper might be okay. Still one more thing to try: If your paper has no watermark printing on the back (it's their general purpose brand), try a print setting that doesn't lay down as much ink. The general choices on an Epson, in increasing order of the amount of ink they can deposit, is plain paper, matte paper, then photo paper. If you're on matte or photo paper, try plain. If you're on plain, step down one quality setting. Doing this may have a change in color reproduction if your setting doesn't match the one selected when the profile was made, but it could help narrow down the cause.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

eleeaspire said:


> I have Epson c88+ printer and Artisan 1430 printer. Whenever, I print out my artwork onto sublimation paper, the result would have black spots on the top edge of the paper or in the middle of my artwork for sublimation to the heating press. I get this issues since when I had a few paper jams. I never had a problem with printing from non sublimation ink onto regular print paper.
> 
> How do I get rid of black smudges when the printer is printing onto a dye sublimation paper?
> 
> ...


See this video, clean your printer. Don't do the fluid injection into the print head as the video shows, you need to clean off ink build-up underneath. 

The procedure works the same way for the C88 or the 1430. You can substitute 50/50 Simple Green and distilled water for the cleaning fluid referenced in the video if you choose.

How to maintain small format Epson printers

Inks on the top edge of the print can also be coming from the way the paper is feeding and is curling upward and "banging" into the print head underneath as the paper feeds forward. 

Make sure that you are not single feeding the paper (especially that C88) and that your paper is very flat before it's placed in the printer.

Depending on your profile and paper the only paper type setting in your Epson driver should be either "Plain/Inkjet paper" or some type of "matte" paper. Matte paper settings lay down more inks than regular paper settings do but if your are printing without a profile that also causes more ink to be laid down than is needed.

If you have done any decent amount of printing at all your printer needs cleaning. Consider this routine maintenance that should be done every once in a while whether it needs it or not.


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