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Epson Stylus Pro 9600 Support Page

• Here is how we can help with your Epson 9600

 

 

How to Clean, Maintain and Restore your Epson 9600 Print head

Un-Blocking Your Large Format Printer

The Basic Cleaning Method: Turn printer on, when carriage is halfway across the printer turn the printer off. This allows you to manually move the print head. Pierce foil on Magic Bullet and apply to both sides of cloth. Lay the cloth under print head as video. Leave for a few hours, the vapour from Magic Bullet will soften the dried ink residue. Take out the cloth and print color prints or purge flles included with the magic bullet kit. Repeat this process until you acheive a perfect nozzle check.

Inkjet Printing Best Practice

As well as using your inkjet printer as often as you can, it is a good idea to print a nozzle check before each printing session. A complete nozzle check ensures that all nozzles are working your images should print with no banding and accurate colors.

If your nozzle check is not complete, the most likely cause of this is that you have run out of ink or your printer's head requires a clean. Once you have either topped up your ink or carried out a head clean, print another nozzle check to ensure your printer is functioning correctly.

With inkjet printing problem prevention is definitely better than problem solving. During periods of non-use, turn your printer on for a few minutes once every 2-3 days. When you turn a printer on, it goes through a mini priming-cycle, which keeps the underside of your printer moist and can prevent the build up of dried ink on the underside of your ink head.

If you go on vacation, why not leave your printer switched 'on' and connect your printer to the mains through an inexpensive timer switch, set to turn on for a few minutes every other day - when you return, your print head will be in perfect order, ready to print.

If your inkjet printer has a stubburn blockage where your nozzle check is missing in the same position each time, please see the "How to Unblock my Epson 9600" section by clicking here

Correct Printer Settings


Here are the suggested Adobe Photoshop and Printer Driver Settings for the Epson 9600:

SOURCE / WORKING SPACE:
Adobe RGB (1998)
(Set in Adobe Photoshop: Edit > Color Settings)

IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP PRINT PREVIEW:
Let Photoshop Determine Colors
Select correct profile for your Printer/Ink/Paper Combination
Intent: Relative Colormetric
Use Black point compensation: checked

IN EPSON PRINT DRIVER:
Media (Paper) type:
Gloss, Satin and Semi Gloss Papers = Epson Premium Luster
Fine Art Papers = Watercolor Paper Radiant White
Matt Papers = Archival Matt Paper
Print Resolution:
PC = Quality (level 4)
Mac = SuperFine 1440dpi
High Speed: On (when printing a production job, we recommend high speed should be set to "Off" for greater consistency)

COLOR MANAGEMENT:
Select "Color Controls"
Gloss, Satin and Semi Gloss Papers = Color Controls selected. Mode: “Adobe RGB”, Gamma: “2.2” (B,C,S,C,Y,M all set to "0")
Fine Art and Matt Papers = Off (No color adjustment)

Fault-Finding Your Printer

It is important not to fear the worst when a blockage occurs. It is vital that you select the correct cleaning method and to not "over clean"!
Generally, print workers discover a printer blockage when they observe banding or a lack of "punch" in their prints.
Once a less than perfect print is produced, you should follow these troubleshooting techniques:

1) CHECK YOU HAVE NOT RUN OUT OF INK!
If you are using single use cartridges, check your status monitor (located in your printer driver). This is only a rough guide and often the printer fails to alert you of a low cartridge ink level.
If you are using refillable cartridges, top these up to 90% full and if you are using a continuous ink system, ensure your ink reservoirs are at least two-thirds full.

2) CHECK YOUR PRINTER DRIVER SETTINGS.
Ensure that you have the correct print resolution (usually "Best Photo" or "Level 4") and that you have the correct media type for your inkjet paper.
If you are still experiencing poor prints after you have confirmed your ink levels and printer settings, you will then need to find out how your individual printer nozzles are performing:

3) PRINT A NOZZLE CHECK
A perfect nozzle check should include as many complete sections as you have cartridges in your printer, appear uniformly staggered with clear and crisp text underneath. This is printed from your Printer Utilities section in your printer driver.

Here is how to print a nozzle check to test for clogged inkjets
- If you are using a PC, access the Windows Desktop and right-click the product icon in the Windows taskbar.
- Using a Mac, select System Preferences from the Apple logo on the top left of your screen. Select Print & Fax, Print & Scan, or Printers & Scanners and then select your printer. Then its Options and Supplies. Select Utility and select Open Printer Utility to print the Nozzle check.

 

Ink colors left to right: Photo Black/Matte Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Light Black

 

If your nozzle check is incomplete (as in the right image), use the "Clean" function in your printer utility. This may take a few minutes to complete. Once the clean has finished, print another nozzle check to discover how well this has worked. If the nozzle check is now complete (as the left image) you can now start printing. If the nozzle check is still incomplete, carry out no more than 2 head cleans.

In the more up to date printers, there is also an "Automatic Nozzle Check and Head Clean". This is a more intense cleaning cycle so we only recommend this if your nozzle check is less than 50% complete.

4) PERFORM AN AUTO-HEAD ALIGNMENT
In very rare cases, if your nozzles are not uniformly staggered, you can correct this using the Auto Head alignment. (Performed in printer drivers utility).

5) IF THE NOZZLE CHECK IS MISSING IN THE SAME PLACE EACH TIME
In our experience, if your nozzle check is missing in the same place each time, the print head itself is at fault and the likely cause is ink that has dried outside the print head. If your nozzle check is variable, the likely cause is that air is entering the ink system, usually due to the cartridge failing to make an air-tight seal with the printer. Although often air can enter through internal splits in the ink lines, damper or connections. So if you have a variable nozzle check, we advise changing the suspect cartridge(s). If your nozzle check is missing in the same places each time, read on...

MY INKJET PRINTER IS CLOGGED, WHAT CAN I DO?
If your Inkjet printer has become clogged (obstructed with dried ink), the ink in and around the printer head would have hardened due to a combination of air, paper dust and, most often, lack of use. In this instance, we recommend using a combination of Magic Bullet Print head Cleaner and printing purge files to remove the blockage and get your ink flowing freely again.

Magic Bullet fluid is used by experienced printer technicians typically using several maintenance/restore techniques with good results, and can clear even the most stubborn blockages.
The printer purge files aid the flushing process and are included with the magic bullet purchase. Click Here to view the printer head cleaning video and for the Magic Bullet purchasing details.

ICC Profiles and Color Management

Marrutt Photographic Pro Inks are formulated to provide a very close match to the original OEM ink set.

For normal-basic printing you can simply use the normal Epson print settings. This will provide a good standard accuracy in colour and black & white with correct print density (plug and play).

This is particularly useful when printing from non-Adobe Photoshop applications, which do not support colour management.

For more critical photographic applications, you can use the recommended Epson generic Profile for your printer / paper combination. We are also able to provide custom profiles to provide an improved level of color accuracy, tonality, density and shadow detail. Please contact us for details of this service. In addition, we supply free a calibration print and checking image JPEG to confirm that your printer stays accurate for colour, density and neutrals.

Epson Stylus Pro 9600 Purge Files

Printer purge files are areas of a solid color (or a selection of colors) that can get clear a blocked printer without having to resort to printer cleaning cycles. For more severe blockages (where your nozzle check is missing in the same places each time), we recommend you carry out a combination of printing purge files (individual or complete depending on the color(s) that are missing) with cleaning the printer using the Magic Bullet cleaning fluid explained below. This combination means you are softening the ink that has dried inside your printer using the Magic Bullet fluid and then pushing the ink through using the purge file.
Please find below the complete Purge file for this printer as well as the individual purge files that you can download for printing.

CLICK HERE to download COMPLETE 7 CHANNEL EPSON PURGE FILE To Save and Print this Purge File: PC Users: Right click the purge file and select "SAVE IMAGE / PICTURE AS" MAC Users: Hold down "Ctrl" and click the mouse on the purge file. Select "SAVE IMAGE AS" You can then open the file in your image editing application and enlarge to print.

Hex and RGB Values for these 7 colors Light Magenta, Hex Value: ff80ff (R:255 G:128 B:255) Light Cyan, Hex Value: 80ffff (R:128 G:255 B:255) Light Black, Hex Value: #808080 (R:128 G:128 B:128) Black, Hex Value: 000000 (R:0 G:0 B:0) Cyan, Hex Value: 00ffff (R:0 G:255 B:255) Magenta, Hex Value: ff00ff (R:255 G:0 B:255) Yellow, Hex Value: ffff00 (R:255 G:255 B:0)

If you are having difficulties with only a small number of channels (or even just one), here are the individual color purge files:

Bulk Delivery System Installation

BASIC REFILLABLE CARTRIDGE SYSTEM INSTALLATION STEPS The installation of the Marrutt Refillable Cartridge Systems (RCS) and the method of re-setting the cartridges is a very simple process. Below is a step by step guide that lays out the key stages of installing a Refillable Cartridge system for this printer. If you would like more in-depth illustrated instructions for this bulk delivery method, how the cartridges are reset, or the installation video, please contact us.

1: Take out filler plug and slowly fill the cartridge with the correct color ink using the funnel provided.

2: Re-insert the filler plug firmly.

3: Use the syringe & adapter, gently insert into the ink outlet port of the cartridge.

4: Draw back on the syringe to withdraw 1-2ml of ink to prime the cartridge. (This process is only required after the first fill).

5: Insert the cartridge into the printer. Then repeat this process (steps 1-4) for each cartridge.

6: During printing, when the ink level reaches the low ink mark on a cartridge, take out the cartridge from the printer fill with ink using the funnel and reset chip using the chip re-setter supplied. Re-insert cartridge.

(STEP 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 = INITIAL INSTALL, STEP 6 = RE-FILL)

Click for the ink codes that the refill cartridges replace The following cartridge codes correspond to these color channels Photo Black Cyan Yellow Light Cyan T5431 / T5441 T5432 / T5442 T5434 / T5444 T5435 / T5445 Light Black Light Magenta Matte Black Magenta T5437 / T5447 T5436 / T5446 T5438 / T5448 T5433 / T5443 Hide these codes

Further Help / Contact Us

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further help or advice with regard to your inkjet printer or general printing techniques.

We have been supplying photographers since 1995 with digital inkjet products and providing support for those using bulk inks since 2001. With our level of knowledge and experience we feel there is no-one else who can provide you with this level of support specifically for professional and enthusiast photographers, studios and labs.

Click Here for details of contacting us from inside and outside of the United States / Canada (telephone, email, fax and physical addresses).

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