Print Head Cleaning Instructions Help with unblocking blocked printer nozzles

Inkjet Print Head Nozzles are well known for becoming blocked with dried ink or air, particularly Brother, Canon, Epson, and Kodak.  Fortunately these blockages can usually be cleared by running the standard head cleaning routine on the printer software.  Unfortunately this does not always work and it is necessary to perform manual maintenance to recover a correct ink flow.
There are two methods of unblocking the print head.  The first is to attach a syringe to the stalk leading to the print head.  We do not recommend this as it can damage the print head beyond repair. 
The best and safest way of clearing a blocked print head is to use dedicated cleaning cartridges which contain a specially formulated solution to dissolve blockages without damaging the heads.  Such cartridges can be purchased from the following store...  https://www.printercartridges.net/printercartridgesstore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=222 

Some printers will allow you to just replace one colour, so if there is no black ink finding its way on to the paper, insert the black cleaning cartridge into the machine and print several full size pages of the image to the left.  Doing this will guarantee that a fair quantity of cleaning solution will be pushed through the print head nozzles.  Finally, replace the normal black cartridge and print as normal.  You may have to print a few pages before the black ink begins to appear again.
If the nozzle remains blocked after performing the above operation, then repeat the exercise, but this time leave the cleaning cartridge inside the printer overnight.  This will allow the solution to eat away at the blockage.
Cleaning cartridges are usually 75% successful, unfortunately however there is no guarantee that they will clear the blockage. 

Cartridges that contain microchips may not like to mix with the special cleaning cartridges chips, so you will have to install the whole set.  This makes using the following colour print images more important as you do not want to pass too much fluid through the heads that are not blocked.  If the cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, or photo cyan colour(s) are blocked, then print one or more of the surrounding images. Right click on them and select save image.  Then print full A4 size pictures of them.  As the cleaning fluid takes over from the ordinary coloured ink you will notice the colour gradually fade away.

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Print on Demand everywhere not always a great idea

For years, really decades now, I have been a big fan of "print on demand" - trading off pre-printed matter for that can be generated "on the fly", when and it what quantity the material is needed. It just seems like such a natural, harkening back to the initial popularity of the overall "just in time" (JIT) supply chain philosophy that took off back in the 1980s and 1990s.

It reduces waste, assures the latest and greatest will be printed, and overall, moves the printing closer to the end-user, which all makes terrific sense. Granted, sometimes the aesthetics are compromised (think of a classically printed book versus a toner-on-paper, or more likely these days, ink-on-paper version), but we can usually live with that. Especially when referring to the book publishing world, the ability to get a printed copy of something obscure and often out-of-print leaves no real alternative.

BUT...this one just makes me a little sad. Our local post office has had one of their wonderful automated machines for years, and I have long been a fan, at least on my rare trips to the PO. Especially when it comes to weighing a large envelope or package, then dispensing the exact postage on peel-off adhesive media, and charging the credit card, its hard to beat, compared to standing in line and getting human help to do the same thing, ending with traditional a metered postage label affixed to your item.

They have recently upgraded the machine, and added one, and while the old one always dispensed regular postage stamps, vending-machine-style, this new pair spits out $4.80 sheets of print-on-demand "stamps" - see below. And I am sorry, and maybe it goes back to philatelic interest of my youth, I feel my quality of life took a hit! I want my basic flag stamps (as well as colorful commemoratives) back!

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