The quality of my printed output is unacceptable. What should I do?

• Verify that you are using the EPSON Stylus Color 300 driver. Make sure that the printer's paper thickness and adjust lever are set to the correct paper type setting. For the paper thickness lever use the plain paper setting for regular paper ( the lever is set forward when facing the printer) and use the thick paper settings for envelopes or thicker media ( set the lever back). For standard paper, coated paper, index cards, transparencies or glossy paper/film set the adjust lever to the 0 setting. For envelopes set the adjustment lever to the + setting. Also, the paper you are using may be damaged, old, dirty or loaded incorrectly. Remove the paper and reload a new stack ensuring that the printable side is face up. If MicroWeave is off, turn this feature on. If High Speed is on, turn it off. Make sure the Media Type setting matches the paper or media loaded. Also, the Halftoning and Color Adjustment Mode options may be set incorrectly for your document type. Let the printer driver automatically select the settings for the best quality. If your output is faint, check the printer driver to make sure you have selected a print resolution other than Economy. For vertical banding, rough or grainy images run the Print Head Alignment utility to align the print heads for precise vertical lines. If the image does not contain the colors you expected, the color settings on your application software may need adjustment. Refer to your software documentation for help on adjusting colors. If the previous steps do not resolve the issue, the print head nozzles may be clogged. From the Utility section found in the EPSON printer driver, clean the print heads by performing a head cleaning followed by printing a nozzle check pattern. A head cleaning and nozzle check must be performed as a cycle. After printing a nozzle check, examine the printed dot pattern. Each staggered horizontal and straight vertical line should be complete, with no gaps in the dot pattern. If there are gaps in the dot pattern, continue with another cycle. Perform up to 6 cycles if necessary. If the nozzle check prints completely, and you're still experiencing a problem, make sure you are using the most current version of the printer driver. You can obtain the latest printer driver from the EPSON web site. The resolution of your image may also be set too low. Increase the image resolution using your image-editing software, or decrease the size of the image. Another troubleshooting test to try is moving the printer to another computer. This will eliminate the possibility of a defective printer cable, parallel port, or software issue. If your still experiencing a problem try replacing the ink cartridge and make sure you are using a genuine EPSON ink cartridge which has a white label on top of it. If the white label has been removed from the ink cartridge, do not install the cartridge. Using an ink cartridge which does not have the white label on it may damage the printer. If you have already installed a cartridge which is missing the white label, or if a previously installed ink cartridge was missing its white label at the time it was installed, and now head cleanings do not help the nozzle check pattern to print completely, your printer may require service and you should contact the EPSON Connection for further assistance.