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Two years ago I bought a Canon PIXMA MG5550
which never had a problem until recently, when the printed text started to appear "blurry".
I printed the nozzle check pattern and this is the result:
It is supposed to be a perfect grid with straight lines. As you can see, it's not (what's printed is blurred, the picture is not out of focus). If you click the image to view it not scaled down, you will notice that certain lines on the grid even split in two and then merge back together. On the left, where it says "PGBK", you can see what I mean by blurry text. All the other cartridges (C, M, Y and BK) do not have this problem.
So far I tried:
- Executing the printer's built-in nozzle cleaning (several times)
- Executing the printer's built-in deep nozzle cleaning (several times)
- Replacing the PGBK cartridge with a brand new one
- Replacing all cartridges with new ones
Nothing has worked, and I will have to buy a new printer if I can't solve this.
Any advice?
I've since tried all suggested ways of running a print-head alignment - no improvement. I've also had suggestions that the encoder strip may be damaged or dirty. I attempted to clean this and it made the problem worse not better.
The printer has now gone in the bin and I've added Canon to the list of makes not to buy. – AutomatedMike – 2019-03-08T11:42:44.523
If you look closely at the print test, you will see that it isn't actually blurry. It is printing multiple sharp but offset images. That is an alignment problem. hdhondt's answer describes how to fix it. If that fix doesn't work, it means the printer is defective. No replacement of ink cartridges or cleaning will fix it. Replacing the printhead isn't likely to fix it either. The printheads are precision manufactured and output alignment relies on firmware and printer sensors. If the procedure doesn't work, it will similarly not work with a different printhead. – fixer1234 – 2019-03-31T07:37:01.940