Help with Epson Stylus photo 1500W issue, clogged nozzles? It came suddenly out of nowhere.

The Hat said:

But will there be anybody around to notice...

Click to expand...

And if there is, they'll be "retro!" Kind of my thinking, but I've run into people who say it matters (as they look for something to read their mag tapes...)

Pigment inks are more fade resistant than dye inks - generally , OEM inks and 3rd party inks alike.
But it could be that dye inks are sufficient enough, there are very wide differences in performance, there are quite a number of threads with this subject of dye ink fading, please see my comments here to the same question
https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/pigment-ink-for-epson-xp-950.11802/#post-100234
What type of paper are you printing on - glossy or matte with your pigment inks ?

I'm definitely not looking at 100 years of longevity but I've done my "market research" on illustrators that sell similar kind of prints and all of them use pigment inks. I would like to provide some quality like that as well.

@Ink stained Fingers , I have started reading this very long thread yesterday: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/which-pigment-ink-for-epson-1500w.9323/ but my brain can only process a certain amount of information at once. I am printing on Epson archival matte paper for now but I would like to print on more "watercolor paper" like paper in the future, I've noticed a lot of my fellow illustrator artists are printing on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag and I like how that looks.
I have a watercolor paper that I really love the feel and look of (I've also tried printing on it) but it's not Inkjet paper, so I'm guessing it will be chugging ink a lot?

When a paper you like is not suitable for inkjets, you’ll get the blotting paper effect, you can coat that paper with an aerosol spray or print on a gloss optimiser coating to help correct that issue.

The optimiser coating can be a bit time consuming and use up your optimiser rather quickly, art shops are notorious for stocking paper that is unsuitable for inkjets application, its more suitable to water colours..

The watercolor paper I like doesn't get much of that "blotting paper effect", or not as much as I would have expect it to. I've tried printing on another watercolor paper, which is heavier and has bigger grain and that paper does have that "blotting paper effect".
I've made a little comparison between the watercolor papers that I've tried to print on and Epson archival mat paper:



The watercolor paper that's 250g is slightly more yellow in real life (same for watercolor paper 300g).
These were printed with pigment inks.
After further reading on this forum I've found a thread that was discussing giclée art prints and you (@The Hat ) have recommended Hahnemuhle photo rag and I think that's really the paper I'm after.
I will probably be ordering a pack.

Longevity of inks has been discussed in detail, but there is another important element affecting the fading performance as much - the paper, the coating, the surface. @The Hat just finished a larger test illustrating this very clearly - https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/3rd-party-dye-ink-fade-test.11694/page-2#post-100184 Matte surfaces seem to accelerate the fading process very much.

Yes of course there is a big amount of factors that have influence on fading. I have found various threads on fade testing here and on other fora, there is a lot of information out there and I'm a bit overwhelmed.
Thank you for pointing in the direction of that thread, I've already read it and it is indeed an interesting test.

Very nice Illustrations by the way, especially the fox...
If you can keep good registration, try print the same image on top of the first, it can give surprising results when you get it right. (Like double exposure)

Thank you!
I'm going to try that today, if there are any other cool tips and tricks: shoot!

Update:
I've been doing some printing today, worked perfectly fine (printing with epson dye inks on watercolor paper). This evening I received a sample package of papers from Marrutt so I decided to test their 300 g smooth fine art paper. Did 2 little tests on it then printer did it's own automatic head cleaning (?). Then I printed two other little tests on same paper, they came out with some stripes. I did a nozzle check: slightly clogged...
Did a head cleaning from the Epson Printer Utility and then again a nozzle check: clogged even worse...
What's going on? Why is the head cleaning by the printer self, clogs it even more? (I have already cleaned the wiper blade before (during the first clog, when I posted this thread) as suggested here: https://www.marruttusa.com/printer-maintenance/inkjet-cleaning-videos.php )