If you’re having problems with the quality of your edible prints, a good place to start is by carrying out a nozzle check to identify the cause of the issue. When printers are unused for long periods of time (especially if you’re edible printing) this can cause problems with your printhead. Running a nozzle check will help to establish whether any of the nozzles are blocked.
We also recommend printing a regular test print to identify any problems with the print head or cartridges straight away, to avoid blockages or wear to the edible printer or its components.
Printing the Nozzle Check Pattern
See our step by step video below for help with how to print a nozzle check pattern on your TS705(a) edible printer…
Please note: If the remaining ink level is low in any of your cartridges, the nozzle check pattern will not be printed correctly. Replace/ fill the ink cartridge if you notice any of the ink colours are low.
- Make sure that the power on your Canon TS705a edible printer is turned on.
- Load a sheet of A4 plain paper in the cassette tray.
- Press the Setup button (top right of display screen), use the right arrow button to select maintenance and press OK
- The screen should say nozzle check - press OK
- The nozzle check will then be printed
Do not perform any other tasks until the printer completes the printing of the nozzle check pattern, this will only take a few seconds.
What Should the Nozzle Check Pattern Look Like?
Examine the nozzle check pattern, and clean the print head if necessary.
Check if there are missing lines in the pattern (A) or horizontal white streaks in the pattern (B).
- (C) Number of sheets printed so far
Cleaning the print head is required if:
- There are missing lines in the pattern (A), see example below:
(D) Good (E) Bad (lines are missing)
2. There are horizontal white streaks in the pattern (B)
3. If any colours are missing altogether.
You can clean your print head using our dedicated edible printer cleaning kit or by removing the print head and rinsing it under hot running water for around 10 minutes. Once cleaned, repeat the nozzle check and compare for signs of improvement. It may take 2-3 cleans until the nozzle check comes out perfectly. If you have see no improvement, leave the print head out to dry for 24 hours and clean again.
For detailed edible printer cleaning and maintenance steps, see our cleaning blog here.
If you have followed all of our cleaning advice, all of your cartridges are filled to at least 80% full, and the nozzle check pattern is still showing missing lines in the top grid, missing colours or white lines across the colours, then you may need to replace your print head. You can find Canon-compatible print heads for the Canon TS705a on our website here.
For more help on using your edible printer head to edibleprintsupplies.co.uk/blogs or email us at sales@edibleprintsupplies.co.uk and our experienced team will be happy to help!