imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Ink striking

clara824 — Fri, 01 May 2026 01:01:30 GMT

Hey guys, I've had my pro1000 for 2 years. I print almost daily to keep it printing well. I print fine artwork prints with it, have been using the same paper for years, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Satin 310 gsm, never had a problem.

Recently I've been getting black ink strikes at the top and bottom of my prints. I have ran every single clean option on the printer. Specifically I noticed when I ran the bottom plate clean, I consistently get the same ink smudges on the face of the paper. I've ran the bottom plate cleaner over 20 times now and still no improvement.

Per some people's recommendation, I attempted to clean excess ink off the print head by laying a babywipe where the paper would go and running the print head over it multiple times until it was clean. I also did it with a paper towel dampened with rubbing alcohol. In addition I cleaned around the foam pad where the print head sits and anywhere that looked like it had excess ink. I then restarted my printer, hoping for a clean print. Unfortunately, still ink marks.

I make sure my paper is good and flat before feeding it into the printer, but no matter how flat it is, still I get these strike marks. I have not changed the paper or settings since this started happening.

I've read I can adjust the settings to "avoid paper abrasion" or also adjust the head hight on the "advanced" settings in the paper type, but I also read that this lowers your print quality - something I can't sacrifice as I'm printing detailed fine artwork prints.

What can I do to stop this from happening? I only did a regular print head cleaning and not a deep clean since I didn't want to purge any more ink than I had to. I also figured a deep clean was more for clogged inks and I don't believe that's my issue, the print quality is great it's just the black marks it leaves on the top and bottom edges. Is there anything else I can try to stop this without having to lose print quality?

Thanks for you input!

topic imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Ink striking in Professional Photo Printers

imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Ink striking