Have your tried with the newer "Gutenprint" driver? This is the package cupsys-driver-gutenprint (in dapper and edgy only). It has much improved colour quality.
The escputil tool will let you print a test pattern out to check for blocked nozzles in the printhead. It will also do head alignment and cleaning. Spurious characters printing indicate a bad printer connection, e.g. intermittent connection in the parallel port contacts or a broken wire. -- High quality photo printing broken https://launchpad.net/bugs/29696 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
