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I have an Epson R2880 and have never had a problem getting it to pretty accurately print the color red. 
I have an image now which regardless of what I've tried will not print reds as red. I get pink, lilac but no red.
Printer nozzles are clean
Ideas?

If your monitor is properly calibrated and red isn't coming out as red then I don't think your print heads are working properly. Either the head has failed or the nozzles are indeed clogged.

E.J. Peiker wrote:If your monitor is properly calibrated and red isn't coming out as red then I don't think your print heads are working properly.  Either the head has failed or the nozzles are indeed clogged.

The other colors in the print are accurate. What do you mean when you said the head may have failed?
I ran a test sheet on the heads and there were no breaks. In spite of that I did a nozzle cleaning and still no red.

Curious.....are you using Epson ink? I got cheap once and bought re-manufactured ink.....what a disaster! The greens looked like a sick blue.

If you are certain that the entire pattern is printing (many people miss an entire block that hasn't printed so there aren't any broken lines, there aren't any lines) then I wonder if you have some really badly expired inks that have shifted in color. The next thing to do would be to replace the magenta and yellow inks which are used to make red. If it's been a long time, maybe just replace them all. And replace them with OEM Epson inks.

E.J. Peiker wrote:If you are certain that the entire pattern is printing (many people miss an entire block that hasn't printed so there aren't any broken lines, there aren't any lines) then I wonder if you have some really badly expired inks that have shifted in color.  The next thing to do would be to replace the magenta and yellow inks which are used to make red.  If it's been a long time, maybe just replace them all.  And replace them with OEM Epson inks.

It looks as if you were correct about the test page. The last block was missing. I used the "clean heads" utility twice and the last block is now visible, but there are a lot of breaks in the pattern.I already changed both the yellow and magenta inksAny suggestions other than to keep repeating head cleaning. I am using new Epson inks
Thanks

If you have some broken lines you still have some nozzles which are blocked and you still need do more "clean heads". There should be NO missing lines in the nozzle check pattern.

RichardMittleman/Gon2Foto wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:If you are certain that the entire pattern is printing (many people miss an entire block that hasn't printed so there aren't any broken lines, there aren't any lines) then I wonder if you have some really badly expired inks that have shifted in color.  The next thing to do would be to replace the magenta and yellow inks which are used to make red.  If it's been a long time, maybe just replace them all.  And replace them with OEM Epson inks.

It looks as if you were correct about the test page. The last block was missing. I used the "clean heads" utility twice and the last block is now visible, but there are a lot of breaks in the pattern.I already changed both the yellow and magenta inksAny suggestions other than to keep repeating head cleaning. I am using new Epson inks
Thanks

Multiple head cleanings finally worked. Thanks for the tip about the missing block. If it wasn't the last one in the row of blocks, I probably would have noticed it was missing

Yeah, with Epson printer's it's almost always a complete blockage. Glad you got it figured out.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Yeah, with Epson printer's it's almost always a complete blockage.  Glad you got it figured out.

I wasted a lot of ink getting that straight. I've had this printer a long time. Any recommendations if I decide to get a new one?

The thing to consider first is how often will you be using the printer? Long periods of unuse is what cause the nozzles to glog.

The new printers aren't nearly as likely to clog as an old model like the 2880. What size prints do you want to be able to print?

Hi Richard

I just got a P800 and after a few bumps in the road, I'm very pleased with it. I had similar problems as your 2880 with my 3880 and finally got a cleaning kit. That worked , but I don't trust it-the "new" inks I get for it are sometimes old already. P800 will take a roll feed if you want to pay extra. They might be a bit hard to find-I see they are out of stock on the Epson site-guess I was lucky to get one with a $300 rebate! Looks like the new P900 is still not on the market (actually cheaper than the P800), but if you 2880 is working now, theP900 (or P700) might be worth waiting for. Have a look at this thread for more discussion:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=288450
Good luck!

Cynthia Crawford wrote:Hi Richard

I just got a P800 and after a few bumps in the road, I'm very pleased with it. I had similar problems as your 2880 with my 3880 and finally got a cleaning kit. That worked , but I don't trust it-the "new" inks I get for it are sometimes old already. P800 will take a roll feed if you want to pay extra. They might be a bit hard to find-I see they are out of stock on the Epson site-guess I was lucky to get one with a $300 rebate! Looks like the new P900 is still not on the market (actually cheaper than the P800), but if you 2880 is working now, theP900 (or P700)  might be worth waiting for. Have a look at this thread for more discussion:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=288450
Good luck!

Actually, B&H has this printer on sale now for $100 less than I paid for it from Epson! (grrr)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... inter.html