An inkjet printer used for printing marketing brochures is losing color stability (e.g. orange appears brown, red appears purple). Which of the following items should a technician do FIRST?

Replacing print heads is costly and should only be done after cleaning has been attempted and failed to resolve the issue.

Inkjet print heads can become clogged with dried ink over time, causing individual color nozzles to partially or fully block, which results in inaccurate color mixing and visible color shifts. Cleaning the print heads - either through the printer's built-in utility or manually - is the least invasive and most cost-effective first step. This resolves the majority of color accuracy issues without requiring part replacement.

Driver updates address communication or feature issues, not physical ink delivery problems that cause color inaccuracies.

Recycling the printer is an irreversible action that should never be the first response to a potentially fixable maintenance issue.