The very first thing you ALWAYS do before printing is run a nozzle check. If so much as one nozzle is plugged your color will be off. Also, if I didn't run a nozzle check EVERY DAY on my 4800s they would plug up regardless of how many times I cleaned them. Never assume anything.
I agree totally with the first statement, but not the second one. That said, I have absolutely zero experience with a 4800, having worked with a 9900 for the past 8 years. Of course I would not expect perfection in a print when there are various nozzle dropouts, but one or two nozzles in the bottom two or three lines of the pattern makes virtually no difference in the overall colour. And of course I am referring to one or two nozzles distributed among at least two channels. One has to know the limit and work within it, but it definitely is not one lonely nozzle dropout. Over a span of more than thirteen years I have tested this scenario various times on two different Epson printers(7600 & 9900), and it has always produced the same result, good to go.
Gary
