Can’t Print Blank Page

I noticed that I can’t “print” a blank page with my Epson Stylus Color 480SXU. I open Microsoft Word, just have a blank document, and click print. The print status window pops up, as if it’s going to print, but then it seems to complete while the printer doesn’t print out a blank page. I wanted to do this because the rollers seem to be dirty: it put black spots at regular intervals on my past printout. If I type something in the document, say, just ‘a’, it prints, and one whole page goes through. I thought this used to work. Oh well.