Making quality prints (panorama for my cubicle)

I had a bunch of photographs from my 2006 trip that I wanted a panorama made of. Finally found some time. I used one of less sophisticate tools available, one that came with my Canon camera. Then I had trouble trying to find software that would let me print this big photograph over a sequence of pages that I would be able to glue together.

Solution was pretty counterintuitive. I used Nero Digital to adjust brightness of the image (everything looks darker on the paper than it does on screen, so, just a little bit lighter). I then discovered that my printer's (I still use the cheap Epson 777 with non-Epson ink I bought off the Internet) driver is capable of exactly what I wanted, I set the multi-page option to print a Poster over 9 pages. What I did then was just set zoom to fit page in Nero, and when preview came up I had to un-select the blank pages and be done. So, from my other experiences this day:

• Clean the printer! Over the years of irregular use too much tar-like gunk accumulated on the leads and rollers. I spoiled two pages of HP Premium Glossy paper to this...
• Print a few drafts on plain paper to adjust brightness. No need to waste ink printing entire page, a quarter or a third of a page will give good enough impression of what the final thing will look like.
• Print the resulting panorama one page at a time. This helps to avoid possible malfunctions where two pages get fed into the printer, any kind of misalignment, etc.
• Don't bother to use genuine, original inks. Cheap compatible cartridges work just fine.
  

I would appreciate an advice on how to lift small specks of that tarry gunk I mentioned before... I could live with those small streaks of black, but the problem is they just won't dry and I'm afraid they will get smudged as soon as I roll the panorama for transporting to its place on my cubicle's wall.