Printer test page

Choose Complete, Color or Black above, match A4 or US Letter to the paper in the tray, and click Print test page. In the dialog select the printer, Color (or Grayscale for the black test), Normal quality, 100% or Actual size, and turn off headers and footers. Print one copy, wait a minute for ink to settle, and read the blocks, ramp, grid and smallest text in daylight.

This sheet travels the whole path: browser, driver, connection, printer. The built-in page is generated by the printer’s firmware with no computer involved. If both show the same fault, the printer is responsible. If the built-in page is clean and this one is not, the computer side is responsible. Print both; the comparison is the diagnosis.

Windows: Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners → your printer → Printer properties → Print Test Page. It prints the Windows logo and driver details and tests the driver and queue. macOS: System Settings → Printers & Scanners → your printer → Printer Queue, then Printer → Print Test Page in the menu bar. Neither page has CMYK blocks or a grayscale ramp, so use this sheet for print quality.

Blank pages usually mean the cartridge is empty, unseated or still sealed, the nozzles have fully dried after weeks unused, or the job itself is blank because of a wrong printer, a blank-page setting or white text. Check supplies and tape, then print the printer’s own report from its menu. If that is blank too, focus on the printer; if the report prints, focus on the document, app or driver. A laser that prints blank pages right after a toner change often still has the sealing tape in the cartridge.

Print the built-in nozzle check first. On an inkjet, gaps mean blocked nozzles: run one cleaning cycle, reprint, and run a second only if gaps remain. If two do not work, power off overnight and try once more before a deep clean. On a laser, streaks involve toner distribution, the drum, the transfer roller or debris in the paper path; there is no cleaning cycle, so inspect and measure instead.

First confirm every CMYK block prints. If one is pale or missing, that channel is the cause. If all four are solid, the shift is in mixing: Draft mode, a vivid or photo preset, the wrong media type, two color managers fighting, or a third-party ink with a different pigment. Restore driver defaults, set the media type to the paper loaded, and compare with the printer’s built-in report.

Doubled text or color fringes on black letters are alignment symptoms. Reload the paper squarely and run the printer’s alignment routine (Auto first, then Manual if offered), then reprint the same grid. If doubling remains on an inkjet, turn off bidirectional or high-speed printing in the driver. On a laser, run color calibration; if only one edge is soft, check for a worn transfer roller or damp paper.

The hardware can print, so the fault is in the document, application, print queue, driver preset, chosen printer or connection. Restore printing preferences to default, clear the queue, make sure the job is going to the right printer and not to a ‘Save as PDF’ or an old queue, and print the document from a different application. If a PDF prints but a Word file does not, that application’s own print settings are the cause.

Confirm the correct printer is selected and not paused, then read its display for paper, cover, ink or network errors. Clear paused jobs, restart the printer and computer, and check the printer is on the same Wi-Fi network as the device; a router change strands printers on an old network more often than people expect. If the printer prints its internal report, the remaining problem is connection, queue, driver or application, not the printer.

The paper size or scale does not match. A4 content forced onto Letter shrinks to about 94%, Letter onto A4 to about 97%, and Fit or Shrink settings do this silently. Choose the size actually loaded, select 100% or Actual size, and disable Fit, Shrink, borderless expansion, headers and footers. Losing a millimeter or two at the edge is normal on printers that are not borderless.

Yes. Open this page on a phone connected to the same network as an AirPrint, Mopria or manufacturer-app printer. Tap Print test page, choose the printer, confirm the paper size and color mode, and print. Mobile dialogs often hide scale controls, so if the border prints cropped or small, download the PDF and print it from the Files or Drive app, which usually offers Actual size.

Yes. Select the test type and paper size, then click Download PDF. The vector file is generated locally in your browser, never uploaded, and can be printed later, moved to another device, or kept as a fixed reference for before-and-after comparison.

Yes. The browser test works with inkjet and laser printers from HP, Canon, Epson, Brother, Lexmark, Xerox, Kyocera, Ricoh and others because it uses the system print dialog. What differs is the maintenance step afterwards: inkjets have nozzle checks and cleaning cycles, lasers have calibration, drums and fusers. The Canon, HP, Epson and Brother guides list menu names; for other brands use the printer’s Maintenance or Reports menu.

This sheet keeps coverage low. The four CMYK blocks each use a few percent of the page and the gray ramp averages about half density over a narrow strip, so total ink is close to a normal page of text rather than a full-page flood. Print one copy, inspect, make one change, and reprint only when needed. Cleaning cycles, not test pages, are where most ink is wasted.

About a minute for dye color inks, which shift as they dry; pigment black and toner are stable at once. Judge in daylight or under a neutral white lamp. Warm bulbs make every gray look brown and hide a slight color cast.