Black / grayscale test
Test black ink or toner without flooding a page. The 11-step grayscale ramp, 4 mm grid, registration target and type from 18 pt down to 6 pt expose fading, streaks, ghosting and weak small text while using about as much ink as an ordinary page of text.
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8 pt — Fine text should remain crisp, evenly filled and easy to read without halos, feathering or broken strokes.
6 pt — If this line is legible and consistent, your printer is resolving small type well.Print it right
A scaled or economy-mode print can look like a printer fault. Start with a controlled print before changing ink, toner, or hardware.
Choose Black & White, Monochrome or Grayscale in the print dialog. On an inkjet this also stops the driver building gray from color inks, which is what you want when testing the black channel. Switch off Draft, EconoMode and toner save; each of them lightens output on purpose and looks exactly like a weak cartridge.
Choose the paper size that is in the tray and Actual size or 100%. The 4 mm grid and the 6 pt line only mean something at their real size; a page shrunk to 94% by a Fit setting blurs fine strokes and makes the margin check meaningless.
First the ramp: are all eleven steps distinct? Then the grid: are any lines missing, broken or doubled? Then the type: is the 6 pt line filled and legible? Finally scan the whole sheet for any mark that appears more than once at a regular spacing.
Read the result
Something is deliberately or accidentally reducing density: Draft, EconoMode or toner save, low ink or toner, the wrong media type, or on a laser a cartridge whose toner needs redistributing.
Turn off every economy setting, check supply, set Plain paper, and reprint. For a laser cartridge the manual describes as rockable, remove it, rock it gently side to side, then retest.
Inkjet: blocked black nozzles, one thin horizontal line per carriage pass. Laser: a scratch or line of debris on the drum, or a blocked developer blade, usually running in the direction the paper travels.
Inkjet: nozzle check, one cleaning cycle, reprint. Laser: inspect the drum for a visible line without touching its surface.
Shadow detail is clipping. The printer is laying down full black before the 100% step because of density, media or driver gamma settings.
Reset the driver, select the correct paper, and compare Normal with High quality. On a laser, run calibration or density adjustment from the menu.
Highlight clipping, or simply a bright paper whose whiteness swallows 10% gray. Also common when a driver applies a ‘text’ or ‘high contrast’ preset.
Disable text or contrast presets and reprint. If only the 10% step is faint, that can be normal for the paper.
Ghosting. On a laser the fuser or drum is not fully releasing the previous image, at a spacing equal to a roller’s circumference. On an inkjet a wet page has smeared or the paper fed twice.
Measure the distance between the image and its ghost and compare it with the manufacturer’s repeating-defect ruler.
A rotating component has a defect. On most desktop lasers the drum circumference is about 75 to 95 mm; charge and developer rollers repeat at shorter intervals; the fuser at a model-specific one.
Measure the repeat with a ruler and match it in the service manual before buying any part.
Toner contamination or a leaking cartridge, damp paper, or a dirty paper path. Damp paper also causes blotchy, uneven black on lasers.
Print a few blank pages, load fresh paper from a sealed pack, and clean the paper path following the manual.
On an inkjet, ink is spreading into absorbent or low-grade paper, or the head is set too far from the paper by a thick media setting. On a laser, a low resolution or toner-save halftone.
Use 80 g/m² (20 lb) plain paper with the correct media type and Normal quality, then compare the 6 pt line again.
A solid black page uses roughly twenty times the toner of a normal text page, which the ISO/IEC 19752 yield standard defines at about 5% coverage. It also stresses a weak cartridge, can overload a fuser on cheap paper, and tells you little that a smaller pattern does not. This sheet keeps total coverage close to an ordinary document while still including a full 100% black step, mid-tones, hairlines and small type.
Each element isolates one behavior. The ramp tests tonal separation; the grid tests whether hairlines survive and stay straight; the registration target shows doubling; and the descending type sizes show how far resolution and ink spread let you go before small text closes up.
On an inkjet, black comes from a printhead with hundreds of nozzles; a blocked nozzle skips a thin horizontal line on each carriage pass, and fixing it means moving ink through the head. On a laser, black comes from toner attracted to a charged drum, transferred to paper and fused with heat; faults follow rotating parts and paper condition, and there is nothing a cleaning cycle can clean.
That is why the same symptom needs opposite responses. White lines on an inkjet justify one cleaning cycle. White lines on a laser justify looking at the drum and developer, never a cleaning routine, which most laser drivers do not even offer.
A mark that appears more than once down a laser page is the most useful clue a test page can give you, because its spacing identifies the part. Every rotating component has a fixed circumference, so a dirty or damaged roller leaves its mark once per revolution. Lay a ruler along the page, measure from one mark to the next, and compare that distance with the repeating-defect ruler in the printer’s service manual. Brother, for example, documents a 94 mm interval for the drum units on many of its lasers, and desktop drums from other makers fall roughly between 75 and 95 mm.
FAQ
Select Black / grayscale above, match the paper size, and print at 100% in Monochrome or Grayscale with Draft and toner save off. Check that all eleven gray steps are distinct, that the grid has no missing or doubled lines, and that the 6 pt line is legible. Then print the printer’s own nozzle check or print quality report to confirm whether the printer or the computer is responsible.
On inkjets black is usually a separate, larger cartridge with its own nozzles, so it can run dry, clog or be refused by the printer while color keeps working. Pigment black also dries in the nozzles faster than dye color inks when a printer sits unused. Check the level, remove any tape, confirm it is seated, then run the nozzle check and one cleaning cycle. If black returns for a page and fades again, the cartridge is empty or the tank feed has an airlock.
Rarely. It uses about twenty times the toner of a normal page and can flag problems that never appear in real documents. Use it only when a service procedure specifically asks for it, for example to reveal a drum defect that hides in text. This sheet includes a 100% black step for the same purpose at a fraction of the cost.
Every step from white to 100% black should be visibly different from its neighbors, neutral in color and evenly filled. If the three darkest steps look identical the printer is clipping shadows; if the lightest step disappears that may be normal for bright paper. Gray with a color cast on an inkjet means the driver is mixing color inks into gray; choose Black ink only or Grayscale.
Turn off EconoMode or toner save in the driver and on the printer, then check the toner level. If the manual permits, remove the cartridge, rock it gently side to side to redistribute toner, and reprint. If density returns for a few pages and fades again, the cartridge is near its end. If the page is pale on one side only, the cartridge may not be seated or the transfer roller is worn.
A rotating part has a defect and marks the page once per revolution. Measure the distance between two marks and compare it with the repeating-defect intervals in the printer’s service documentation. Drum defects on desktop lasers typically repeat every 75 to 95 mm. If the toner and drum are separate units, replace or clean the part that matches rather than the toner.
Large letters have strokes many dots wide, so a little spread or misalignment does not show. At 6 pt a stroke is only a few 600 dpi dots wide, so ink bleeding into the paper, a slightly misaligned head or a low-resolution mode closes the letters up. Use plain 80 g/m² paper with the right media setting, Normal or higher quality, and run alignment on an inkjet.