Why is my printing quality poor?

Print quality faults are unusually diagnosable, because each cause produces a distinctive pattern. Reading the page tells you which of half a dozen things to do, which is faster than working through all of them.

Safety

Step by step

1. Print the printer's own test page.From the printer's menu rather than the computer. It removes the computer, the driver and the document from the question, and inkjets print a nozzle-check pattern that shows exactly which colours are blocked.
2. Check the print quality setting.Draft mode is deliberately faint and fast, and it is frequently left on. Set it to normal or best in the print dialogue before diagnosing anything mechanical.
3. Read horizontal streaks or gaps on an inkjet.Missing lines in one colour means blocked nozzles, usually from not printing often enough. Run the head cleaning cycle from the printer's menu, print a nozzle check, and repeat up to about three times.
4. Do not run cleaning cycles repeatedly.Each one uses a significant amount of ink. If three cycles have not cleared it, more will not — the head may need soaking or replacing, and you are spending a cartridge on it.
5. Read repeating marks on a laser.A mark that repeats at a regular interval down the page corresponds to the circumference of a roller or the drum. Measure the gap — it identifies which component, and both are replaceable.
6. Read overall fading.On a laser, low toner — take the cartridge out and rock it gently side to side to redistribute the powder, which buys a few hundred more pages. On an inkjet, low ink or a partly blocked head.
7. Read smudging.On a laser, a failing fuser or the wrong paper type setting, so the toner is not being fixed. On an inkjet, usually paper that is too glossy or absorbent for the setting, or handling before it dries.
8. Check the paper.Damp paper, the wrong weight, or the wrong side of a coated sheet all cause poor results. Store paper flat in a dry place and check the setting matches what is loaded.
9. Run the alignment routine.If text looks doubled or slightly blurred rather than faded, the print head alignment has drifted. There is a routine in the printer's menu and it takes a minute.
10. Clean the rollers and inside.Dust and paper fibre build up. A lint-free cloth slightly damp with water on the accessible rollers, with the printer off and unplugged.
11. Reconsider third-party cartridges.Many are fine and some are genuinely poor, with thin ink that clogs heads. If quality dropped after switching, that is the likely cause and it is worth testing one original cartridge.
12. Print something regularly on an inkjet.The most common inkjet fault is drying out from disuse. A page every week or two prevents nearly all nozzle blockages and costs less than one cleaning cycle.
13. Weigh repair against replacement.A new print head or fuser frequently costs more than a new printer. Check the part price before ordering — on a cheap inkjet the arithmetic rarely works.

Tips

• The nozzle-check page is the most useful thing an inkjet can do. It turns guesswork into a specific answer in thirty seconds.
• If you print rarely, a laser printer is a better choice than an inkjet. Toner does not dry out, which removes the main failure mode.
• Measure the interval between repeating marks on a laser page. Each component has a different circumference and the measurement identifies it.

Common mistakes

• Running head cleaning cycles over and over — Each uses a substantial amount of ink. If three have not cleared it, more will not, and you will have spent a cartridge finding that out.
• Diagnosing from a document rather than a test page — The document, the application and the driver are all in the way. The printer's own test page isolates the hardware.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask