Print a Printer Test Page on your printer

Please follow instructions below on how to print a printer test page. If your print test shows problems with colors or crispiness then your toner or ink cartridge may be low.

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This article is part of the Printer and Printing Troubleshooting Guide.

A Printer Test Page is printed to check that text and graphics can be printed correctly by the printer. The test page normally also shows you extra information such as the driver software version which can be used to if you need to troubleshoot problems. We have listed the printer driver download links for the most common printer brands - find your printer driver here.

Read our note on print quality or go directly to our printer and printing troubleshooting guide to solve any printer related problem.

There are basically three ways to print the printer test page:

1. Printing your own printer test page
2. Printing the printer test page provided by the printer software
3. Printing the printer test page provided by the Operating System

Printing your own printer test page

If you want alternatives to the standard test page, you can use the pictures we link to below.

Usage: Click on the link which will launch a new window. Right click and select "Print Picture..." to print the test page on your printer. Don't forget to connect and switch on your printer!

1. Print test page (color) - A test page to check the ability to print many colors correct.
2. Print test page (CMYK) - A test page for testing the CMYK colors in your printer.
3. Print test page (full test) - Use this test page for doing a full test (Grayscale, RGB, CMYK and dashed border lines).

4. Print test page (black) - Full size black test page
5. Print test page (yellow) - Full size yellow test page
6. Print test page (cyan) - Full size cyan test page
7. Print test page (magenta) - Full size magenta test page

Printing the printer test page provided by the printer software

Almost all modern printers have built in capabilities for printing a printer test page. Procedures to do so vary, please check your printer manual on how this should be done specifically on your printer. Please note that you need to install the CD that came with your printer in order print the printers own default test page.

If you can't find your printer manual, please go to the printer manual search page.

Printing the printer test page provided by the Operating System

Below guide outlines how to print a printer test page through Windows XP, Windows Vista or Ubuntu. If you have other operating systems, please search through your documentation on how this should be done.

Assuming that you are using Windows XP:
1. Go to the start bar.
2. Click on the control panel and choose Printer and Fax.
4. Right click on your printer and click on its properties.
5. Click on the General tab and look toward the bottom of the box. Click on the “Print Test Page” button and your printer will automatically print it for you.

Assuming that you are using Windows Vista:
1. Go to the start bar.
2. Click on the control panel and choose Hardware and Sound and clicking on Printers.
4. Right click on your printer and click on its properties.
5. Click on the General tab and look toward the bottom of the box. Click on the “Print Test Page” button and your printer will automatically print it for you.

Assuming that you are using Ubuntu:
1. Go to System > Administration and Printing
2. Right click on your printer and select its properties.
3. Click on the "Print a Test Page" button. You will get a printer test page that includes the Ubuntu logo and eight different color bars.

Print Quality Problems detected while printing the printer test page

Read our Printing Problems Article if you have problems with the quality of the print. Please remember that many things may affect the quality such as:

The printer and the quality of the raster image processor and the used color engine
Type of used paper
Ink and toner quality
Used color space
Used ICC profile

If you installed the CD that came with the printer you will probably have a built in functionality to make a hardware self test and to run a program that can align and clean the printheads.

To the top of the Print Test Page Guide!