Print Quality Problems: Find the Right Fix (Streaks, Faded, Smudged, Wrong Colors)

Poor print quality almost always has one cause per symptom. Lines and banding are clogged inkjet nozzles or a worn laser drum; faded pages are economy settings or low toner; smudges are the wrong paper setting or ink on the rollers; wrong colors mean one color channel is empty or clogged. Print a nozzle check or test page, find your symptom in the table below, and follow the matching fix.

Quick fixes first

1. Print a nozzle check (inkjet) or a print quality test page (laser) from the maintenance menu; it tells you which color or part is at fault.
2. Turn off Draft, Eco, Quiet and Toner Save modes and set quality to Normal or Best.
3. Set the paper type in the driver to match the paper in the tray.
4. Inkjet: run one head cleaning, wait 15 minutes, nozzle check again. Laser: remove the toner, rock it, refit.
5. Copies and scans only? Wipe the scanner glass and the narrow ADF strip.

Which print quality fix do you need?

Find the row that matches your page. The last column points to the guide that covers that symptom in depth; the sections further down cover the fixes that apply across several symptoms.

Why print quality goes wrong

Inkjets put ink on paper through hundreds of nozzles per color; any nozzle that dries produces a missing line in every pass, which shows as a regular horizontal gap. The printhead also has to be aligned with the paper feed so each pass lines up; a misalignment shows as jagged vertical edges. Lasers draw the image on a photosensitive drum, charge it with a corona wire, develop it with toner and fuse it with heat; a scratched drum, a dirty wire or a tired fuser each leaves its own signature on the page. Paper type matters for both because the driver adjusts ink volume, drying time and fuser temperature to the media you tell it you are using.

Start with a nozzle check or test page

Every fix starts here, because the test page tells you whether the problem is in the printer or in the settings.

• HP: Settings › Tools › Print Quality Report, or the HP app › Print Quality Tools.
• Canon: Setup › Maintenance › Nozzle Check.
• Epson: Settings › Maintenance › Print Head Nozzle Check.
• Brother: Ink › Print Quality Check on inkjets. On lasers, print a test page from the panel's reports or machine information menu; the label varies by model.

Gaps in one color's pattern mean a clog in that color. If the pattern is perfect but your documents still look wrong, the cause is a setting, the paper type or alignment, not the ink. On an inkjet, run one cleaning cycle for the affected color, wait 15 to 20 minutes and check again. A second cycle is reasonable if the pattern improved, but more than two wastes ink and fills the waste pad; a head that still shows gaps needs a soak, or a single Power Cleaning on tank models, as described in the black-ink guide above.

The main symptoms in brief

Lines, streaks and banding

On an inkjet, regular horizontal gaps are clogged nozzles and jagged vertical edges are a misaligned head; on a laser, the distance between repeating marks identifies the drum, roller or fuser that caused them. The full diagnosis, including the laser interval check and Brother's corona wire tab, is in printer printing lines or streaks, and Brother drum replacement is covered in Brother drum end of life.

Faded or light prints

Turn off Draft, Eco, Quiet and Toner Save first, and set the paper type to match the paper; those settings cause more faded pages than hardware does. After that come low toner or a worn drum on a laser and a partially clogged pigment black on an inkjet, all covered step by step in faded print quality.

Wrong colors or a color cast

One empty or clogged color shifts every mix: missing cyan turns blues purple and missing yellow turns greens blue. Check the nozzle pattern, make sure the driver is not set to grayscale and that color management is not being applied twice, then run your laser's calibration; the details are in wrong colors printing.

Black missing, or pages blank

A full black cartridge that prints nothing is usually a clogged head, an unremoved seal or a color setting, and the soak procedure for each head type is in printer not printing black. Pages with nothing on them at all have their own checklist in printing blank pages.

Lines on copies and scans only

If prints from the computer are clean and only copies or document-feeder scans show a line, the scanner is dirty, not the printer. Wipe the main glass, the narrow ADF scan strip beside it and the white backing under the lid; a single speck on that strip draws a line down every page fed through the feeder.

Fixes that apply across symptoms

Vertical lines and jagged edges: alignment and the encoder strip (inkjet)

Run Print Head Alignment: HP Tools › Align Printhead; Canon Maintenance › Print Head Alignment; Epson Maintenance › Print Head Alignment; Brother Ink › Alignment. If a thin vertical line or a band of misregistered dots persists, the encoder strip, the clear plastic ribbon with fine black marks running behind the carriage, is dirty with ink mist. Power off, open the cover, and wipe the strip gently with a lint-free cloth dampened with water, being careful not to stretch it. A vertical smear in the same place on every page is ink on the carriage rail or a roller; wipe those too.

Smudges, smears and wet prints

Set the correct paper type: photo paper on the Plain setting gets too much ink and smears; plain paper on a Photo setting gets too much and dries slowly. Let photos sit a minute before stacking. On inkjets, a smear on the leading edge or repeated across pages means ink on the output rollers or the head's surround; run the printer's roller cleaning if it has one (Epson Paper Guide Cleaning, Canon Bottom Plate Cleaning) or wipe the rollers. Damp paper from a garage or basement smudges and fades on any printer, so try a fresh ream before blaming the hardware.

Laser smears that rub off, and gray backgrounds

• Toner that smears when rubbed: the fuser is not reaching temperature or is worn. Make sure the paper type is not set to a light stock when you are using heavy paper; if the smear persists on plain paper, the fuser needs replacing, which on a budget laser is uneconomic.
• A smear that will not rub off: loose toner inside the printer, which a careful clean of the cartridge area with a dry lint-free cloth fixes.
• Gray background: drum end of life, a dirty charge roller, or a third-party toner with the wrong charge. Try a genuine cartridge to confirm.

Brand-specific tools

HP: the HP app Print Quality Tools run cleaning, alignment and the quality report; HP Print and Scan Doctor on Windows adds the same with diagnostics. Canon: the driver's Maintenance tab on Windows exposes Nozzle Check, Cleaning, Deep Cleaning, Bottom Plate Cleaning and Roller Cleaning; System Cleaning exists on MegaTank models. Epson: Epson Printer Utility on Mac and the driver's Maintenance tab on Windows; Power Cleaning on EcoTank. Brother: Ink menu on inkjets; on lasers, the drum's green tab and the Drum Dot Print test (which marks the position of a spot on the drum so you can clean it).

If nothing worked

When a soaked inkjet printhead still shows gaps in the nozzle check, the head has failed; on Canon PIXMA and HP OfficeJet Pro models the head is replaceable for $40 to $90, on Epson, Brother and HP cartridge-head models it is effectively a new printer or a new cartridge. On a laser, a drum and toner replacement fixes nearly every line and fade problem; a fuser or laser scanner fault is not worth repairing on a printer under a few hundred dollars. Before paying for a new head or fuser, weigh it against whether the printer is worth repairing.

If you would like someone to read your nozzle check or test page and tell you which part is at fault before you spend on consumables, you can get help from a printer specialist.