Tool
Printer test page
One page that checks a printer properly: each ink on its own, tint ramps, a greyscale wedge, line weights, fine detail, small text and a 100 mm scale check — plus marks round the edge that measure how close to the edge of the paper your printer can actually print. Free PDF for A4 or US Letter.
Step 1
Print the test page
- Print the PDF at Actual size or 100%, never Fit to page.
- Turn borderless printing off; it enlarges the page and hides the edge test.
- Use the paper size you chose above.
Step 2
Read the edge test
On each side of the printed page, find the lowest number whose mark actually printed.
What each part of the page shows
- Solid inks and mixes. Streaks or white lines in a patch mean a blocked nozzle; a colour that looks wrong in a mix but right on its own points to one cartridge.
- Tint ramps and greyscale wedge. Each step should differ from its neighbours. Steps that merge at the light end lose highlights; at the dark end, shadows.
- Line weights and line pairs. The finest line that prints unbroken, and the finest pairs that stay separate, are the detail your printer resolves.
- Text sizes. The smallest size you can read without it filling in is the practical floor for small print on this printer.
- Scale check. The lines should measure 100 mm and 4 inches. If they are short, the page was scaled; the calibration test gives the exact percentage.
Keeps these settings in the link. Useful for moving from a phone to the computer with the printer on it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I print a printer test page?
Choose A4 or US Letter to match the paper in the tray, download the PDF and print it at Actual size or 100% with borderless printing off. A PDF rather than a page printed from the browser, because a browser adds its own margins and headers and may scale the page, which would spoil both the scale check and the edge test.
What does the edge test measure?
How close to each edge of the paper your printer can print. Marks are drawn 1 to 10 mm from every edge; the ones inside the printer’s unprintable margin simply do not appear. The lowest number that printed on a side is the margin to leave on that side. Most home printers manage 3–5 mm, usually a little more at the bottom, which is the edge the paper leaves by. Enter the four numbers above to get the margin to use in layouts.
There are white lines or gaps in the colour patches. What does that mean?
On an inkjet, a blocked or drying nozzle: every pass of the head leaves the same thin gap. Run the printer’s nozzle check and head cleaning from its maintenance menu, then print this page again. Gaps in only one colour point to that cartridge; gaps in all of them, to the head. On a laser, faint vertical streaks usually mean a low toner cartridge or a dirty drum.
Why do the lightest greyscale steps disappear?
Many printers and drivers drop very light tones to white, and some darken the whole range. If the 5% and 10% steps vanish, photographs will lose their highlights; if the darkest steps merge into black, shadows will lose detail. Check that the driver is not set to a draft or economy mode, which does both.
Can I test a black-and-white printer?
Yes. Choose Black and white and the page leaves out the colour patches and tint ramps. Everything else — the greyscale wedge, line weights, fine line pairs, text sizes, the scale check and the edge test — uses black only.