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A3 Printer Test Page
297 × 420 mm — exactly double A4. The extra area makes it the most useful size for judging banding and registration across a wide sweep.
Set scaling to 100%. Choose Actual Size in the print dialog, never Fit to page — scaling distorts every measurement on this sheet. The Download PDF button hands you that same sheet as a ready-made file, so there is no scaling decision to get wrong.
How to print the A3 Printer Test Page
- Load plain white A3 and check the guides on both sides.
- Choose A3 in the paper size control.
- Set scaling to Actual Size or 100%.
- Print at Best or High quality; large areas need full ink coverage.
- Judge the sheet flat under even light.
- Reprint the gradient page at A3 if banding appears across the sweep.
Reading the result
| The page fills the sheet and circles are round | Correct size, correct scale. Judge the pattern itself. |
| The image sits centred with a wide border | A4 artwork placed on A3. The drawing did not use the paper, so nothing on it is measurable. |
| Only half the sheet is used | The driver kept the original size instead of the selected A3. Set paper size to A3 explicitly. |
| A fold or skew appears across the middle | Large sheets flex in the feed. Reduce the stack and check the guides before adjusting anything. |
| Band spacing looks uneven across the width | On wide sweeps this is a real fault. Confirm on the gradient page printed at the same size. |
Also check
- Gradient and banding page — The widest sweep available here — a partially blocked row that is invisible on A4 shows up as a repeating stripe.
- Alignment page — Registration errors scale with sheet width, so A3 exposes problems that A4 keeps under the margin.
- Colour test page — Large solid areas at A3 reveal uneven coverage that small-format charts cannot show.
Related test pages
- Paper sizes printer test page — A test page only measures your printer if the sheet matches the paper in the tray. Choose the size you actually load and the geometry on the page stays true.
- Nozzle Check printer test page — A nozzle check is the fastest way to find out whether an inkjet printhead has clogged nozzles. Print this page and read the gaps.
- Alignment printer test page — If lines that should be straight come out crooked, or text looks doubled, the printhead is out of alignment. This sheet measures it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an A3 printer?
Only if you print A3 regularly. A4 printers will accept the setting and silently scale the job, producing something that looks fine but measures wrong. If your device has no A3 path, test at A4 and read the relative results rather than absolute dimensions.
Why is A3 useful for banding?
A wider sweep puts more nozzles in play across a single pass, so a partially blocked row that would be invisible on a narrow chart shows up as a repeating stripe. It is the fastest way to catch an intermittent fault.
Is A3 just two A4 sheets?
In area, yes — it is exactly double. In practice a single A3 sheet tests something two A4 sheets cannot: continuity across a width that never passes through a page break.
Why does A3 show banding that A4 hides?
Because a wider sweep puts more nozzles into play within a single carriage pass, and because the repeating distance between blocked rows stretches as the sheet gets larger. On A4 a partially blocked row can land between the stripes your eye is looking for and disappear into ordinary print variation. On A3 the same defect repeats across 297 mm of travel and becomes obvious as a band running the full width of the sheet. Always confirm a stripe you see at A3 by printing the gradient page at the same size before you order ink or arrange service — one reprint at identical size separates a genuine clog from a driver artefact.
What should I look at first on an A3 sheet?
Start at the leading edge, then work down. The top third confirms ink delivery, because the rows are printed before the sheet has travelled far at all. The middle third shows coverage across the width, where uneven lay-down appears as vertical shading. The trailing third tests feed consistency, since by then the sheet has passed almost the entire path. Judging the sheet in that order keeps faults separate: a problem present at the top is an ink problem, one that appears only at the bottom is a paper problem, and one running the full width is usually a driver or coverage issue rather than a mechanical one.