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A5 Printer Test Page
148 × 210 mm — exactly half an A4. Small stock saves paper for repeated checks, but it leaves no room for edge marks, so it tests ink rather than paper feed.
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 A5 Printer Test Page
- Load plain white A5 and seat the guides snugly.
- Choose A5 in the paper size control.
- Set Actual Size or 100%.
- Print at Best or High quality.
- Read the fine detail under good light at normal reading distance.
- Print a second copy to confirm any fault reproduces.
Reading the result
| The page fills the A5 sheet evenly | Correct size and scale. Judge the ink pattern directly. |
| Content is cut off at the sides | A4 artwork forced onto narrower A5 stock. Print the A5 version instead. |
| The sheet prints at A4 length | A5 was not selected in the driver. Choose it explicitly. |
| Everything is legible but cramped | Expected at half size. Type smaller than about two millimetres is beyond most printers on plain paper regardless of fault. |
| Fine detail is missing entirely | Raise the print quality before blaming resolution — small stock makes quality settings far more obvious. |
Also check
- Nozzle check — The best use of half-size stock: the nozzle rows sit near the top, so almost nothing useful is lost.
- Resolution chart — Fine detail is judged more harshly at half size, which makes A5 a quick way to separate quality settings from genuine faults.
- Alignment page — Keep it for A4 or Letter instead — there is too little length on A5 to measure feed behaviour meaningfully.
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
Is A5 good for a quick nozzle check?
Yes, and it is the cheapest way to run frequent checks. The nozzle rows sit near the top of the sheet, so half-size stock loses almost nothing that matters for clog detection.
Why can I not test paper feed on A5?
Because there is barely any length for the feed to vary across. Skew and consistency problems only appear on longer stock — use A4 or Legal for anything feed-related.
Does half size mean half the ink?
Roughly, for the same coverage, but drivers do not always scale ink volume linearly. Treat an A5 result as a pass-or-fail indicator rather than a quantitative comparison against A4.
What can I safely conclude from an A5 test?
Ink results, not feed results. A5 is exactly half an A4, so the drawing loses almost nothing that matters for clog detection and colour judgement, and the stock is cheap enough to run daily without thinking about it. What it cannot tell you is how the printer behaves over distance: there is barely any length for skew or feed consistency to vary across, so a clean A5 sheet says nothing about whether a long job will come out straight. Use A5 for nozzles and tone, then switch to A4 or Legal for anything involving the paper path. Treat the half-size result as a quick pass-or-fail signal rather than a full diagnostic.
Is half-size stock a fair test of print quality?
It is a fair test of resolution and ink, and a poor test of everything else. Detail is drawn at true scale, so the fine lines you are judging are exactly as demanding on A5 as they are on A4 — nothing is enlarged to make them easier to read. What changes is the context around them: margins are tighter, white space is scarce, and the eye has less room to compare one region against another. For a pass-or-fail reading on clog and tone that is perfectly adequate, but read fine detail under good light and do not expect A5 to show the gradual variation across a wide field that A4 reveals so clearly.