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Colour Printer Test Page
One sheet that exercises every colour channel at once: bars, a smooth gradient, a mixing grid and a type scale.
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 Colour Printer Test Page
- Load plain paper and set the paper type in the driver to match it.
- Choose Best/High quality, colour mode, scaling 100%.
- Print and let the sheet dry for about 30 seconds before judging colour — wet inkjet output shifts as it absorbs.
- Check the six solid bars first: any weakness isolates a single channel.
- Then examine the gradient for stripes, and the small text for edge sharpness.
- Use the mixing grid to spot channels that are individually fine but blend incorrectly.
Reading the result
| All six bars are solid and even | Colour delivery is healthy. Move on to the gradient to check blending. |
| One bar is faded or washed out | That channel is low on ink or partially clogged. Print the nozzle check to confirm before replacing a cartridge — a clog looks exactly like an empty tank. |
| Colours are shifted or have a cast | The printer is not reproducing your screen colours, which is normal. What matters is consistency. A consistent cast across all pages is a calibration setting; an intermittent one is a cartridge problem. |
| The rainbow shows visible stripes | Banding. Print the dedicated gradient and banding page to confirm, then run one head clean. |
| Small text is broken or blobby | Print quality is too low, or the paper type is wrong. Select Best/High quality and the paper type actually loaded — wrong paper type changes ink volume and destroys fine text. |
Also check
- CMYK separation — A cast across the whole page is far easier to attribute when each channel prints on its own, which is what the separation sheet does.
- Greyscale ramp — Neutral greys are the strictest test of channel balance: a drift too small to notice in saturated colour shows up immediately as a tint in the ramp.
- Gradient and banding page — Stripes in the rainbow mean banding rather than a wrong hue. Test for it separately so you do not recalibrate a printer that is simply delivering ink unevenly.
Related test pages
- CMYK printer test page — Separating the four process channels makes it obvious which ink is underperforming — and by how much.
- Banding printer test page — Solid bars hide banding. Gradients expose it. This page prints both, side by side, for each channel.
- 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.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my prints look different from my screen?
Screens emit RGB light; printers lay down CMYK ink on paper with a far smaller gamut. Exact matching is impossible without colour-managed workflows. Judge consistency against your own previous output, not against the display.
Should I print in draft mode to save ink?
No — for testing, never. Draft mode skips nozzles and lays down less ink, which produces exactly the false gaps and banding you are trying to measure.
What paper gives the most accurate colour?
The manufacturer's own paper, with the matching paper type selected in the driver. Mixing brands is fine for documents but shifts colour noticeably on photos and charts.
How do I tell a printer problem from a monitor problem?
Print the same file on any other device, or take it to a shop. If every output disagrees with the screen but agrees with itself, the display is the outlier. Printer faults move when you change cartridges or calibrate; monitor faults do not.
Why do colours shift between plain paper and photo paper?
Because they should. Plain paper wicks ink sideways, so dots spread and hues merge before they dry. Photo paper holds the dot in place. Select the paper type that is actually loaded — leaving it wrong is the single most common cause of dull, muddy colour.