

If you have been using the same cartridge for more than a few months, you may want to check the ink or toner levels. Consult your printer's documentation for details on how to run the cleaning function, as it differs for each printer brand and model. If you use your printer often or have had it for more than one year, we recommend running the printer's cleaning function. All modern printers have a self-cleaning mode, which cleans the print heads, and additional internal equipment used in the printing process. Your printer may be printing fuzzy, blurry, or other faint text because of dirty print heads. For a list of printer manufacturers and links to the driver sections on their websites, see our printer drivers index. Download the latest drivers for your printer and install them. If a printer is printing unreadable text or strange characters, you may be experiencing a driver related issue.

Check if the paper is moist and try replacing the paper in the printer to see if print quality improves. When printing on paper that is even slightly moist from humidity, ink can become smudged on the paper, colors can run together, and text or images can be distorted. If you live in an area where the air is often humid, the moisture in the air can be absorbed by the printer paper. As a result, some types of paper won't be compatible with your machine. Additionally, some varieties of paper have different textures on the surface that cause smudging, streaks, or lines to occur. See your printer documentation for steps on loading different sizes of paper into the printer. Select sizes of paper may require users to move a slider or feed the paper into the printer in a non-traditional manner.

If your printer works fine with standard paper, you may have a sizing or texture issue. To verify this is not the issue, try 8.5 x 11 sheets in your printer. If you are using anything other than standard printer paper, you may see smudges, uneven or crooked text, or text that runs off the paper's edges. They're written systematically to troubleshoot the problem in the most efficient manner possible. To troubleshoot the problem, we recommend reading each of the following sections in order. The cause for a printout having smudged or distorted text and images, and random meaningless characters can be due to multiple possible reasons.
