Printer Printing Blank Pages

A printer printing blank pages is feeding paper but putting nothing on it. On an inkjet, the ink is not reaching the paper: tape is still over a new cartridge, the nozzles are blocked, or a tank printer has air in its lines. On a laser printer, the usual cause is a toner cartridge with its seal still inside or a drum that is not seated. The fastest way to tell which kind you have is the nozzle check built into the printer's menu, or its status report on a laser. If that sheet comes out blank too, the problem is ink or toner. If it prints and only your documents come out blank, the problem is a setting, the driver or the file, and the fix is on the computer.

Quick checks

• Is the document really blank? Look at print preview. White text, an empty last page or a page that only has a background image will print nothing.
• New cartridges: take each one out and remove every piece of tape and plastic, without touching the nozzles or the copper contacts. Push it back until it clicks.
• Ink or toner levels: check them on the printer's screen, in the maker's app or in Windows under Printer properties. Look at the tanks directly on an ink tank printer.
• Paper settings: the paper size and type in the print window should match the paper in the tray. A wrong size can push the printed area off the sheet.

Blank pages right after changing ink or toner

When blank pages start right after a change of ink or toner, the new cartridge is almost always the cause.

1. Take the new cartridge out and look for tape over the nozzles, a pull tab or a clear film. HP inkjet cartridges have a pink or orange tab; laser toner cartridges often have a sealing strip you pull straight out of the side.
2. Check it is the right cartridge for your model and region. Many printers show a cartridge error for the wrong one, but some just print nothing.
3. Wipe the copper contacts on the cartridge with a lint-free cloth lightly dampened with distilled water, let them dry and refit it.
4. On an ink tank printer such as an Epson EcoTank, Canon MegaTank or HP Smart Tank, a tank that ran empty lets air into the tubes. Refill it to the line, then run the deep cleaning the printer offers: Power Cleaning on Epson, and Deep Cleaning or System Cleaning on Canon models.
5. Print the printer's nozzle check again. Every color should show a complete pattern.

Blank pages but the printer has ink

When the levels look fine but pages come out empty or nearly empty, the nozzles are blocked. Ink dries in them when a printer sits unused for a few weeks.

1. Print a nozzle check from the printer's Maintenance menu or its app. Rows that are missing or broken show which colors are blocked.
2. Run one head cleaning. On HP printers, open the printer in HP Smart and find Clean Printhead under its maintenance tools, or use Clean Printhead on the control panel. Start with the first level and only move to the deeper one if the check still has gaps.
3. Print the nozzle check again. Repeat up to three times in all.
4. If gaps remain, switch the printer off with its power button, not at the wall, so it caps the head. Leave it overnight and try once more.

Each cleaning uses ink and fills a waste ink pad inside the printer, so dozens of cleanings in a row do more harm than good. The nozzle check pattern page explains how to read the result for each brand, and nozzle check epson lists the button steps for EcoTank models without a screen. On HP and many Canon home printers the print head is part of the ink cartridge, so a new cartridge also brings a new head.

Printer printing blank pages from one computer or app

If the printer's own check prints perfectly but jobs from your computer come out blank, the printer is fine.

• Try another app. If a PDF prints blank in Adobe Acrobat Reader, select Advanced in the print window and tick Print As Image. If a web page prints blank, open More settings in Chrome's print window and tick Background graphics.
• Print the Windows test page from Printer properties. If it comes out blank or full of symbols, the driver is wrong or damaged.
• Reinstall the driver. Remove the printer, remove its driver package under Print server properties in Printers & scanners, then install the full software package for your exact model from the maker's support site. Pages of odd symbols with a few lines of text usually mean the computer is sending a print language the printer does not speak.
• Mac: select the printer in System Settings, Printers & Scanners, click Options & Supplies and turn on Use Generic Printer Features, then print again.

If jobs do not come out at all, rather than coming out blank, follow printer not printing instead.

Blank pages in between printed pages

• The document. In Word and similar apps, an extra empty line or a page break at the end of a page pushes a blank page into the job. Turn on formatting marks or check print preview.
• Two sheets at once. Fan the paper before loading, square the stack, keep it below the tray's fill line and avoid paper that has soaked up damp. Worn or dusty pickup rollers also pull double sheets: wipe them with a lint-free cloth lightly dampened with water.
• A separator page. In Windows, open Printer properties, then the Advanced tab, and select Separator Page. Clear the file name so no page is added between jobs.
• Driver options. Some drivers, Epson's among them, have a Skip Blank Page option in their extended settings, which stops blank pages in a document from printing.

Laser printers printing blank pages

A laser printer prints a completely blank page when no toner reaches the paper. Low toner alone gives faded pages, not blank ones.

1. Take out the toner cartridge and check for a sealing strip, a protective sheet or orange packing pieces. Remove them all.
2. On printers with a separate drum unit, such as many Brother models, make sure the toner is clicked into the drum and the drum is fully seated.
3. Gently rock the toner cartridge side to side to spread the toner, then refit it.
4. Print the printer's configuration or status report. The print test page on brother printer guide lists the buttons for Brother lasers, and the hp printer test page guide covers LaserJets.

If a cartridge that worked in another printer, or a brand new genuine one, still gives blank pages, the transfer roller, the drum or the printer's high voltage parts have failed, which needs a repair. The black and white printer test page is the best sheet to check a laser once it prints again.

When it is a hardware fault

Suspect the hardware when one color, or everything, stays blank after three rounds of cleaning, an overnight rest and a new genuine cartridge. On printers with the head inside the cartridge, a new cartridge rules out the head. On tank printers and models with a separate head, a head that will not clear needs a replacement or a service. Epson printers also stop with a message about a part reaching the end of its service life when the waste ink pad is full after many cleanings.

Check the warranty with the serial number on the printer's status report, and keep the blank nozzle check as evidence for support. For a home printer out of warranty, a head replacement can cost close to the price of a new printer, so ask for a quote first. Once pages print again, run the printer test page to confirm every color and the black come out evenly.

Blank page questions