Printers are great when they work, simply when they don't information technology can be extremely frustrating. Here's how to solve some of the most common issues, including not printing at all through to blocked nozzles and other issues.

Printers can run reliably for many years and thousands of prints, but they can also malfunction or cease working entirely.

Sometimes the reason is as simple as over- or nether use. Many people don't use their inkjet printers often enough and this tin can pb to bug with dried-up ink blocking the nozzles. Overuse is less common than misuse: paper clips, hair bands and fifty-fifty food can fall into printers and cause paper jams (and worse).

If your printer can't be stock-still with these tips, check out our listing of the all-time printers to buy, and the all-time printer deals correct now.

My printer won't print

At that place are many reasons why your printer won't impress, then outset with the basics such as checking to see whether there is an mistake message or warning light on the printer. Make sure there is paper in the tray(s), check the ink or toner cartridges aren't empty, the USB cable is plugged in or the printer is connected to Wi-Fi.

And if information technology is a network or wireless printer, try using a USB cable instead. In our experience, some Wi-Fi printers are unreliable in terms of their connection. So it'due south worth unplugging your printer and any powerline network adapters it's connected to, so turning everything back on again.

Select the right printer!

Sometimes the reason a printer won't impress is because you lot've installed some software which has a 'virtual' printer and this has set itself as the default. When you hit Print, a file will be saved by this virtual printer instead of the document being sent to your physical printer.

To check this, open the Control Panel from the Start menu. And then go to Devices and Printers, correct-click the correct printer to employ and ready it as the default. (While y'all're in that location, you tin can also ensure the printer's status is set to Ready. If not, this could exist the source of the problem.)

Side by side, make sure that the correct printer is selected in the program you are printing from - you lot should run across an option to choose from a list as in the paradigm below.

Solve common printing problems: default printer

Microsoft has a printing troubleshooter that can help to place problems. Click the Set up it button, download and run the plan, then follow the steps in the sorcerer.

You tin also open up the Control Panel, Devices and Printers, correct click the printer icon and select Troubleshoot. It doesn't always help, just information technology'south worth trying.

How to fix printer problems HP

HP has a Print and Browse Medico to identify problems, and Canon has lots of great videos on its website – click your printer model and then click the Troubleshooting videos link.

Why can't I impress from my phone or tablet?

Solve common printing problems: Cloud Print

To print from an iPad, iPhone or iPod Impact, the printer must have Wi-Fi and also back up AirPrint. The list of AirPrint printers is growing, only at that place are still a lot of printers, particularly older models, that don't support it.

If you have a Mac with a printer fastened, you can turn information technology into an AirPrint printer using HandyPrint. Printer Pro is an app for iOS devices that enables them to print to many wireless printers or a wired i attached to a PC or Mac.

Some Samsung phones, tablets and printers are designed to work together and printing is straightforward. Samsung also has its own app for printing to its printers, including from iPhones.

To print from any Android phone or tablet to any PC-connected printer you tin can apply Google Deject Print.

Install Cloud Print on the mobile device from the Google Play shop. Side by side, using Google Chrome on your PC, go to the menu, Settings, Advanced Settings and click Manage. Y'all tin can and so add the printer fastened to the PC. Provided the PC and printer are switched on, you lot can print from the Android device.

Do I need to supervene upon the cartridges?

Printers warn that the ink is running out before it actually does. If you print just occasionally the remaining ink or tonermight last another couple of weeks, if not months.

Order new cartridges every bit presently equally the message appears, merely don't install them until it either stops printing or the colours fade. A flim-flam with laser printers is to remove the cartridge that'south running low and shake it gently from side to side. This sometimes allows the balance of the toner to exist used. In other cases a counter is used and once a certain number of pages has been printed, the cartridge volition exist deemed equally empty.

HP has an interesting scheme with many of its printers where you pay per month and cartridges automatically make it at the right time.

If your colour ink has run out, but y'all must go on printing, yous might be able to set your printer to print in black and white only. This is a setting yous'll observe in printer properties in the Control Panel - or click the option when you go to print via an application yous want to impress from.

Why won't web pages, Excel documents and photos print properly?

Web pages

Web pages tin exist any size and they aren't limited past the width or height of the newspaper in your printer. They aren't ordinarily designed to be printed, which is why problems can occur.

Always choose the Print Preview option so you can run across what y'all'll get. You might not need all the pages, for example, if there are lots of comments or adverts, so use the option when press to select the pages to print, such as ii-4 to print pages 2 to 4. Choose landscape mode if the web page is very broad.

Much of the time y'all will notice a shrink-to-fit pick in the printer settings that helps when your certificate or photograph is just a bit besides big to fit on the page. Some web pages, such as those with printable coupons, accept a print push button within the web page. Use that and not the print menu in the browser.

Office documents

If you're trying to print an Excel sheet, be sure to select only the cells yous need to print earlier clicking Print. Then y'all can choose 'Print pick' and change the other options to make sure it fits well on an A4 canvass. Yous can do other things, such as reducing the size of the margins, and switching from landscape to portrait orientation.

Fix printing problems - Excel

Similarly, when press a Give-and-take document or whatever other, you can normally specify which pages to print then yous don't take to print them all.

Photos and pictures

For photos or images you want to print, it's usually all-time to correct-click on them in Windows Explorer and click Print. This way you lot volition get to choose how big to impress each photograph.

If you select multiple photos in a folder, and so correct-click and choose Print you volition be able to impress them all at once, with more than ane per canvass of newspaper (and you can cull the paper size here too). It's similar to the 'n-upwardly' choice that you'll find in Printing properties which allows you to impress multiple pages of a certificate on a single sheet of A4.

Fix printing problems - Photos

Why does my printer say "Error"?

At that place are a few possible reasons, simply the nearly mutual is to practice with newspaper. The start thing to check is whether the input tray is empty, only it's besides worth checking for paper jams. If yous find one, try to work out why information technology's happening rather than just pulling out a crumpled slice of newspaper from the paper tray and assuming you lot've fixed it.

Take the paper out of the tray, open all the flaps and wait inside. You might demand a torch to see the paper and long tweezers to achieve it, specially if it's only a very small piece which has been ripped off and left inside.

Wait underneath the printer because there may be an admission panel that can be removed to examine and clean the newspaper feed mechanism.

Quondam paper can absorb moisture, which makes information technology stick so it is pulled through ii or more sheets at a fourth dimension. Continue it in a handbag until it is needed. Check out Canon's troubleshooting videos to run into how to remove pieces of paper stuck in printers.

Besides, try using thinner paper: most home printers will only handle photograph paper at a maximum. They can't usually impress on carte as it's too stiff to exist fed around corners.

Why is the print quality poor?

The nozzles on inkjet printer heads can become blocked causing horizontal streaks on prints and poor or wrong colours. Cleaning the print heads can solve the problem. The procedure varies from printer to printer and there may be an selection on the printer control panel or in the printer software on the computer.

You might need to look this up in the transmission. In your printer'southward properties (either in an app or in the Windows Control Panel) y'all might observe a maintenance section.

Solve common printing problems: maintenance

Click information technology and you tin can clean the print heads or align them. Caput cleaning kits are bachelor for around £10 from Amazon although you should compare it to the price of a new cartridge - in that location's no guarantee a cleaning kit will gear up the problem.

The type of paper affects the print quality and photocopier paper might be letting you downward.

It tin can exist likewise absorbent and inkjet ink soaks into information technology like blotting paper. Buy good quality newspaper for the best prints, and this is usually from the printer manufacturer itself, particularly for printing photos.

Laser printers are less dependent on newspaper, and smudges or spots in the same place on each page usually mean there's dirt somewhere in the printer, typically on the 'drum'.

Be very conscientious when cleaning the imaging drum, using only isopropyl booze and a soft lint-costless cloth.

Read the manufacturer'due south guidance on how to remove and clean the drum, which is often chosen an OPC.

Nosotros've likewise written a guide on how to lucifer the colours on your screen to your printer.