Printers can present a wide range of problems. Fortunately, many of them can be easily solved by consumers armed with a bit of knowledge. If you are having problems with your printing, we have the solution. Printers can run reliably for many years and thousands of prints, but often they do not. Why is this? Sometimes it is as simple as over or under use. Many home users simply don’t use their inkjet printers often enough and this can lead to problems with dried up ink blocking the nozzles. A two-week holiday can ruin a set of ink cartridges. Over use is less common, but it can happen in busy offices with shared printers. Paper clips, rubbers, hair bands and other objects fall into printers and cause paper jams surprisingly often. Here are some useful problems and solutions to keep your printer running smoothly.

Printing Takes Too Long

The higher the resolution, the slower your printer prints. When you want speed over print resolution, select a print mode like Standard or Draft in your printer driver. Large files with complex images take longer for your printer to process and print than smaller, text-only files. If your printer has minimal memory (base models often do) adding RAM can help speed up image processing. If your printer is in its power saving mode, it will take extra time for it to “wake” before it’s ready to print at its normal speed. For lengthy documents, printing the pages two-up will cut the page count in half.

My Printer Will Not Print

If there are no error messages pointing you to the problem, check to be sure that the printer is still connected, via USB or Ethernet cable or, if a wireless model, that the Wi-Fi is enabled and that you're connected to the right network. The printer driver and software needs to be installed on the computer you want to print from. It's possible that the driver has become corrupted; it should be reinstalled; check the manufacturer's download page for the latest version. If it still doesn't work, check out the troubleshooting section in the printer's User Manual, and if need be, contact tech support.

The Printed Text Looks Lousy.

Printers vary widely in text quality; inkjets generally offer text suitable for home, school, or casual business use, while most lasers are capable of printing crisp text for more professional- looking documents. We rate text quality for each printer in our reviews. But assuming you've noticed a gradual or sudden degradation in quality, there are several things you can try that may resolve it. Whether inkjet or laser, make sure your print settings are correct. If you're in draft mode, switch to higher quality mode. Be sure that the paper type listed on screen matches what you're printing on. With laser printers, it may mean that the toner has settled; remove the cartridge and shake several times from side to side. Often, a cartridge will respond to this, though eventually it will run out of toner and have to be replaced. For inkjets, you can try a nozzle cleaning and print head alignment, which you can launch from the printer's maintenance menu. If that doesn't help, you can try replacing cartridges as well.

My Inkjet's Photos Look Lousy.

If you're not satisfied with your photo print quality, make sure that you're printing on the right paper. Generally, your printer manufacturer's branded photo paper will be better than third party papers, and they may recommend a particular paper for your printer. In your software settings, be sure that you've selected the paper (or paper type) you're using, and that it's set for photo printing. If there's a high quality photo setting, try that. Also, run through a nozzle cleaning and print head alignment. If you're running low on one color of ink, you may see discoloration in your prints, it's time to change the ink tank in question. Also, particulates in the ink will eventually settle and can cause clogging, so you'll want to replace old tanks, even if they're partly or mostly full of ink.

I get a lot of paper jams.

Fortunately, paper jams are far less common than even a decade ago, but they still can happen. By far the most common cause of paper jams is paper misalignment. Be sure to square off the stack of paper before inserting it in the tray, be sure that the guides are flush with the paper, and avoid overfilling the tray. If this doesn't solve the problem, check the troubleshooting section of the printer's user manual, and if need be, contact the manufacturer's tech support.