Black print test. Test images for checking RGB color profile. Photo test. Comprehensive service of office equipment - high quality and affordable

Each user, after purchasing a new technique, seeks to try it out as soon as possible. Of course, this also applies to printers. The only sure way to test the printing device is to print a durable page. This procedure will make sure that all the basic settings of the device have been set correctly, in addition, it will be possible to make sure that the color is transmitted in full accordance with the desired result.

In addition to the information listed, printing a test page on an HP printer will help you find out the exact driver version and model you are using. All the information provided may well be useful in case there are any problems or additional questions.

Test Print on an HP Printer

Left-click on the Start button in the taskbar and select Control Panel from the list of services.

Move the mouse cursor over the selected printer and press the right key. The shortcut menu for the printer appears. From the context menu select the command “properties and click on it with the left mouse button.

In the "Properties" menu, open the "General" tab and left-click on the "Test Print" command. If this is the first time the printer is starting up or it has not been used for a long time, you will need to wait a few seconds (15 to 30) before printing starts. It just takes the printer driver time to collect all the information about the system. In the future, the print processing speed will be higher. The test page parameters of any printer are defined by default and absolutely all printer parameters are tested during printing. The test page may differ from model to model.

When printing finishes, evaluate the test page. It should contain graphics, text, samples of absolutely all colors. There should be no distortion or unevenness. If the print was done with an inkjet printer, then there should be no ink drips.

When the printer finishes printing the page, you are prompted to save the print settings. If all the parameters of the test page suit you, you can simply click on the command “save print parameters by default.

How do I print an HP test page without a computer?

To get started, load regular, white paper of the correct size in the input tray.

A test print page for inkjet printers is printed as follows: turn off the device with the button, press the “Sheet” button without releasing it, press the “ON” button, release it, continue to hold the “Sheet” for about 10 seconds.

What problems may arise?

But sometimes the following problem occurs: The test page was printed incorrectly. In this regard, the question arises of what to do in this case and how to print this page? So, if the test page is printed incorrectly, then one of the possible problems is old or “broken drivers.

To solve it, you need to download and install their updated version. But what if this action did not help and the problem related to the fact that the printer does not print is still relevant? In this case, give “Everyone” full rights for “C: \\ Windows \\ System32 \\ spool \\ PRINTERS, and then delete the required printing device on the“ HKEY_USERS \\ .DEFAULT \\ Printers.

In addition, give a regular user the rights that the administrator has and install a brand new driver under his name. After that, you can revoke the previously granted rights from him. You should also disable UAC. If the steps taken do not help, then you should launch the Process Explorer utility and during printing pay attention to what rights are missing.

To check the print quality of printers in our laboratory, a special set of tests was developed, which is used in various combinations, depending on the type and class of the printer.

For testing monochrome and color laser printers, the complex looks like this:

1. Print speed. When required, printer print speed is measured using Xerox Recommended 5% Coverage Sample (PDF Sample -).

A job is sent to the printer from several copies of the above document (to improve accuracy - as a rule, 2N + 1 or 3N + 1 copies, where N is the print speed declared by the manufacturer), then the time of the first print out is subtracted from the result and then the "net" print speed is calculated ...

2. A set of control fonts. The original file in the vector CDR format of the Corel Draw program can be obtained

3. Universal test set of vector elements. Specifically for testing color laser printers in raster gradient modules of each color, 512-step fill is applied. The radial lines are used to check the quality of the combination of yellow (Yellow) and turquoise (Cyan) colors for the synthesis of green shades. In the center of the 90-angle star is a 1 pt spiral. The original file in the vector CDR format of the Corel Draw program can be obtained

4. Complex test color table IT8 Reference Target for a comprehensive check of the print quality of raster images. The printable TIFF image is hosted

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When in inkjet printer low on ink, the user needs to refill the cartridge or purchase a new print cartridge. Some users purchase only original consumables, others prefer compatible inks, but both the former and the latter are interested in obtaining high-quality prints and extending the life of their printing equipment.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to check the quality of ink in the store, so the user has to rely only on the conscientiousness of the manufacturers and personal experience in choosing consumables. But at home it is not difficult to test the quality of purchased ink. This will require a printer, quality paper, and, in fact, purchased ink. The essence of testing inkjet ink at home is to print specific test pages or test items and carefully analyze them in order to identify the merits and demerits of a given ink. Test page to check the quality of inkjet ink can be found on the Internet.

Test page elements for testing inkjet ink quality

If you plan to use ink for printing home photos, then the first two elements of the test page will be enough for you, but if you are using ink for professional commercial photo printing, then the test page should contain all the elements listed in the figure above.

An example of a test page with the designation of its main elements is presented below.

Legend:

1, 1a - gradient transition from white to black; 2 - a portrait of a person with a natural skin tone;

3 - image fragments containing light elements on a dark background and vice versa;

4 - plates filled with different colors.

Sample test page with designation of its elements

Considering the resulting test page, you should pay attention not to the exact coincidence of the shades of the obtained image with the original, but to the balance of the selected set of ink. The main criterion here is the gray fill that the inkjet printer generates during printing. The gray color should be pure, without any extraneous shade. If such a shade is present on the print, then the selected ink is far from ideal.

An example of color distortion when printing in gray is shown in the following figure. Here is a comparison of several scans from inkjet ink testing. In testing, we used the same printer, when printing, the same settings were set, printing was done on the same paper.

Ink A

Ink B

Scans from inkjet ink testing

Ink B and IN when printing, they form extraneous shades: on the print B - blue, printed IN - purple. This is especially noticeable in the gray fill of the picture located in the lower right corner. Ink AND demonstrated accurate color reproduction, which indicates their quality and balance.

An extraneous tint can appear both in the entire image and in its individual areas. Excessive pallor of the print, distortion or mixing of colors, insufficient image clarity and low rendering of small details can also indicate a low quality of ink. Only ink for cartridges can be to blame for the appearance of the listed symptoms. Most likely, the manufacturer did not sufficiently test its ink and released it to the market ahead of time. Pay attention to the drawing of small details in the darkest and lightest areas of the image. Good printer ink draws fine details better than bad ink. As an example, consider two scans of photographs printed with different inks on the same inkjet printer using the same paper.

Ink A

Ink B

Photos printed using the same photo paper

on the same inkjet printer, but different inks

Ink AND exhibit more realistic color reproduction and better render the finest image details. Ink B they do not accurately convey halftones and small details, their colors are not as natural and deep as on the first print. Light halftones in the picture B look flashy, there is no smooth transition between light and dark areas of the image.

If, after receiving insufficient quality test prints, you are already about to run to the supply store for new ink, stop! Practice shows that you can achieve quite satisfactory print quality by experimenting with the settings in the "printer - ink - paper" system. If you do everything right, you can increase the realism and color of your photos and improve the color reproduction of midtones and tints. If you plan on using inkjet inks for professional photo printing, then you will have to spend a little more time finding the balance in the printer-ink-paper system. You may need to print more than one test page before you get a satisfactory image. Let's take a picture as an example.

Basic test page

The base test page has a pale yellow tint. The children's faces at the bottom of the test page look faded, and the shades are not vivid and natural enough.

Open the color rendering settings window in the computer and find the halftone curve. Reduce the yellow color in the settings, increase and adjust the brightness and clarity of the image. We print the second test page with the new settings.

Test page after additional color adjustment

After adjusting the color rendition, the test page looks more natural: the milky-yellow tint has disappeared, the images have become more realistic, distinct, and brighter.

If the color rendition setting does not give the expected results, then most likely you are using the wrong photo paper for the ink. In this case, you will not get satisfactory print quality without color distortion even with original inks, let alone cheaper compatible inks.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the correct selection of ink for inkjet printing is a rather time-consuming and difficult process for an ordinary buyer. Therefore, if you are unsure of your knowledge and skills in inkjet printing and printer maintenance, it is best to seek professional advice.

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The perfect test list. This example shows what a flawless print should look like.

Recurring black dots located vertically on a white test sheet. This test sheet characterizes the most common type of defect - pinhole breakdown of the drum photolayer. Breakdowns are of different diameters: from barely distinguishable points to greasy spots. In this case, it becomes necessary to completely replace the drum unit, since there is no technology for its restoration. This decision is made depending on the client's requirements for the print quality, since small punctuations when printing only text are practically indistinguishable and there is no need to replace the drum. But over time, the points increase in size. Then it will be possible to think about replacing such an important component.

Rejection of the magnetic shaft. A vertical bar on a black test sheet indicates a scratch on the magnetic shaft, which is a defect. In this case, the magnetic roller must be replaced, since the light stripe significantly impairs the print quality of text and pictures.

Solid vertical black stripe on a white test sheet. The appearance of a solid or intermittent vertical one black or several stripes along the edges of the white test sheet indicates serious damage to the photo layer on the drum. Otherwise, these drums are called "burnt". These defects are clearly visible with the naked eye. The photo layer in the place of damage has a characteristic brown color or, if absent, exposes the following layers. The imaging drum must be replaced. On a black test sheet with such defects, you can see a dashed strip along the edge.

An example of a marriage of Samsung and Xerox cartridges. They differ from defects on HP and Canon cartridges due to differences in technology. Spots on both test sheets, vertical stripes on the black test sheet, and repeating horizontal dots on white indicate the need to replace the large rubber roller, drum unit.

Toner is low. The photo shows what the test print looks like when the toner in the cartridge runs out. This is especially noticeable on the black test sheet. This example is not a defect. It's just time to refill the cartridge.

Divorces and waves on light dough. The appearance of streaks and waves on a light dough indicates improper storage of the cartridge, as a result of which it becomes damp. In this case, the consumable must be cleaned of the old toner and refilled again.

Vertical streak, faint print.Faintness of the print, a clearly distinguishable vertical stripe on the black test results in scratches on the magnetic roller, as well as its strong wear. The same signs appear when the drum unit is burnt out. To improve print quality, it is advisable to replace worn and damaged components.

Toner build up on the squeegee. Occasionally, toner can adhere to various parts of the cartridge due to the temperature rise in the printer during operation, significantly affecting print quality. It is necessary to clean the squeegee, remove excess toner from the parts.

We talked about the main defects in cartridges and their effect on print quality.

Most often, people purchase printers for specific tasks. Both an advanced digital photographer with high quality requirements, and a caring parent, choosing an inexpensive printer for their child “for study,” albeit vaguely, formulate the quality characteristics of the device. Therefore, when developing this technique, we proceeded primarily from the possible areas of application of each specific model of the printing device.

To exclude senseless testing of printers in all possible (and innumerable multiple) combinations of applications, drivers, modes of operation and settings, we start from several general types of printers, users who may need certain features, and tasks specific to each printer. ... It follows that we are not aiming to make, say, an inexpensive under $ 100 inkjet printer work in conditions more suitable for a powerful laser printer with its own PostScript interpreter.

1. Maximum print speed

This test shows the maximum speed of the printing mechanism. Multiple copies of a one-page PDF file are sent to the printer at a standard 5% coverage. The number of copies launched for printing corresponds to the number of copies per minute declared by the manufacturer + 1 copy. Timing starts immediately after the printer issues the first copy. This eliminates the dependence of the result on the power of the computer, file type, drivers, printer interface and the speed of processing the job by the printer itself.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is the number of ppm.

2. Printing a multipage document with illustrations

Unlike the previous test that simulates duplicating a one-page document, this test shows the print time of a simple 20-page PDF document containing small bitmap illustrations in RGB format and text in 10 point size. Printing is done from Adobe Reader 6.0; the time is measured from the moment the document is put into print. Since the size and type of the document are not standardized, and the processing time of the job by the driver is measured, the result reflects the relative performance of a particular "application-computer-printer" link. The test bench configuration is shown in the appendix.

The test runs on all types of printers. Result - time in minutes, sec.

3. Evaluation of the quality of fonts reproduction

This test allows you to evaluate the print quality of text material typed in serif and sans serif type (Times New Roman and Arial, respectively). The font sizes are reduced from 72pt to 2pt.

If the printer does not support PostScript, a PDF file is printed from Adobe Reader 6.0. However, if the manufacturer claims to support the PostScript standard, the test page is output to the printer directly from the Adobe InDesign CS layout package.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is the minimum readable font size (size in points), print quality of curved and oblique elements of letters. Under the readability of the font is meant preserving the integrity of the main elements of the letters (the absence of "swollen" elements or breaks of the letters).

4. Printing a universal test strip

A special test page is formed in such a way as to show explicitly the capabilities of the printer. The following items are available for evaluation:

scale of neutral densities. Range 0–10% in 1% steps, 10–90% in 10% steps, and 90–100% in 1% steps;
color streamers CMYKRGB 100-0%;
scales showing the minimum and maximum reproducible CMYK ink densities. The minimum densities are numbers from 1 to 8, painted in their corresponding shades, on a white background (0%). The maximum densities are numbers from 92 to 99 with a corresponding color against a background of 100%. Each paint has its own pair of scales;
a scale consisting of 100% RBGYMCK colors;
color stretch RYGCBM, created using Adobe Photoshop CS;
text in sizes from 4pt to 8pt (5-9 pt for decorative type) in decorative, serif, sans serif styles. The options are: normal (black text on a white background), inversion (white text on a black background) and colored (text in different colors on a rich green background);
scales that allow you to measure the maximum reproducible lineature. They are collections of concentric circles. The available values, in lines per inch: 60-80 in 5 l / d steps, 80-170 in 10 l / d steps;
a set of scales that allow you to evaluate the color registration and the accuracy of the printer calibration.

They are sets of longitudinal, transverse, oblique, wavy and intersecting lines of different colors.

All test items are placed on a solid gray background with no borders, which allows you to determine the actual printable area of \u200b\u200bthe printer.

For printers that do not support PostScript, a PDF document is printed from Adobe Reader 6.0. For PostScript printers, printing is done directly from the Adobe InDesign CS layout package. The printed strip is scanned and all parameters are evaluated.

The test runs on all types of printers. The result is the actual values \u200b\u200bof all parameters.

5. Assessment of the quality of color rendering

This test consists of a selection of photographs typical to assess the color fidelity, saturation and detail of images:

photograph of a brown bear. Dark wool with rich tonal variations allows you to appreciate the transfer of detail in the shadows;
picture of a woman with a dog. The light coat of the dog, the clothes of the woman and a fragment of the pier allow you to appreciate the transfer of details in the lights;
a photograph of a boy reveals the quality of the transfer of skin tones;
black and white family photography with a wide range of tones helps to evaluate the quality of the printer's reproduction of the entire range of neutral tones;
photography of vegetables. The colors of vegetables and greenery are very familiar to all of us, so we use them as commemorative flowers and add their contribution to the assessment of color rendering;
photo of a motorcycle engine. Metallic surfaces, glare, and harsh shadows show the printer's ability to reproduce high-contrast images with deep shadows and “ringing” reflections;
photographs of tools contain small details (texture of gloves, leather, scratched metal surface), warm, cold and neutral shades. In addition to checking the detail of the print, they help to evaluate the color separation algorithms. For this purpose, one of the photographs is in CMYK space, and the other has an embedded sRGB color profile. The profile with the help of which the image was transferred to the CMYK space is non-standard, created by us with our own hand. However, this profile has been repeatedly used to prepare images for high quality sheetfed offset printing, which has proven its viability. The sRGB profile for a neighboring photo is not used by accident: more and more devices (digital cameras, monitors, printers) declare full support for this space, so it becomes interesting to compare two different approaches: independent color separation in Photoshop or automatic - with a printer driver. Due to the fact that it makes no sense to print CMYK images on printers that do not support PostScript and then find fault with the quality of color reproduction, for such devices this test only evaluates end-to-end sRGB profiling;
parrot photography is a synthetic test. The feathers on the chest of parrots contain many details, but at the same time they have a pronounced dominant color. Since in real life we \u200b\u200brarely have to deal with such saturated colors, this kind of stress test, which reveals the borderline capabilities of the printer, will be all the more revealing.

All images (except for photography of instruments) have a resolution of 300dpi. Photo tools - 600 dpi. For printers without PostScript support, a PDF file with RGB versions of images without embedded profiles is used (except for one of the photo tools). On PostScript printers, CMYK-version images (except for one of the tool photos) are output directly from the layout package. A PDF file with CMYK versions of the images is sent to printers that support PDF format (with the same exception as in the previous case). Photo printers are printed from the Adobe Photoshop CS package, each image (in RGB version) is printed in a separate session. Also, for photo printers, the time elapsed from the start of the print job to the exit of the finished sheet is measured.

The test runs on all types of printers. Result - visual assessment of printed samples and time in min., Sec.

6. Other

Along with the main characteristics of the printer, it is also important for the end user to know such parameters as the noise of the printer, the ergonomics of the controls, the thoughtful design and even the aesthetic impression of the appearance of the printer. We do not attach absolute importance to these parameters and evaluate them subjectively.

Laser Printers Test Papers:

uncoated paper with a density of 200–220 g / m 2.

Paper used when testing inkjet printers:

plain, uncoated, office paper with a density of 80g / m 2;
third-party universal glossy inkjet paper;
high quality glossy inkjet photo papers from a third party;
high quality inkjet photo paper recommended by the printer manufacturer.

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