Printer not printing black

Start with a black and white test page

Print the black and white printer test page at 100% scale. It has solid black, grey steps and fine text. Look for:

• Solid black is blank or missing in stripes: the black ink is not reaching the paper.
• Black looks brown, green or dark blue: the printer is mixing black from colour inks, either by setting or because the black cartridge is not used.
• Grey steps run together: the black is low, or the paper type setting is wrong.

Check the settings that change black

• Many drivers have options such as print in grayscale, black ink only or composite black. Composite or high-quality colour modes may use colour inks for black.
• Check the paper type. Some printers use a different black ink for photo paper than for plain paper; if they have two blacks, the wrong paper type may use the empty one.
• Try printing the same test page from another app, or as the PDF, to rule out the document.

Check the cartridge

1. Look at the ink level in the printer's screen or app.
2. On a new cartridge, check the protective tape and plastic cap are removed.
3. Take the black cartridge out and put it back until it clicks, then close the cover and wait for the printer to finish its start-up routine.
4. If it is a refilled or third-party cartridge and black failed right after fitting it, try a genuine one before anything else.

Use the nozzle check, not repeated cleaning

Print the printer's own nozzle check. If the black lines are missing or broken, run one cleaning cycle from the maintenance menu and print the nozzle check again. If it improves, a second cleaning may finish the job. If nothing changes after two cycles, stop: repeated cleaning wastes ink and can make an unused printer worse. Many manufacturers suggest leaving the printer switched on but idle for several hours before trying again.

Laser printers

A laser printer that prints colour but no black, or a mono laser that prints blank or very pale pages, usually has a toner or drum problem: the toner is empty or badly seated, the seal on a new toner was not pulled, or the drum unit needs replacing. Laser printers do not have nozzles, so cleaning cycles do not apply. Print the printer's configuration or demo page from its control panel to check without the computer.

Printers with two black inks

Some inkjets have two blacks: a pigment black for sharp text on plain paper and a photo black for glossy paper. The printer chooses between them from the paper type setting. If text is blank but photos have black, or the other way round, one of the two black cartridges is empty or blocked. Check both levels and look at both black channels on the nozzle check. Printing on plain paper with a photo paper setting, or the reverse, also gives weak or smeared black even when both cartridges are fine.

When to contact support

If a genuine black cartridge, correct settings and two cleaning cycles still give no black on the nozzle check, the printhead or its contacts may be at fault. Keep your test sheets and nozzle patterns: manufacturer support often asks for them. If black is fine but other colours are wrong, see printer missing colors; if the whole page comes out empty, see printer printing blank pages.