Brother Printer Test Page
Print a full test sheet for your Brother printer.
Print settings
Print this on the paper you normally use, then examine each section. What a healthy result looks like is described above each pattern on the sheet.
Brother · RunTheTests Brother Printer Test Page · print at 100% · plain paper
Colour bars
Grayscale — 0% to 100% in 10% steps
CMYK — solid ink blocks
Text sharpness — decreasing sizes (all should be crisp and readable)
12pt — The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789 iIlL1 oO0
9pt — The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789 iIlL1 oO0
7pt — The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789 iIlL1 oO0
5pt — The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789 iIlL1 oO0
4pt — The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 0123456789 iIlL1 oO0
Alignment — registration crosshairs (lines should meet cleanly)
How this test page works
A complete diagnostic sheet for Brother printers: colour bars, a grayscale wedge, solid CMYK blocks, text at several sizes and alignment marks. Brother sells both inkjet models, largely in the DCP and MFC ranges, and lasers in the HL range and their multifunction equivalents. The sheet is identical for both because it tests output rather than mechanism, and the guidance beside each section covers the two readings — a gap means something different on a printer with nozzles than on one with a drum.
What the results mean
- On a Brother inkjet
- The maintenance routine is interactive: the printer prints its own quality blocks and asks you on the panel which are bad, then cleans only that colour.
- On a Brother laser
- Drum and toner are separate consumables. Which one is at fault is usually decided by whether the defect repeats at a regular interval down the page.
- Visual only
- Nothing here reads the printer. You print a known pattern and judge it against the description printed alongside.
Common problems and fixes
- Marks repeat at the same spacing down every page from a laser
- That regular interval is a rotating part completing one revolution, and on a Brother laser it usually means the drum unit rather than the toner cartridge — which matters, because they are sold separately and the drum is the more expensive of the two. Measure the gap between repeats before ordering anything; toner faults do not present with fixed-interval repetition.
- The printer says to replace the drum but output still looks fine
- Brother tracks drum life by page count rather than by measuring quality, so the warning is a scheduled estimate and not an observation. Many models let you reset the counter when you genuinely have replaced it, and continuing to print on a drum that still produces clean pages is reasonable — watch for the fixed-interval marks that indicate it has actually worn.
- An inkjet model prints faint or streaky lines
- Use the printer's own Print Quality Check rather than a generic cleaning cycle. It prints test blocks and then asks you which are defective, so it cleans the specific colour that failed instead of purging every channel — noticeably less wasteful than a blanket clean, and more likely to fix the actual problem.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the built-in test on a Brother printer?
On inkjet models it is under Ink or Maintenance as Print Quality Check, which prints test blocks and then asks you on the panel to judge them. On lasers it is usually a Print Test Page or a drum dot check under the Machine Info or Maintenance menu. Both are produced by the printer itself, so they bypass your browser and driver entirely.
How do I tell a drum problem from a toner problem?
By the pattern rather than the appearance. A defect repeating at a consistent interval down the page is a rotating component making one revolution, which points at the drum. Fading that is uneven across the page, or that improves briefly when the cartridge is rocked side to side, points at toner running low instead.
What paper should I use?
The paper you normally print on, so the test reflects the conditions you actually care about. Plain office stock is right for colour, text and alignment faults. Photo paper only matters if you are judging photographic output specifically, and on a laser it is the wrong choice entirely — laser printers need paper rated for the fuser's heat.