Canon Printer Test Page
Print a full test sheet for your Canon 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.
Canon · RunTheTests Canon 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 Canon printers: colour bars, a grayscale wedge, solid CMYK blocks, text at several sizes and alignment marks. Canon's consumer inkjets are the PIXMA and MAXIFY lines, and its laser range is imageCLASS, sold as i-SENSYS in some regions. The sheet is the same for both because it tests the printed output, not the engine — print it, examine each block, and read the fault against the guidance next to it.
What the results mean
- On a PIXMA
- Many models use a separate, user-replaceable printhead unit rather than one built into the cartridge. A head that will not recover can often be replaced on its own.
- Alignment marks
- Doubled or fringed edges mean the head is not landing in the same place on each pass. Canon's own print head alignment routine corrects this; the sheet confirms whether it held.
- Visual only
- Nothing here reads ink levels or nozzle state. You print a known pattern and judge it, and the printer's own nozzle check is the authoritative comparison.
Common problems and fixes
- Cleaning is not restoring a colour and I have run several cycles
- Stop after two. Canon offers both Cleaning and Deep Cleaning, and Deep Cleaning consumes a substantial amount of ink — running it repeatedly can empty a cartridge faster than printing would. If two cycles with a nozzle check between them show no improvement, the cause is more likely an empty tank or a failed head than a clog more cleaning will clear.
- The printer shows a B200 error and will not print at all
- That is a printhead or power-supply fault rather than a print quality problem, and no test page will diagnose it. On models with a removable printhead it is sometimes resolved by removing, cleaning and reseating the head; where it persists, it is a repair decision, and on cheaper models the head alone can approach the cost of the printer.
- Colours are accurate on the built-in test but wrong from this page
- That points at colour management rather than hardware, and it is the expected split. Your browser sends RGB and the driver converts to CMYK, so the driver settings sit in the path — set the correct paper type, turn off any vivid or auto-enhance option, and compare again.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the nozzle check on a Canon printer?
On PIXMA and MAXIFY models it is under Maintenance or Setup on the printer's own panel, and in the Canon printer utility on a connected computer. It prints a grid pattern where each colour should appear as an unbroken block. That print is generated by the printer itself, so it bypasses the browser entirely and is the reference when it disagrees with this sheet.
What is the difference between Cleaning and Deep Cleaning?
Cleaning is a normal purge of the nozzles and is the right first step. Deep Cleaning is a much stronger cycle that uses considerably more ink, and Canon's own guidance is to use it only when standard cleaning has failed. Running Deep Cleaning repeatedly is one of the fastest ways to empty a set of cartridges without printing anything.
Does this page work for an imageCLASS laser?
Yes, though the interpretation changes. A laser has no nozzles, so gaps and missing colours are not clogs — they point at toner level, the drum unit or the transfer path. Banding and repeating marks are the symptoms worth attending to, and a mark that repeats at a fixed interval down the page identifies a rotating component rather than a consumable running low.