Grayscale Step Wedge
Print a 0–100% grayscale step wedge.
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.
RunTheTests Grayscale Step Wedge · print at 100% · plain paper
Grayscale — 0% to 100% in 10% steps
How this test page works
A grayscale wedge reveals how evenly a printer reproduces tones. Steps should be distinct across the whole range without merging or colour tinting.
What the results mean
- Colour cast
- Grey steps that look tinted — greenish or pinkish — mean the colour inks are being mixed into black, a colour-management or setting issue.
Common problems and fixes
- The lightest steps are blank
- The printer cannot hold a dot below a certain size, so very light tones drop out entirely — a limitation rather than a fault, and worse on absorbent paper. If the drop-off has moved noticeably higher up the ramp than it used to be, suspect low ink or toner in the black channel.
- Steps merge at the dark end
- Density is set too high, so everything above roughly 80% prints as solid black. Reduce the density or darkness setting and reprint. This is the single most common reason detail disappears from shadows in photographs, and it is a setting rather than a hardware limit.
- Grey looks flat and lifeless overall
- Usually the paper. A ramp printed on plain office stock cannot show the range that a coated or photo paper will, because the maximum black a paper holds sets the contrast for everything below it. Judge a printer's grayscale on the paper you will actually use for the job.
Frequently asked questions
My greys look tinted
The printer is composing grey from colour inks rather than using pure black. Look for a "black ink only" or "grayscale" option in the print dialogue for neutral greys.
Why does grey print with a colour cast?
Because the printer is composing grey from cyan, magenta and yellow rather than using black alone, and any imbalance between those three shows as a tint. Most drivers offer a black-ink-only or grayscale option that avoids the problem entirely, at the cost of a slightly less smooth ramp.
How many steps should be distinguishable?
On a good printer and decent paper, most of them — a well-behaved ramp shows a clear difference between adjacent steps across the whole range. Merging at the extremes is normal and expected; merging in the middle is not, and points at a density setting or a failing channel rather than at the paper.