Lexmark Printer Test Page
Print a full test sheet for your Lexmark 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.
Lexmark · RunTheTests Lexmark 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 Lexmark printers: colour bars, a grayscale wedge, solid CMYK blocks, text at several sizes and alignment marks. Lexmark left the inkjet business in 2013, so any current Lexmark is a laser — which means the faults worth looking for are banding, repeating marks, uneven density and misregistration rather than anything involving nozzles. Print the sheet, work through each section, and match what you see against the guidance beside it.
What the results mean
- Laser only
- There is no nozzle check on a Lexmark, because there are no nozzles. Missing or faded colour points at toner, the imaging unit or the transfer path.
- Toner and imaging unit
- Many models separate the toner cartridge from the photoconductor. Which has failed is usually decided by whether the defect repeats at a fixed interval.
- Visual only
- The page provides a known pattern and nothing more. It cannot read toner level or component state — the printer's own menu reports those.
Common problems and fixes
- I am looking for a nozzle check and cannot find one
- There is not one, and there has not been since Lexmark stopped making inkjets in 2013. Nozzle checks and head cleaning belong to inkjet printers. On a laser the equivalent diagnostic is a print quality test page from the printer's own menu, which prints density and registration patterns instead.
- A defect repeats at the same spacing down every page
- Measure the interval. A rotating component produces a mark once per revolution, so the spacing identifies which part — the photoconductor, a developer roller or the fuser all have different circumferences. Lexmark's service documentation lists the intervals per model, and this is one of the few faults where measuring beats looking.
- Toner smudges when I rub the printed page
- The fuser is not bonding toner to the paper, which is a fusing fault rather than a print quality one. It is commonly a fuser reaching the end of its life, or paper heavier than the printer is set for — check the media type setting matches what is loaded before concluding the fuser has failed.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the built-in test on a Lexmark printer?
Under Settings, Reports or Troubleshooting on the printer's panel, usually as Print Quality Pages or a menu settings page. Enterprise models also expose it through the embedded web server by entering the printer's IP address in a browser. That output comes from the printer directly and is unaffected by your browser or driver.
Does Lexmark still make inkjet printers?
No. Lexmark exited the inkjet market in 2013 and has produced only lasers since, so a Lexmark bought in the last decade has no printhead, no nozzles and no cleaning cycle. Any inkjet-specific troubleshooting you find for the brand refers to hardware that has been out of production for over ten years.
What paper should I use?
Ordinary office paper rated for laser use, which is what the printer is designed around. Laser printing fuses toner with heat, so paper matters in a different way from inkjet — inkjet photo paper can be damaged by the fuser and should not be used, and heavy stock needs the media type set correctly or the toner will not bond properly.