Paper Feed & Skew Test
Print parallel rules to check for skewed feeding.
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 Paper Feed & Skew Test · print at 100% · plain paper
Margins — edge rulers (check nothing is clipped)
Alignment — registration crosshairs (lines should meet cleanly)
How this test page works
Lines printed parallel to the paper edge make skew obvious — if they run at an angle to the real edge, the printer is feeding the paper crookedly.
What the results mean
- Skew
- The printed lines should be parallel to the paper edge. A consistent angle means a feed-roller or paper-guide problem.
Common problems and fixes
- Skew appears on some sheets and not others
- Intermittent skew is nearly always the paper stack rather than the printer. An overfilled tray, a stack that has been sitting long enough to curl, or guides set loose enough to let sheets shift all produce occasional crooked feeds. Fan the stack, load less of it, and set the guides snug without pinching.
- The paper jams as well as skewing
- Skew plus jamming points at the pickup rollers, which harden and glaze with age and start grabbing one side of the sheet before the other. Cleaning them with a lint-free cloth and a little isopropyl alcohol restores grip for a while; a roller that is visibly shiny and flattened needs replacing.
- The lines look angled but the paper edge is straight
- Check the sheet against a real straight edge before blaming the feed. Some paper is cut slightly out of square, and comparing a printed line against a genuinely square reference is the only way to separate a crooked feed from crooked paper. Reprint on a sheet from a different ream to confirm.
Frequently asked questions
My prints come out crooked
The paper is feeding at an angle. Check the paper guides are snug against the stack, the rollers are clean, and the paper is not curled. This sheet confirms whether the skew is the feed or the design.
How much skew is normal?
A fraction of a millimetre across a page is ordinary and invisible in text. It becomes a problem when you are printing to a die-cut label, filling in a pre-printed form, or producing anything that will be trimmed — and it becomes a warning sign when it is getting worse over weeks, which is how roller wear announces itself.
Does the paper tray I use matter?
Yes. A multipurpose or rear tray usually has a shorter, straighter path and different rollers from the main cassette, so skew often appears in one and not the other. Testing both narrows the fault quickly: skew in one tray only is a mechanical issue with that tray, and skew in all of them is further along the shared path.