Why is My Printer Ink Cartridge Printing Lightly?

03 March 2024

Sometimes you work all night and put your all into writing a report; your final task is to print it out. You send your print jobs in the hopes that they will be received quickly. However, the printed sheets were so pale and worn that some of the words are scarcely legible. You continue to obtain the same illegible prints even after replacing the ink cartridge. What’s next?

Light printed pages can be annoying and aggravating. Instead of always being frustrated by it, we could educate ourselves on the causes of faded prints and take proactive measures to raise the print quality. 

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Why Printing Fades and How to Print Darker

You shouldn’t constantly attribute faded printing to your ink or Samsung toner cartridges. Light or fading prints could be caused by other factors. You can save money by not tossing away non-empty ink cartridges or purchasing a new printer by being aware of the possible causes of light printing.

Faulty or empty toner cartridges

Having empty or damaged toner cartridges is the most frequent cause of fading prints. Unbelievably often, people struggle to figure out why their printers print sluggishly after forgetting to replace their empty toner cartridges. The use of faulty cartridges is another major cause. Remember that there are some subpar remanufactured toner cartridges as well as generic toner cartridges that are not always excellent.

Dirty Print Head 

If you haven’t used your printer in a while, it’s possible that the print head is clogged, which results in some text fading. Cleaning the print heads is an excellent idea if you want to get the ink flowing again. You should run a printer test page after cleaning the print head because it prints all the colors from your cartridges and makes the issue very visible. You can learn if your ink cartridges are out of alignment or if a particular color is low on supplies and buy cartridges from an ink cartridge shop near you.

The Transfer Roller Issue

A part of a printer called the transfer roller employs an electrical charge to transfer toner from the cartridge drum to the paper. Typically, a dirty or misaligned transfer roller will result in a defective transfer roller and faint printing.

Cleaning a transfer roller entails:

  • Your printer’s power should be turned off, and the wire from the wall outlet should be disconnected.
  • Take out the toner cartridge.
  • Use a soft, dry towel to clean the roller.
  • Avoid rubbing the black surface too hard or scratching it.
  • Avoid using any liquid to clean it because doing so will alter the roller’s electrical characteristics.
  • Avoid touching the roller with your fingers, as they may be oiled.
  • The transfer roller doesn’t need to be removed to be cleaned. It may remain in the printer. From the ends, turn the roller with your hands.
  • Until the entire surface is clean, rotate and clean the roller.

Before you restart the print job, let the roller dry.

Low or High Humidity

The excessive humidity that results from keeping your printer in a damp or moist environment might warp or curl the sheets, causing the ink or toner to spread unevenly on them and result in fading printing. However, if the humidity is too low, the dry air may prevent the printer ink from setting correctly on the papers and clogging the device, resulting in drab printing.

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Depending on the printer models, you should place your printers in a room with a relative humidity of 40% to 60% to safeguard the printers and papers. Using a hygrometer, you can gauge the humidity and modify it as necessary. Use air conditioners or heaters to reduce the humidity if it is too high; humidifiers can be used to raise it if it is too low.

Working toner save mode

Some of you activate your hp toner save mode to cut down on toner usage. The setting merely uses less toner in the printed area, which generally has little effect on how light or dark the printings are. As a result, there shouldn’t be much of a difference on printed pages with lots of text when toner save mode is on. It might, however, appear faded if you are printing images or photographs.

In order to have better print quality, you will need to turn the toner save mode back on if this applies to you. There are additional ways to save money on toner cartridges, such as using eco-friendly typefaces and shopping around for the greatest deals on high-quality inexpensive cartridges.