Faded, Streaky or Banded Prints

What horizontal banding, vertical streaks and overall fading each indicate, and how to work through them.

Last updated 2026-07-30

Symptom

Output is readable but degraded: pale text, repeating horizontal bands, vertical lines, or missing
colours.

Likely causes

• **Inkjet:** partially blocked print head nozzles, usually from disuse.
• **Inkjet:** a cartridge low enough to starve one colour while still reporting ink remaining.
• **Laser:** toner low and unevenly distributed in the cartridge.
• **Laser:** a worn or scratched drum, which produces marks that repeat at a fixed interval down the page.
• Either: economy or draft mode left enabled in the driver.

Fix, in order

1. Print the printer's own nozzle check or print-quality diagnostic page from its menu. This tells you
2. which colour or which component is at fault before you spend a consumable.
3. Check the driver settings for draft, economy or toner-save mode and turn them off for a test print.
4. **Inkjet:** run one head-cleaning cycle, then reprint the nozzle check. Run at most two or three
5. cycles — each one uses a noticeable amount of ink, and more cleanings rarely help after that.
6. **Inkjet:** if a colour is still missing, reseat that cartridge, and check the protective tape was
7. removed if it is new.
8. **Laser:** remove the toner cartridge, rock it gently side to side to redistribute the toner, and
9. reinstall. This often buys a few hundred more pages.
10. **Laser:** if marks repeat at a regular interval down the page, measure the interval. A consistent
11. repeat points at a specific rotating component, usually the drum.
12. Run an alignment routine from the printer menu if lines are wavy rather than missing.

When it is a hardware fault

An inkjet nozzle that will not recover after three cleaning cycles usually means a dried head, which
on many models is replaced with the cartridge and on others is a service part. A laser drum with
physical damage will not improve with cleaning and needs replacing.

Getting official help

Consumable and drum part numbers for your exact model come from the manufacturer's support site. We
are an independent publisher, not an authorised service provider, and we do not sell parts.