Ink Starvation Test !

When you have a good Nozzle check output but your still having less than good quality output on your prints and you want to solve the problem but can’t seem to find which cartridges is actually causing your poor output then I would recommend you try this test print out.

Now like all colour tests it’s not infallible but it does include Pigment black when you test on plain paper, but unfortunately it can’t correctly identify individual cartridges on the 6 to 10 colour printers, it can however confirm all the cartridges that are working perfectly so narrowing down the search considerably.

It’s broken down to print the Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Photo black separately and then it combines colours together to simulate true colour on a photo but it also has paired two colours together to identify exactly which cartridge colour is the real offender..

Click to enlarge or copy !
If you do print the test sheet out and it’s still not quite clear to you where the offending colour is, then print it till you can recreate the problem again.
Edit: See original PDF below in #5..

That is a good test file. Can this be posted as a high-res image file (along with other potential test files, such as proper nozzle checks and service test prints) somewhere on this site?

@The Hat , a link to the original version of the test image. please.

Can this test let me what differ between OEM cartridge and refill cartridge ink in quality? (not necessarily oem better than refill) ?

Sorry guys I don’t know exactly where I got that file from which I know is not exactly fair to the author either, all I can tell is that it was made up using InDesign back in 2003.
Here is the original PDF..

Tigerman said:

Can this test let me what differ between OEM cartridge and refill cartridge ink in quality? (not necessarily oem better than refill) ?

Click to expand...

The purpose of the test picture uploaded by The Hat is to check for ink flow problems and clogged nozzles. If OEM inks and cartridges print OK in this test, and refilled cartridges do not, then there is a problem with the ink and/or cartridge and/or refill technique.

To check for good colour match a test image is recommended. I use the "Printer Evaluation Image" that can be downloaded here. An instruction for use is found here.

The test image is a 40MB tiff file. This test image works well with Windows XP, Vista and 7, but may cause problems under Windows 8. A jpg version, that works well with Windows 8 is found here. This image is slow to load, so have patience. When the image has finally loaded, just right click and save it.