What Causes a Printer to Print Blank Copies?
Running a profitable business takes careful cost containment. When you examine a printed presentation, reference document or other business content and discover unexpected blank pages among your output, you’ve wasted paper that should have seen productive use. To trace the cause of your output defects, look at your entire printing process closely for problems in your hardware, before your documents even reach it.
Sealed Cartridge
When you first unbox and install a new or re-manufactured toner cartridge, one of your last steps before inserting it into a laser printer consists of removing a seal that keeps toner from exiting the cartridge in transit. If you install the cartridge without removing this seal, paper passes through the print mechanism, but no image can appear on it. Once you pull out the seal, your output should return to normal. Most printer manufacturers fabricate this type of removable protection with a pull ring in bright orange or other readily visible color.
Paper Misfeed
Paper that’s too thin or too moist from exposure to humidity can misfeed in the printer and cause extra sheets to exit the device. You may also see these types of misfeeds when the paper supply runs too low for the pickup mechanism to feed sheets smoothly out of the input tray. Check your supply trays for signs of problematic paper and replace it with better stock, or reload input drawers, so the machine can feed properly.
Accidental Output
When you print a website page, your Web browser may break up the content onto subsequent pages look blank because the length of the material exceeds the printable height of your current sheet size. If you can substitute longer paper — legal or even tabloid — you may be able to capture the page on a single sheet. If you’re printing from word processing software, check for stray carriage returns or page breaks that force the application to add a blank page in the middle or at the end of the document.
Blank Document Page
Some documents deliberately include blank pages. A reference work may start every chapter on a right-hand page and use strategically placed blanks to achieve that placement. A brochure in PDF form may include blank inside front and back covers because the original printed version cut costs on its four-color exterior. Depending on the application from which you’re printing, you may be able to omit blanks by activating a printing preference. If your software lacks that option, you can scan through the file manually, note where the blanks appear and skipping those pages when you print.
