Knowledge Hub

Printer Calibration

Printer Calibration: Ensuring optimal performance for your office printer

eS409AS Panel

Printer calibration is an essential and easy process that you can do yourself for maintaining consistent and accurate print quality, particularly if you are printing high quality images and graphics. Regular calibrations ensure your printer produces excellent printing on every page.

You should calibrate your printer ahead of any large print runs or every 2 months. For our customers, our engineers always calibrate your printer when attending your office, but you can also do yourself.

What is Printer Calibration?

Printer calibration refers to the process of testing your printer’s output against predefined colour and quality standards. Over time, printers can drift from their original calibrated settings due to regular use, changes in environmental conditions, or wear and tear. This drift can lead to inconsistent colours or variations in print quality.

Calibrating your printer restores it back to its original state, ensuring your printing matches the expected colours and quality.

MyGroupSolutions (20)
Why is Printer Calibration Important?
  • Consistency in Print Quality Printer calibration eliminates inconsistencies in your printer’s output. Whether you are printing marketing materials, labels, or images, calibration ensures uniformity and quality across all your prints.
  • Accurate Colour Reproduction For businesses that rely on precise colour matching—such as printing logos or product designs—calibration ensures the colours on the screen closely match those on your printouts.
  • Optimised Printer Performance Regular calibration helps to maintain your printer’s optimal performance. It ensures your printer operates within its intended parameters, prolonging its lifespan and improving overall efficiency.
How Often Should You Calibrate Your Printer?

The frequency of printer calibration depends on your specific needs and printer usage. For example:

  • If your printer is used regularly for colour-sensitive work, calibration might be needed weekly or monthly.
  • For general office use, calibration every few months is likely to suffice.
  • If you move your printer, or after changing toner cartridges then we recommend running a recalibration.

How Printer Calibration Works

For most modern printers, calibration is a straightforward process that can be started from your printer’s settings menu. Below is a video showing the process using a Canon device.

Following the on-screen instructions, your printer will output a Calibration Test Page. This test page containing specific patterns and colour samples. These patterns help assess how accurately the printer is producing colours and tones.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to analyse the colours. Keep following the on-screen instructions and scan in the printed Calibration Test Page. Your printer does this for you and identifies any deviations from the expected output.

Based on the analysis from the scanned file, your printer automatically adjusts its settings to correct the deviations. This might include tweaks to colour profiles, printhead alignment or ink density.

If any changes are made the printer may request that you print another test page and repeat the process. If required, keep following the instructions until the adjustments have successfully restored the printer to its calibrated state.

for your operating system to ensure full compatibility with your device. 

Printer calibration is vital practice for maintaining the quality, efficiency, and reliability of your office printer. If you would like any assistance with running a calibration on your printer, or if you have any questions about print quality and improving the standard of your printed materials then please contact our service team on 01322 643826 or use our Contact Us form.

Latest Articles

See all articles