To understand why your printer is printing pink, first, you need to understand how the printer ink works.
Briefly speaking, printers work with four colors — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key Black.
Together, we call it CMYK.
Put simply, printer combines,
- Cyan + Yellow = Green
- Cyan + Magenta = Blue
- Yellow + Magenta = Red
- Cyan + Yellow + Magenta = Black
- Cyan + Magenta + Yellow + Key Black (on a certain proportion) = Other colors
Now you might have already guessed why your printer is printing pink.
Yes, your printer is either running low on Cyan or Yellow ink.
Because, when any one of these two color depletes, the Magenta color takes over and the images in your printout looks more pinkish-purplish-red (what we call pink.)
So, how to fix it?
Check the Printer Ink Levels
Obviously, start by checking the ink levels on your printer.
If you see that the Cyan or Yellow color level is low, refill the ink tanks.
In case your printer does not have ink tanks and uses cartridges, get a replacement ink cartridge.
You will be able to print correctly afterwards.
Don’t worry about playing with ink and cartridges.😁 Here’s my article to help you get printer ink off your hands.
Clean the Printhead
Alright!! But what if ink levels are good?
Another possibility is that the printhead nozzles that spray the colors into the paper have been clogged.
As such, the printer is unable to spray the color in correct proportion and you are getting the pink color.
In such a case, what you can do is clean the printheads.
- Go to Windows Settings and open Printers & scanners.
- Select your printer and go to its Printing Preferences.
- Once the Printing Preferences open, look after the Maintenance menu and run the Printhead cleaning cycle.
- In my Canon printer, it is termed as Cleaning and Deep Cleaning. Similarly, find yours and run it.
- Run 2 to 3 cleaning cycles and it should fix the issue.
Note: You should have a printer driver installed on your computer to access the Printing Preferences.
Other Things to Check When Your Printer is Printing Pink
- Check and adjust the Color Intensity of your printer from Printing Preferences.
- For best results, I recommend setting it to default values.
And a quick tip for you:
- If you are planning to print Black and White documents only, switch to Grayscale printing mode.
- You will no longer get pinkish printouts.
- Again, you can do it from the Printing Preferences.
Well, that’s all for today. Please let me know if you get stuck anywhere during the troubleshooting process. I will reply to you ASAP.
