Ink is smearing onto white (blank) areas
The printout needs time to dry.
When printing documents that use a lot of ink, you must allow the document more time to
dry before handling it. This is especially true for transparencies. Check immediately after
printing whether smearing occurs in the printout. You can increase the amount of dry time
in the printer driver.
Some types of paper do not accept ink well, which causes the ink to dry more slowly and
results in smearing. For information on recommended media, see
“Printing and loading
media.”
The page is wrinkling with too much ink.
Color documents with rich, blended colors can use excess ink, which wrinkles the page
during printing and causes smearing. Try using the Normal or Fast Print Quality setting to
reduce ink, or use HP Premium Paper designed for inkjet printing of vivid color
documents.
Check for excess ink buildup on the print cartridge.
An ink buildup problem can be solved by cleaning the cartridges. See
“Cleaning the print
cartridges”
for instructions.