Introduction
Have you ever experienced a spot or streak on white paper while printing documents? Sometimes while printing documents, the wet ink gets smeared on the paper. Whatever the reason is, it destroys the whole document and is very frustrating if you urgently need that paper. You must know the hacks for how to remove the printer ink from the paper. You just need a few things that are easily available at home or the office and some cleverness.
Solutions to remove printer ink from the paper:
People mostly use inkjet or laser printers. You can experience this unpleasant problem while printing from any of these printers. Here are some explanations you can try out to clean or avoid spilling.
1: Solution to remove ink spilled from inkjet printer:
Every problem has a solution, and you can clean ink spilled from inkjet printer cartridges.
Find the reasons for spillage:
Before doing whatever, you have to find out why and from where the ink is leaking.
- The cartridge can be faulty and not correctly installed.
- There may be installation problems from the factory.
- You haven’t installed the paper properly.
- There may be some old ink jam in the printer head nozzle. It can be due to a prolonged no-working period.
Solutions:
1: Clean the printer:
The very step is to clean the printer from the inside thoroughly. Because the ink on the paper can be old and already jammed inside the printer, it will avoid destroying your document. Follow the following process to clean the printer.
- Put on rubber gloves to avoid any toner marks on your skin.
- Take an arid piece of paper towel and clean the printer from the inside.
- Keep in mind never to use a wet towel or paper to clean it.
- Now clean the cartridge with a paper towel and install it back.
- If the cartridge is leaking, then throw it as it’s of no use.
- After cleaning, dry it out with a hairdryer.
- Never use any spray or other chemicals in cleaning the printer.
- Always unplug the printer before starting to clean it.
2: Use a cotton ball:
Suppose your document already has an ink smudge on it. You have to work quickly and try to rub a cotton ball slightly on the ink. As the wet ink is easy to clean, so do it as fastly as you can. The ink from the inkjet printer is water-soluble so it will get removed quickly.
3: Use nail polish remover:
A specific smell in nail polish remover is nothing else but acetone. The property of acetone is that it can bind with an aqueous printer. Put some acetone on the cotton and rub slowly on the stain.
4: Ink eraser pen:
Ink eraser pens are readily available in the market. You can try them too to get rid of the ink stain.
5: Use a blade:
Use a corner of the sharp blade to scratch ink from the paper. But this intricate work needs a lot of attention because it can cut the paper too. Take care while working with the blade.
6: Use a small piece of sandpaper:
Sandpaper can rub marks off the surfaces. Grabe a small piece of sandpaper and rub it slightly against the mark. It will scratch away the stain but be careful as sandpaper is sharp enough to tear the paper.
7: Check with correction tape:
Correction tape is also a life-saving hack. Bind a small piece of correction paper over the printer ink stain. Rub it thoroughly. Now pull it off slightly. The ink will stick with the correction tape.
8: Take help of fluid:
If the document is not so important, it’s a worksheet of your child or rough work; then, you can use fluid to hide the ugly mark of ink.
2: For LaserJet toner cartridges:
LaserJet printers and inkjet printers both have the same chemicals in ink. That’s why it’s economical to clean them correctly from the paper surface.
Dab cotton on smear:
If you have taken a fresh print and found a small smear of ink over it, use a simple cotton ball to clean that smear. Don’t take wet cotton. It will help in spreading the ink spot. Rub the cotton ball softly over the area. This simple hack is not for big spots.
Use acetone:
Take a cotton bud. Dip it in the acetone bottle or nail polish remover (it is the same chemical). Rub slightly on the spots. The acetone will squeeze water into the cotton bud.
Use a sharp razor blade:
Use the sharp corners of the razor blade to scratch off the ink. You have to work carefully as the sharp razor can cut or scratch the paper.
Use a pencil eraser:
After using a razor blade, the next step is to use a standard pencil eraser. Erase slowly over the remaining spots. It will make the surface clean and spotless.
Rubbing alcohol:
Rubbing alcohol is a concentrated liquid. It works efficiently and effectively. But don’t overuse it. Only a drop of rubbing alcohol will work against the ink spot.
What are the methods to avoid smears?
There are many reasons for printer ink spots on the paper. If you find out the reason, it will be easier to avoid the problem. You can make a clean print by taking care of these essential points.
Set printer settings:
Change the printer settings according to your choice so that it would use less ink to print. More ink will be difficult to dry and can make a smear on your paper.
Show some patience:
After getting a print, show some patience and let the ink dry. Many times, in a hurry, the ink smeared on the paper, and you can’t use your printer.
Check the cartridges:
Before using a printer, always check whether the cartridge is in the right place or not. Also, check for leakage; if the cartridge is leaking, replace it with a new one. A leaking cartridge not only can destroy your documents but also your printer’s system.
Place paper properly:
You have to put paper properly inside the printer to avoid any kind of problem afterward.
Clean the nozzle:
Sometimes it’s not the cartridge but the nozzle reason behind the spoiled document. It happens because of long breaks in the work. In this case, start the print head feature of the printer to clean the nozzle.
Conclusion:
Stains on the documents after a print is an immense frustration while working. Laser and inkjet printers use ink that is water-soluble and removable. Here is a short review of how to remove printer ink from paper.
- Use a dry cotton ball for this purpose.
- Acetone and alcohol can make a bond with water to help remove ink spots from paper.
- You can try a razor blade to scratch the ink marks.
- A pencil eraser can also erase a few marks.
- White liquid works well to hide the spots. But you can’t use it for classified documents.
Hopefully, any one of the above methods will work to remove printer ink from paper. If nothing works, then take a new paper and reprint the data.