Print is smudged & flaking off at bottoms of page

[DebbieH72]

LaserJet Pro 400 Color MFP M475DW.  Printing on plain paper is fine, but in using a heavier card stock, the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the page looks awful.  The toner is smeared and flaking off.  Just purchased new HP authentic toner cartridges - no improvement.

[Dragon-Fur]

@DebbieH72 

Welcome to the HP User Community.

Suggested solution

Check whether the paper size and paper type (and weight) are supported by the printer.

Read the advice for using card stock and heavier paper types.

Adjust your settings to ensure the selected tray and the paper type are best suited to the paper size / type.

Start here:

HP LaserJet Printers - Print Media Guide

Pages 9-20

Heavy paper, cover paper, cardstock, and postcards

Heavy paper generally refers to paper that is greater than 105 g/m2 in weight (heavier than 28-lb bond) and cardstock generally refers to paper that is greater than 163 g/m2 in weight (heavier than 60-lb cover, or 90-lb index).

The heavier weight of these papers gives them more stiffness, which can degrade feeding reliability (typically as a result of poor pickup from the input tray).

Using short-grain heavy paper in printers that feed in the portrait direction might help to avoid feed problems, because the paper is less stiff in the short-grain direction. 

Also, using the straightest paper path in your printer  might also improve feeding reliability and print quality.

Heavy paper and cardstock might require higher fuser temperatures to adequately anchor the toner to the surface. Using the printer menu to select the paper type ensures that the appropriate fuser temperature will be used

NOTE:
● Small form factor cardstock (in particular, preprinted, such as postcards) can cause jamming and missed picks. If the feed rotation of 90 degrees does not resolve the problem, then the media might not be compatible with the printer.
● Print postcards from tray 1 unless your product specifies to print from tray 2. If a jam occurs due to postcard curl, flip the postcard over.
● If your printer has a face-up printer bin, print from that. It provides a straight-through paper path.

CAUTION:

Different HP LaserJet printer models and their input trays support various ranges of paper weights. 

Some models provide optimized settings that are available in the printer driver or at the control panel.

Please see the support documentation that came with your HP LaserJet printer for specific information about its capabilities and settings

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Continue here in the printer's User manual:

HP LaserJet Pro 300 and 400 color MFP M375 and M475 - User Guide

Supported Paper Sizes on Pages 75-76

Support Paper Types on Pages 77-79

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HP LaserJet Pro 400 color MFP M475dw