Black ink is not dark, light gray barely legible

[Mightyminnie]

My printer is printing great, I just cannot get documents printed dark enough for scanning and faxing looks like I'm out of ink but I'm not.

[sandytechy20]

@Mightyminnie

Thanks for taking an interest in the HP Support Forums After reading your post I see that you are getting print quality issues. I will be a delight to assist you here.

Superb analysis and brilliant diagnosis of the issue before posting. 🙂  Kudos to you on that score.:)

For better clarity and to assist you better I would require more information regarding this:

When did this issue start?

Did you do any changes to the printer or in the printer driver?

Which operating system is installed on the computer to which this printer is connected?

Meanwhile

Check the estimated ink levels

On the printer control panel, touch the Ink icon  to display the current estimated ink levels.

Figure : Example of estimated ink levels displaying full cartridges

If the ink level is good, follow the below steps:

Clean the ink cartridges

1. Make sure you have loaded plain white U.S. letter or A4-sized paper into the paper tray.

2. On the printer control panel, swipe the display to the left, and then touch Setup.

   The Setup menu displays.

3. Touch Tools, and then touch Clean Cartridges.

   The printer cleans the ink cartridges, then prints a Print Quality Diagnostic report.

   Figure : Example of the Print Quality Diagnostic report

   

4. Examine the Print Quality Diagnostic report.

You can refer this HP Document for more assistance:- https://hp.care/2wjSZn4

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers.