Printer prints gibberish or random symbols
Pages come out covered in strange characters, code or random symbols. Clear the bad job and make sure the correct driver is installed.
Quick fix
Cancel every job, turn the printer off for a minute to clear its memory, then check that the printer is set up with the driver for your exact model. Garbled pages almost always mean the computer is sending a printer language the printer doesn't understand.
Didn’t work? Go to the full stepsYou might see
- Pages full of random letters, symbols or lines of code
- Pages that start with text such as @PJL or %!PS
- The printer keeps feeding pages of nonsense until you cancel
- Only certain documents or apps print garbled
Usually caused by
- Driver for a different model or printer language
- A damaged job left in the queue or printer memory
- PostScript driver used on a printer without PostScript
- Faulty USB cable
- Damaged fonts or images in the document
Step-by-step fix
Work through the steps in order and check each one off. Most people are printing again before the last step.
Windows 11 / 10
0 of 5 steps tried
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Clear the job from the PC and printer
Cancel everything in the print queue, then turn the printer off for at least 60 seconds. If junk keeps printing, open Command Prompt as administrator, run
net stop spooler, emptyC:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, then runnet start spooler. -
Check the driver name
Go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, select the printer and open Printer properties > Advanced. The Driver box should name your model or a universal driver from the same maker. A different model, or a PostScript driver on a printer without PostScript, causes gibberish.
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Untick advanced printing features
On the same Advanced tab, untick Enable advanced printing features and click Apply. This changes how Windows prepares jobs and clears garbled output on many printers.
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Reinstall the correct driver
Remove the printer, download the driver for your exact model from the manufacturer's official support site, and add the printer again. If the maker offers both PCL and PostScript versions, try the other one if the first still garbles text.
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Swap the USB cable
For USB printers, a damaged cable can corrupt data on the way. Try another cable and a different USB port.
macOS
0 of 3 steps tried
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Cancel jobs and power cycle
Delete the jobs in Printer Queue, or run the command below in Terminal to cancel them all, then turn the printer off for a minute.
cancel -a -
Check the driver
In System Settings > Printers & Scanners, remove the printer and add it again. In the Use menu choose AirPrint or your exact model, not Generic PostScript Printer unless your printer supports PostScript.
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Test another document
Print a plain page from TextEdit. If that's fine but one file isn't, the file or its fonts are the problem; export it as a PDF and print that copy.
Did this fix it?
Good. To confirm everything is healthy, print a test page. It takes a minute and shows any quality problems early.
Try these next
Still stuck? Our printer assistant can walk you through it by live chat, free. . Or the The troubleshooter asks a few questions and narrows it down. If your printer is under warranty, the manufacturer can repair or replace it at no cost. Find their official support site on our brand pages.
Common questions
What does a PCL XL error mean?
The printer couldn't process the job in the PCL printer language, often because of a driver mismatch or a complex document. Updating or switching the driver usually fixes it.
Why does only one document print garbled?
That file may contain a damaged font or image. Saving it again as a PDF, or printing it as an image from your PDF reader, usually works around it.