HP Scanjet - Copy Utility Print Problem

When I use the Copy Utility on my HP Scanjet and then print, some documents print perfectly.  Other documents print with  smudges all over.  Also, I had a two line paragraph and nothing else and after the two lines the printer kept going like it was printing, but it was nothing but smudges.  This happens on my HP Deskjet 882c printer and my Epson Action 5000 dot matrix printer.  Is the scanner causing this problem, the printer or a combination of the two?  As I said, some documents print perfectly.