Get More Pages from your Toner Cartridge.

Printer Technician Shares Secret

How many pages can I print from my toner cartridge? What does the page yield rating on a printer cartridge really mean?

Most manufacturers state their toner cartridge yield at "X number of pages", but what they don’t always tell you is, the amount of "coverage" on each page that is assumed in this calculation.

For example, a toner cartridge with a stated yield of 3,000 pages generally means its rated @ 5% coverage. In other words, you can reasonably expect approximately 3,000 pages IF only 5 percent of the page contains printed text characters, graphics, etc. A typical 5% page is similar to a short "memo" or "email" , basically a heading or greeting and a short paragraph and then a closing.

If you are printing pages with more words and graphics, lets say 25% coverage, then your toner cartridge yield would be decreased to only 600 pages.

If you print pages with even more dense text, like a spreadsheet or phone book page, the coverage could be close to 50 percent, which would give you 300 pages from your printer cartridge.

If the page you are printing has a large photo or is completely black, you would only get 150 pages out of the cartridge described at the beginning of this article.

Some machines have what's called a "Toner Save" feature. When this is activated, your machine will use less toner density to fill the page. You will notice the difference in the solid areas of graphics, logos, etc. However, if you print mostly just plain text, then you might not even notice the difference in quality with the naked eye, and the savings could be substantial. Here are more ways to save money on your toner cartridges, printer cartridges and fax toner.