Usdnalsa.org

Printing toner cartridges are some of the most costly but reusable consumer items in use today. Finding the right combination of printer and cartridge is not a simple task. The yield of a cartridge is dependent on the printer as well as the paper size. Detailed information about how a cartridge’s yield is determined is available at about.com.

The International Organization for Standardization’s methods is the most commonly used yardstick for determining cartridge yield. These methods apply to color, laser and ink jet printers. The three most prominent measuring devices are; a standard test document, the number of cartridges tested and end-of-life criterion.

The standard test document is usually an A4 or letter size paper with coverage of between 3%-5%. Coverage is the amount of ink on the page in comparison to white spaces. This standard only applies to text documents or documents with sparse text and few graphics. The intention is for the test document to set a baseline that will create consistency in tests of documents varying in paper size and platform. Manufacturers use this method to express the yield of a cartridge in terms of total number of pages at a certain coverage percentage.

As with any test, reliability rests on consistency. The credibility of the results stems from the number of cartridges tested and the confidence level of the predicted yield. The test uses at least nine cartridges to ensure a 95% confidence level of the predicted yield.

Like the last bit of gas in a tank, the end-of-life criterion of a cartridge has a significant impact on the overall yield of the cartridge. When a cartridge is on its last legs, the recommendations made by the manufacturer will squeeze out those last few pages. The extensive testing done by manufacturers is how they know what handling procedures will generate a higher print yield. There are many factors influencing the yield of a cartridge and determining them comes down to the individual printer and cartridge.