A cartridge ‘prints 3,000 pages’. It sounds like a promise. It is closer to a laboratory result.
What page yield actually means
Page yield is the number of pages a cartridge is expected to print under standard test conditions. For laser printers these are set out in international standards such as ISO/IEC 19752 for monochrome and ISO/IEC 19798 for colour, which use test pages with only a few per cent of the sheet covered in toner.
In other words, the figure describes a very light, very tidy way of printing.
Why your office rarely gets that number
Real documents often carry more text, graphics or shading than the test page. Many short print jobs mean extra start-up and cleaning cycles. Colour-heavy pages use more toner than a plain text letter.
The result is that two offices with the same printer and the same cartridge can get very different page counts.
How to compare honestly
Divide the price of a cartridge by the number of pages it really delivers in your office. Do that for a few orders and you have your true cost per page.
Then ask suppliers what they will stand behind in writing.
- Compare cost per page, not price per cartridge
- Track real pages per cartridge for a few months
- Ask for a guaranteed page count, not just a claimed one
A simple check you can do this week
- Note the page counter when you fit a new cartridge.
- Note it again when the cartridge runs out.
- Divide the price by the pages printed.
- Compare the result with the claimed yield and with other suppliers.
Where Commercial Toner fits in
Page yield is one of the four pillars of our 3-year guarantee, alongside quality, function and shelf life. That means a guaranteed page count for your printer model, not a vague estimate.
Standards and test conditions are summarised here for general information. Check the specification of your own cartridges.
