One of the most important considerations when purchasing a remanufactured cartridge is how much you can print before it runs out of a toner cartridge, otherwise known as the “page yield”.

Page yield is the number of pages a you can print with a given printer and cartridge, based on certain assumptions. When printer vendors state toner page yield figures, they also include the amount of the page that is cover by text. It is usually based on 5% of page that is covered by text. If you print a lot of graphics, expect the number of pages  produced by the toner cartridge to drop dramatically.

Keep in mind that there are number of factors that can affect  real-world performance, and so these are general numbers. Darker bold text always consume more toner.

Page yield data should be used as a starting point for comparison purposes, and not to predict the exact yield you will get from your printer and cartridge. Likewise, the declared yield is not intended to be the minimum number of pages that the cartridge will print. Rather, page yield data is meant to estimate the average yield expected from a particular cartridge when measured using the ISO test methodology in connection with a designated printer system. Individual cartridges can perform above and below this average due to variation in the cartridge manufacturing process.Additionally, actual yield varies considerably based on factors such as the content of printed pages, typical printer job size, the environmental conditions during operation and the amount of color printing relative to monochrome printing. For more information see  How toner is used.

In recent years, LaserJet Printer and Multi Functional Product yield data has been calculated using standard ISO test methodologies.The specific ISO/IEC standard used depends upon whether the printer is a monochrome or color device. ISO provides different methodologies for testing color and monochrome printer yields.Previous to the introduction of the ISO/IEC yield methodologies, HP had its own proprietary yield test methodology based on 5% coverage which used a methodology similar in many ways to the ISO yield methodology.

Some HP printers include an “introductory cartridge” in the printer box, which may print less than HP replacement cartridges.HP’s printer packaging will indicate whether introductory cartridges are included with the printer.