More and more printer manufacturers are giving users at least a chance to try to figure out how much ink they’re going to use. They do this by listing the yield of the ink cartridge.
The term yield means, loosely, “to give forth.” So, in other words, cartridge yield refers to the number of pages that, on average, you can expect to get out of each cartridge. This applies to both toner and ink cartridges.
How do you find the yield of your printer? It’s simple – as long as it’s there:
- Go to the description of your printer on the manufacturer’s site.
- Look for a link to the printer specifications and click on it.
- See if you can find a category called Yield or Cartridge Life, or something similar. Click on it.
If the manufacturer does list yields, they will usually have one for black and one for color inks. (When you get into the realms of high-end printing, you’ll get different yield figures for each color).
How is Yield Used?
Yield is usually expressed in this way: 330 pages (5% coverage)
What does that mean?
Testing the yield of an ink cartridge involves two factors: the number of pages that the cartridge lets you printer, and the amount of ink on each page. Saying something like “You’ll get 330 pages from an ink cartridge” doesn’t really help by itself. After all, 330 pages of what? A laundry list? An essay? A full photograph?
That’s the reason that you’ll see the percentage of coverage as part of the yield information. Coverage is the percentage of the page that is covered by the ink in the manufacturer’s tests. Most of the time, manufacturers will give figures for 3%, 4%, or 5% coverage.
Doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? Well, consider how much of a typical text page is actually covered with ink. Not really enough – it’s really mostly white space.
Judging Printers Using Yield
So, now you have two printers. One gets a yield of 330 pages at 5%, the other gets a yield of 300 pages at 5%. You would assume that the first would be more economical, right? Well, probably – but first, check the prices. It’s quite possible that the cartridge with the slightly higher yield will be so much more expensive that it will be less cost-effective than the lower-yield cartridge.
Unfortunately, there is no place to go for printer cartridge yields aside from the manufacturers. This is, of course, sort of like getting a car’s gas mileage from the manufacturer rather than from a more objective source – but unfortunately, there isn’t anyplace else to go. There are companies who will test printer cartridge yields – for a very high fee, and almost always for a company rather than for the public.
Photo Printers: More Coverage
How about photo printers? Well, many times they are also rated at the 5% yield. While this may work for text pages, it hardly works for photo printers – after all, when you are printing a photograph, the ink will usually cover all or nearly all of the paper.
This doesn’t mean you can’t use the 5% measure to figure out which is the more cost-effective cartridge. However, it does mean you can’t use it to predict – even generally -- how many pages each cartridge will last.
Finally, while you’re looking at specifications, look to see if the manufacturer lists the cartridge life. Printer ink doesn’t last forever – after a certain time, it will thicken and cake, and so manufacturers will often take steps to prevent users from holding on to printer cartridges for too long, including chips that will prevent the cartridge from being used after a certain date. As a result, while you can save some money from buying cartridges in bulk, don’t buy more than you can use in a couple of years.
