How to extend the life of your toner cartridge

A toner cartridge is an expensive piece of equipment so you want it to last as long as possible. There are a couple of things you can do to extend the life of your toner cartridge which will inevitably save you money.

Firstly, the easiest way to make your toner cartridge last longer is to change your printer settings. If you are using Windows go to Start and select Settings and then Printers and Faxes. This will vary depending on which version of Windows you are using but you should also be able to find it by going to Control Panel and selecting Printers and Faxes. Right click on your printer and select Printer Preferences. Again this will vary depending on your version of Windows so you might need to search around for it.

Once you have found your printer preferences you need to look for an option to print in draft quality. Printing in draft quality will reduce the quality of your print but on the other hand it will save on toner which will extend the life of your toner cartridge. Depending on the type of business you are running, you probably will find that printing in draft quality is quite sufficient for most print jobs.

Printing in draft quality can extend the life of your toner cartridge, but if you can’t find an option to print in draft quality, then look for a similar option. Some printer preferences have a Quality/Speed option. If you select ‘Quality’ the print quality is obviously better, however it prints slower and of course uses more toner. If you select ‘Speed’ then the quality is less but the speed at which it prints is greater and the amount of toner it uses is less.

There is another simple way to extend the life of your toner cartridge. When your printer lets you know that you are out of toner don’t just replace the cartridge. Take out the toner cartridge and shake it from side to side a few times and then place it back in your printer. You want to distribute the toner evenly along the cartridge so make sure you give it a good shake. This has been known to extend the life of toner cartridges for up to a ream of paper. At the very least it will give you a window of time to purchase another cartridge.

For more information on toner cartridges or to choose from a range of printer supplies and products select from the following:

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