For all Office, Deskjet, and Photosmart inkjet printers sold since last July 2005, HP has released information about the standard of the industry in measuring yields of HP inkjet cartridges.

ISO Standard Page Yields

Under the testing guidelines of ISO 24711, the set standard of five pages of 8.5 x 11 is continuously printed until the inkjet cartridge reaches its end-of-life. For several reasons, these conditions in testing may not be the same as what you have experienced in your everyday use. The set standard should only be a guide for comparison purposes. It does not to tell you the actual page yield you’ll get from your HP inkjet cartridges and printer. The actual page yield differs considerably base on the printed pages’ content.

Actual Page Yields

As mentioned above, your actual yield will differ basing on the amount of content on your printed pages. Documents that are highly “dense” will lessen the number of page yield. The less dense documents such as a document with an organization chart willincrease the number of page yields. When you print using only one color, you may have lower yields for that certain color. For colors that are not commonly used, it will give you higher yields.

Non-Stop Printing

There are some inkjet users who print multiple pages at a time, sometimes for hours and days. Continuous printing allows the printers to use inks that will clear the print nozzles and keep the flow of the ink smoothly. This is necessary in order to maintain your printer’s health. However, it will give you lower yields of pages.

Usage of One-Time Ink

There are some HP printers that use the first cartridge’s ink for starting up a printer. This type of usage is not included in the test guidelines of ISO 24711. Therefore, this could affect your cartridge’s yield.

Conclusion

It is necessary to be mindful about the number of pages your printer can print. Doing so allows you to efficiently utilize the materials in your printer.