What Are The Differences Between Standard and High Yield Toner?

It’s easy to get confused when buying toner, especially if you’re just starting out.

There are quite a few different terms to describe sometimes very similar things.

The terms that sound the most straightforward describe the yield of the toner, or how many pages that toner will print. Standard and high yield cartridges are exactly what they sound like, with the high yield printing a larger number of pages over the life of the toner.

Manufacturers look at what is known as page coverage as well, meaning how much of the page is actually being printed on – 5% appears to be pretty standard as an industry rating for pages printed. Beyond just counting pages and ink coverage, there are some pretty significant differences in the two yield types that not everyone thinks of when making a buying choice.

Environmental Concerns

With the increased number of pages printed by high yield cartridges, there are fewer overall cartridges needed. As manufacturing toner produces greenhouses gases and other pollution, this can reduce some of those emissions.

Using cartridges with higher yield also means that fewer cartridges are being shipped overall, reducing transportation emissions and fossil fuel use. Landfills are also being packed with dead toner, and each one takes several hundred years to decompose.

Overall Costs

It may sound a little silly to say that something costing more will actually save money over time, but high yield toner ends up printing pages at a much lower cost each than standard toner. Like some hybrid cars, the higher up-front costs are overcome by lower operating expenses, making the initial investment worth the premium.

Service and Maintenance

Many offices lease or rent their printers from a company that may also require service contracts. In some cases, this could include replacing the toner.

If you have a choice in what kind of toner is used, requesting high yield could save you money on maintenance and service charges. Even if you own your equipment, the time someone spends purchasing and replacing standard yield toner could be better spent somewhere else.

Lifespan Concerns

It may be tempting to run out and buy the highest yield cartridges you can find to save time and money, but these types of toner might not be best for everyone. Toner comes from the factory with both a warranty and an expiration date, which means that there is an actual possibility that the toner can go bad and cause quality issues.

If you aren’t able to print enough to use up the high yield toner before it expires, you may face lower print quality or even damage to your printer. Take a look at the number of pages a high yield cartridge will produce and determine your actual printing needs over the course of a year. If you aren’t getting anywhere near the high yield cartridges’ capacity, a standard yield toner may be best for you.

OEM and Generic

Most printer manufacturers offer both a high and standard yield version of toner for their printers. If you happen to own one of the few that don’t have an OEM high yield option for your printer, you may be attracted to generic choices that list your printer brand as being compatible. Believe it or not, there is probably a good reason that your printer manufacturer doesn’t offer a high yield version of toner for that printer, and it isn’t just because they want more of your money.

There may be a technical reason the printer can’t handle high yield, whether it be page feeding speed or a power supply issue, and using a generic toner cartridge in one of these machines can cause some real problems.

Outside of voiding the warranty, you may actually wear or damage the printing surfaces inside the printer by using a cartridge that isn’t designed to work with that machine. In these cases, it may be best to look at a different type of printer that can handle high yield cartridges.

There are plenty of situations where buying standard yield toner is the best choice for your needs, whether it be your actual printing usage or compatibility with the type of printer you have. It pays to do some research on your actual need and your existing equipment to determine how (or if) a high yield cartridge choice will benefit you.

If you own a printer that can’t handle high yield toner, don’t be tempted to try a workaround by buying generic or compatible toner.

Many printer manufacturers sell the machines at a loss, knowing that they will make up the difference on toner over the life of that printer, so the costs to switch to a machine that can handle high yield may not be as tough as it seems up front.

7 Common Toner Problems and How to Fix Them

Talking of common toner problems, Matthew Inman comes to mind — known for his satirical drawings. Inman is witty. He’s perfected the art of overdosing his readers with fits of laughter while delivering worthwhile messages.

So what’s a comic to do with toner problems?

Inman understands your pain with printers. He’s captured the story so nicely in his famous work titled “Why I believe printers are sent from hell to make us miserable.” OK, you probably don’t share his strong opinion on the subject, but you get the point. Printers, in this case, those that use toners, can cause grief if you don’t understand what’s going on.

Toners are laser printers’ alternative to inks in inkjet printers. If you use a laser printer, then you’re familiar with toners and fusers.

Let’s examine common toner problems you may have experienced or might face in future — with solutions to help you get past the mess.

Low Toner Error

Image credit: Flickr

Cause: You may have just replaced your toner only to find your computer giving you “low toner error.” Printer error messages are sometimes unreliable. Unless your toner cartridge is broken or damaged, resetting your printer is all you need to fix this glitch.

Cure: Use a hard reset. Hard resets are usually simple to follow. Find the particular printer model’s reset instructions on the manufacturer’s website. Some printers even come with video guides, and you can also call your manufacturer’s product support for help.

Blotchy, Streaked or Faded Printouts

Your printer works but produces blotchy, streaked or faded printouts. This problem is common. Have you used the correct paper, and verified that your printer’s components function well? Then check your toner.

Cause: If you seldom print documents, your toner might have settled and would need to be “awakened.”

Cure: Remove your toner and gently rock it from side to side — DON’T shake the toner. Make sure you don’t touch the toner roll as it may leave fingerprints.

Fuser Errors

The fuser is a part of laser printers that fuses the toner and paper together. The toner is useless without a functioning fuser.

Image credit: Dell

Just like other vital parts of the printer — the toner cartridge and the drum unit — the fuser would eventually need replacing. HP and Dell says that the fuser has a lifespan is 100,000 prints. Most consumers wouldn’t need to replace their fusers in a very long time. Albeit, regular printer problems, like paper jams, wears out the fuser faster.

Image credit: HP

Causes: Fuser errors indicates there’s a problem in your fuser driver circuit. Here are all the fuser errors you may experience and what they mean.

50.1 and 50.8: Low temperature in the fuser.
50.2: Fuser warm-up service error.

The 50.2 error is common with HP laser printers. The error happens if your printer’s thermistors (which reads the fuser temperature as it warms up) fails to give an accurate reading of the fuser temperature in the expected time frame.

The 50.2 error is indicative that a component of the engine control board or fuser is malfunctioning.

50.3 and 50.9: Fuser high-temperature error.

Fuser error 50.3 signals that your machine is overheating. Your fuser may overheat due to the type of paper you use. If you use thick paper for a prolonged printing session overheating is likely to occur. Your printer would have to heat its fuser to a higher temperature to bond the toner to the thick paper. If your printer’s fuser runs at a higher temperature for a prolonged period, it would overheat.

50.4: Faulty fuser

Change the fuser if this error occurs.

50.5: Fuser inconsistency (shows as 13.2 error in some cases)

This error signifies that the inserted fuser isn’t the correct fuser for that model of printer. In some cases, the error code would be 13.20 error.

50.6: Open fuser error

This error signifies that the Alternating Current (AC) needed to warm up the fuser isn’t completing its circuit. The incomplete circuit may be happening from inside the fuser or the current is breaking from the power supply.

50.7: Pressure release mechanism failure error

Much like the fuser warm-up service error, the pressure release mechanism failure results from inadequate power supply — having other power usurping devices in the same circuit as your printer may cause the machine to work improperly end up giving you a 50.7 error.

Cures: You can use some solutions to prevent fuser errors. Since most fuser errors are interconnected, it wouldn’t help much to give you individual solutions for each error type. Use the solutions here to minimize or eliminate fuser errors:

Improve power supply: An error may result if your printer runs on a power generating source that doesn’t meet its power requirement. Most fusers need as much as 350 Fahrenheit (i.e., 177 Celsius) to 425 Fahrenheit (i.e., 218 Celsius) of heat to work — that’s a lot of power consumed. When the power supply is less than required, the temperature control for your fuser won’t work, causing it to malfunction.

Improve your printer’s power supply by plugging the machine straight to the wall outlet. Do not connect any other heating device to the same circuit or outlet as your printer.
If you are experiencing a 50.6 fuser error, there’s very little you can do about it. Reseat the fusing unit to ensure it’s making proper contact with the connector.

Verify shipping: If you’ve just replaced your fuser, check if you were shipped the correct fuser for your printer and voltage standards. As an example, fusers for HP printers 4240, 4250,4350, and M4345 models look the same and even fit in the machines, but won’t heat up well resulting in a bad print quality and errors (usually a 50.2 fuser error).

If you’ve been shipped the wrong fuser then you can return it to get the appropriate one. It’s helpful to know the return policies of your seller before making a purchase.
This solution fits error code 13.20 or 50.5. Take the fuser out and check its barcode label for the part number and then verify if the part number on your model printer matches; this verified if you are with the correct fuser or not.

Unplug your machine for 20 to 30 minutes: Unplug and leave your printer for 20 to 30 minutes, and then turn it on again to see if the error is resolved. This solution comes handy when dealing with 50.2 and 50.3 errors.

Ventilation for the machine: Make sure your machine has adequate ventilation. Give three to four inches of space on all sides of your device to allow it cool. Ventilating your printer prevents fuser error 50.3.

Break large printing jobs into smaller tasks: Breaking large print volume into intervals gives your fuser time to cool off. Just like in the point above, breaking tasks to smaller bits prevents fuser error 50.3.

Reconnect the connectors: If you are technically inclined, then reconnect the connectors of your printer’s DC controller PCA and fuser control PCA (here’s a glossary of laser printer terms to help). Ask for professional help from sales support, or a local printer maintenance support.

Replace the fuser: Under certain conditions, the best line of action is to replace the fuser; these conditions are

If experiencing fuser errors 50.1 or 50.4.
You should also replace the fuser if you’ve tried all alternative solutions (as explained above) when experiencing a 50.2 fuser error.

Half-page Printouts

Your printer rolls out half-page of content and leaves half the page blank — a number of things could cause this. Yes, your toner may be responsible for the half-page print-out, but you want to run a few checks before concluding.

Cause: Half-page printouts could result from some errors. To find out what’s going on, follow these steps in ‘Cure’ below.

Cure: Diagnose for errors following these steps.

Unplug your printer,
Turn off your computer,
Restart both devices.
Run a page to test if the printer is back to normal

If this test page doesn’t come out well, you should notice some error lights on the printer. Search Google for what the error lights mean and take it from there.

Toner or drum unit problems would go with corresponding error messages. Usually, error messages would explain the problem, if not, a quick search online should lead you in the right direction.

Black and White Image with Color or Traces of Color

Image credit: YouTube

You may have noticed that having all your colors turned on in spite of printing black and white documents gives a richer look. Your document’s better look results from the better gradations and smoother color tone that’s only possible if all your colors are turned on. In contrast, using black ink alone — for a black and white image print out — produces poor prints.

Cause: If you find color traces or colors on your black and white images, then you have a color leak. Your toner may need replacing.

Cure: Remove the leaking ink and clean the printer, and then replace the bad ink or toner with a new one.

Gray Background or Print

Your printer’s photoreceptor or print density setting is usually responsible for gray text printouts — instead of black. If your laser printer has print density control, then it allows you to manipulate the tones of your printed ink. You can decrease or increase your print density for a lighter or darker hue.

Cause: If your printer’s print density isn’t the cause of your gray text, it’s the photoreceptor. Your photoreceptor wears out over time and reduces the charge it holds, consequently transferring less toner from the printer’s developer to your page.

Cure: Increase your print density setting to make your prints black again. However, over time your photoreceptor would need replacing. On the flip side, excess toner from a high print density setting would give a gray background. Find the best setting by slowly adjusting your print density setting.

Spots Spaced at Regular Intervals

Cause: You can determine the cause of spots on a printed page by observing the pattern of the spots. Toner deposits on the fuser would leave spots at regular, close intervals.

Image Credit: HowStuffWorks

Cure: Turn your printer off for a minimum of 15 minutes for the fuser to cool off. Make sure the fuser completely cools off to avoid getting burned. Check for toner deposits on the fuser cleaning pad, and if necessary, replace the cleaning pad. If the spots persist, seek professional help.

To Wrap Up

Inman says “Your printer will always stop working at 3 AM when you’re trying to print out a report that’s due the next morning,” and that’s probably right — if you don’t have this guide handy.

One more thing. If you have unused toners and want to sell, we pay the best market rates, and you don’t have to ever haul anything down to a store, the whole transaction happens online — just let us know.

Toner Connects to Cryptocurrency

Like many industries influenced by changes in technology, banking and finance have evolved greatly in recent years.

Most of our thoughts when it comes to banking have evolved or are completely different than they were a decade ago.

This rapid change can be attributed to the internet and advances in technology, which have made transfers of large sums of money very easy and incredibly fast.

Banking and finance have now entered the digital world, creating its own currency and economic models, complete with a trading platform and market.

Cryptocurrency is basically digital money which can be stored and exchanged completely online. Transactions are verified through a central ledger system, with users’ identities held privately and encrypted. These currencies have exploded in growth over the past 5 years, some to the tune of a 1,000% or more increase in value.

Some of the most popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are worth nearly $4,000USD each, which can make investing in them both difficult and intimidating.

What does this mean for you? Why are you reading about cryptocurrency on the Toner Connect blog?

There are a couple of key connections here:

1. Investing in cryptocurrencies can be very risky. Using funds that have been earned from selling toner means that any losses will not impact other parts of your business or budget.

2. There are times when people will want to store things like Bitcoin “offline”. This can be done by printing the currency and basically creating paper money. High-quality toner and paper are essential to making this work.

Whether you’re selling the unused toner you have lying around or buying resale toner, you will end up with savings that can be used elsewhere, either in the business or in other areas.

Businesses generally have a budget line specifically for things like printing-related expenses, which include the costs of staying stocked with quality toner.

Money saved in this area can be moved to other areas of the business, saved, or invested, which leads us to the cryptocurrency discussion.

When you end up with savings on a line item in the budget, even small, this can sometimes feel like free money.

While we all know that isn’t true, it can be put to use as free money without negatively impacting the rest of your budget.

Cryptocurrencies, like all other investment tools, can be very risky if you’re jumping in blindly.

There are some very well established “brands” in the space, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and (yes) Dogecoin, so there will be some research needed to find the one(s) that meet your needs.

Another avenue to research is index investing, which looks and behaves just like the index funds you can trade on the stock market or probably have in your 401K somewhere.

As with all investments, it would be dangerous to view these types of things as get rich quick schemes.

While cryptocurrencies have seen explosive growth, some doubling or more in a very short period of time, they can sometimes fall just as quickly.

In almost any other situation, that risk is enough to make most companies run for the hills, but with the investment funds coming from surplus budget dollars, in this case, the losses may not sting as much if they come.

Printing Paper Wallets

The other big way that the toner world collides with cryptocurrencies is in the creation of what is known as a paper wallet.

While these types of currency are nearly all based online, many people choose to print a paper certificate that they can store just like cash.

Security issues aside, storing something like Bitcoin on a piece of paper requires quality toner and super high-quality paper.

You’re basically minting your own paper currency by doing this, so printing something that will stand the test of time is important.

Since toner uses plastic that is melted onto the page using heat, it does not degrade as quickly over time as ink does.

Combined with heavy cotton paper, genuine toner will produce a paper wallet that is ready to hold up for a long time to come.

Even though cryptocurrencies have been around for a while now, they haven’t really become mainstream.

Given how hard it is even for banks to get all of their customers to use a mobile app or online banking, this isn’t surprising.

But what is shocking is the explosion of value that currencies like Bitcoin have shown recently.

It’s a hard thing to ignore, but investing in digital currencies comes with a healthy dose of risk.

Taking precautions with research and studying the market is the best approach, and using savings from purchases of toner to use for seed money is a great way to jumpstart your investments.

Investing in cryptocurrency can be an easy way to make money; so can selling your unused toner to us

Toner and NFL: Why Paper Still Dominates the Game

What makes an NFL genius like Tom Brady? The New England Patriots quarterback is probably the nation’s best. 39-Year-Old Brady is also crowned the best signal caller in the league.

Apart from his outstanding records of success, Tom Terrific has the uncanny ability to remain mentally stable. The quarterback keeps his focus on the game even with his team down by three points in the last five minutes of gameplay.

Brady’s mental strength has paid off. He’s led his team to victory consistently. In the last one year to August 2017, Brady has bagged accolades like,

1. The most passing yards in a Super Bowl, 466.

2. Played the most number of Super Bowls, seven.

3. Super Bowls won, five.

4. The highest number of completed passes in a Super Bowl game, 43.

5. The most career passing yards in a Super Bowl, 2,071.

6. The highest number of pass attempts in a Super Bowl game, 62.

7. The most career passes attempted in the Super Bowl, 309.

8. The highest number of Super Bowl touchdowns in a career, 16.

In short, Brady commands success at will. What’s the quarterback’s victories to do with toners and papers?

Quarterbacks, Toners, and Papers

Image Credit: Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports

Sitting on Tom Terrific’s wrists in every game is his playbook. That’s where he calls the signals from. That cheat sheet is printed with toner on paper.

That playbook is used for every game. Everytime. And, nope, Tom Brady isn’t the only quarterback using cheat sheets.

Defensive schemes have grown complex and quarterbacks have befriended wristband playbooks to stay competitive. Approaching the end of his rookie season on the New York Jets team, Mark Sanchez, now quarterback for the Chicago Bears, started using wrist-worn cheat sheets. Sanchez has since played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

You’d find cheat sheets on the wrists of most quarterbacks (even entire teams!). Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alex Smith who played for the San Francisco 49ers and now plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. Tim Tebow who played for the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets.

Eli Manning stopped using cheat sheets in 2009. Before the New York Giants quarterback started memorizing his signal calls, he’d depended on playbooks.

According to NJ.com, Kurt Warner commented on his experience with using a wrist-worn playbook. Warner who’s played for the New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, and St. Louis Rams said,

“I finally used it in Arizona. You’d love to have somebody call the play to you (via the helmet radio), so you get to hear it one time. And then you get to call it a second time, so it gets to process in your mind twice.”

Tom Brady and other quarterbacks happen to be benefiting from a half-century old culture of wearing cheat sheets on wristbands. Quarterbacks started wearing playbook wristbands in 1965.

How Papers Got into the Game

Baltimore Colts quarterback Tom Matte’s cheat sheet from 1965, displayed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Image Credit: NJ.com

The 1965 Baltimore Colts quarterbacks, Johnny Unitas (who was the starter) and Gary Cuozzo (the backup), had sustained season-ending injuries. The only hope left for the team was Tom Matte.

A loving wife, an index card, and a magic marker in the kitchen table of a suburban Baltimore home were the humble beginnings of the playbook wristband some 52 years ago.

Tom had been in Baltimore Colts since 1961 and was familiar with their play. The team’s offensive coordinator Don McCafferty came up with the idea of the playbook to make things easy for Matte. The cheat sheet worked out well.

McCafferty’s wife, Judy, helped with writing a crude version of the cheat sheet. She wrote the playbooks for the final two games of the 1965 season, and then the playoff between the Colts and the Green Bay Packers.

Matte is now 78 years old. Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio has the former quarterback’s original cheat sheet wristband on their display. Tom is amazed at how the playbook has gained wide acceptance. He says “I cheated my way into the Hall of Fame.”

Habits and Paper-centric Departments

Gartner’s Vice President of Research, Ken Weilerstein, says that printing initially surged with an increase in online content. According to Mr. Weilerstein, printing volumes rose in response to the abundance of content online.

Let’s take a look at the stats here. Back in 2015 – that’s a long time considering the growth speed of online content – every minute (i.e., every 60 seconds),

204 million emails are sent out,
1,400 blog posts go live (that’s over 2 million articles every day),
Facebook gets 2.46 million posts,
Twitter welcomes 277,000 tweets,
Yelp 26,380 reviews and the list goes on.

According to Hosting Facts, we have 1.24 billion websites as of August 2017. Since British physicist Tim Berners-Lee published the first website in 1991, we’ve had a mind-blowing 124 billion percentage growth in websites!

I can’t think of any other technology that’s grown as fast as the internet. And it’s still growing.

People feel more comfortable reading lengthy texts on paper than on screens. So they print. The growing volume of online content encourages more printing.

Infotrends released a study in January 2016. In the study, 60 percent of printing done in companies of any size were essential – 40 percent were optional. Millennials (18 to 29-year-olds), counter-intuitively, didn’t show any significant drop in their printing habits.

NFL teams hire an average of 3,739 people, including office staff. The Infotrends studies say human resources, accounting, and legal are the most paper-centric departments. Activities that happen regularly like invoicing, printing notes and onboarding consume paper.

In the words of Weilerstein, “It is easier to read long documents on paper than on-screen. Paper is universally accepted as valid for contracts and other legal documents, and the signatures are familiar and accepted to a greater degree than any digital signature.”

IDC’s Keith Kmetz, who serves as the organization’s program vice president for imaging, printing and document solutions shares Ken Weilerstein’s views. Keith pointed out that many companies, including some NFL teams, have initiated a “paperless light” concept.

Almost all internal processes are entirely paperless, in a “paperless light” concept. However, integrating external processes into that internal system would involve some printing and scanning.

To Wrap it Up

Papers will dominate the game for the foreseeable future. Tom Matte’s legacy won’t be digitized anytime soon. The NFL and teams in the NFL, just like other large organizations in the Infotrends studies, have accounting, legal, and other paper-centric activities that’s not about to go obsolete.

Papers will dominate this game because they help ensure victory. And, hey, who doesn’t like winning?

Toner Connect’s New Toner Pick Up Policy

Toner Connect is launching a new pick-up service for our wonderful customers within a 50 mile radius from our Passaic, NJ office. To qualify for an on-site pickup and on the spot payment via check, your order must meet the following guidelines:

Pick-up Guidelines

1. The pick-up MUST be at a valid and verified business location.

2. All items MUST be genuine name brand in perfect condition – no generic, open or damaged items.

3. You MUST submit your quote 48 hours before a pick-up. Last minute pickups with less than 24 hour notice will be deducted a $20 late service fee and only approved, if no prior pick-ups are scheduled.

4. Pick-ups will only be done Monday through Thursday between 10AM and 2PM.

5. All orders MUST be prepared to be inspected and loaded into the company vehicle once the driver arrives.

6. Any additional items that have not been quoted prior to pick-up will NOT be paid out during the pick-up. These items MUST be dropped off at the warehouse, inspected and payment will be mailed via check only if we decide to purchase those items.

Order Requirements

Miles: 0-20 for orders of $500 or more

Miles: 21-30 for orders of $750 or more

Miles: 31-40 for orders of $1000 or more

Miles: 41-50 for orders of $1500 or more

Any orders that are over 50 miles must be shipped to us at: 90 Dayton Ave, Unit 4J, Passaic, NJ 07055

Up Your Small Business Game: Why You Need to Recycle Used Toner and Sell Unused Ones

There’s one thing all businesses have in common: they’re constantly looking to improve. Be it big or small, established or startup, owners and business leaders have an ever-present ear to the ground on how to make their company better. But did you know what you do with your old and new toners can be apart of that?

From health tips to increasing the company budget, your toner is the key!

Used Toners

The Healthier Choice

Refilling your ink cartridges has become a staple for saving money in the office but refilling your toner? Not such a great idea. Why? One word: Carcinogens.

According to the Health and Safety Office of Portsmouth, toner powder has a pretty bad rep when it comes to our health. Classified as a “nuisance substance”, it can lead to eye irritation, headache, and itchy skin. Prolonged exposure can lead to more severe reactions. Long story short, leave refilling toners to the experts.

Get The Most Out Of Your Toner

Before you toss yet another toner cartridge in the dustbin, make sure you’ve gotten your money’s worth. There are a couple tricks you can do to make sure your toner is completely out:

Shake your toner cartridge to loosen the dust- A lot of the time the powder just needs to be stirred up again.
If the toner light appears, try putting electrical tape over the sensory hole on the non-gear part of the cartridge- A lot of printers will be fooled into thinking there’s more toner and keep printing.
Clean the opening of the toner with rubbing alcohol

For a more in-depth look at how to get the most out of your toner and other printing tips, click here and here.

Recycling

With the idea of recycling and reducing the amount of carbon footprints on the rise, it’s easy and smart for businesses to do their part and get involved. One of the best ways to do so is to safely recycle a piece of equipment that can cause some serious environmental harm: your toner cartridge.

Did you know your cartridge can take over a hundred years to decompose? Not to mention the petroleum we’re leaking back into the ground.

So what can you do about it?

Two things actually. While it’s not as simple as tossing the empty cartridge into the nearest recycle bin, it’s will be rewarding to know you’re doing your part to save our Earth.

The first thing you can do is check to see if your toner type can be resold to companies that refill them and resell them at a cheaper rate. Toner cartridges have the capacity to be used over and over again before they show any sign of wear and tear and it will save them a needless trip to the landfill.

The other thing you can do is recycle it properly. As mentioned before they can’t be taken by your regular recycle company because they require special attention. However, office supply stores such as Staples or OfficeMax usually have a toner recycle program and can take them off your hands when you’re done with them.

Unused Toners

Remember when we mentioned we have a way for you to bring in some extra revenue for your company? Well, we weren’t joking. In fact, you most likely have your source of income sitting on a shelf right now.

Toner Buyback Program

At Toner Connect, we offer to buy back your unused toners and not only free up some storage space but also get cash in your pockets. So how does it work? Easy.

The 411

Toner Connect has a fast and simple way to get rid of your unwanted cartridges and it involves you earning money. There are certain qualifications your cartridge needs to meet in order to be considered for buyback. They are:

Undamaged and unopened
From the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
The toner has not reached 3 years past its expiration date.

For the full explanation of how our buyback program works, check out our post here. When you’re ready to find out if your cartridge qualifies, simply fill out our form and we will get back to you with the rate we can offer.

The only thing easier would be to print your own money which by the way is a federal crime so we don’t recommend it.

Starting a small business is definitely no easy feat. From image development to becoming profitable to possibly joining a “What have I gotten myself into?” support group on Facebook, we at Toner Connect understand. We’ve been there. We are there. And we want to see you succeed.

If you have any questions or concerns, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us here or visit us at TonerConnect.net.

The EPA And You: How To Print The Green Way

Fathered by the United States’ 37th president Richard Nixon, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was established in 1970. And to no one’s surprise, it’s purpose is to protect the health of humans and the welfare of the environment.

With the use of ink cartridges and toner cartridges on a steady rise, the EPA couldn’t help but notice the rather unpleasant result that discarded cartridges have in the landfill they’re tossed in. Intent on leaving some sort of messy legacy, cartridges from both ink and toners alike take up to hundreds of years to decompose. And for the good people at the EPA, that was no bueno.

However, thanks to modern technology and companies like Toner Connect there’s a better way to get rid of the waste without being well wasteful.

The EPA wants you….to recycle

Initially put out in April 2013, the EPA created a guideline for ways to reduce your ink usage and while you’re at it, save thousands of acres of forestland. Calling it the Electric Challenge, the EPA came up with these clever ways to save on paper and ink.

Reduce Margins
Reduce Line Spacing
Change and Reduce Font Size

Reduce Margins

When creating a word doc you have the option to set your own margins which can be extremely beneficial when it comes to saving on paper.

Reduce Line Spacing

Right along with reducing margins, tightening up line spacing can get more words on each page. Simply click on the paragraph icon and where it says “line spacing” select “single” or change your setting manually by typing in “0.9”.

Change and Reduce Font Size

Earlier this year Toner Connect divulged what four fonts will save you the most on ink and the EPA agrees. Click here to find out which made the cut. Along with font type, changing the font size to a smaller number can definitely save on space and in the long, on ink and toner as well.

Just by adhering to these four rules it was estimated in 2012 that 170,000 sheets of paper were spared from consumer consumption. In other words, 62 40-foot trees (or someone’s backyard in Oregon) were preserved.

A small victory to be sure but the EPA wasn’t done yet.

Not satisfied with merely saving life-giving trees in our Pacific Northwest, the organization assembled another list and this time it’s on how to save on ink and toner and extend the life of the cartridges we buy.

Double-sided Printing/Shrink to Fit
Reader View Printing
Fast draft/Resolution

Double-sided Printing/Shrink to Fit

One of the more common knowledge ink savers (but we can hardly expect the EPA to come up with everything), double-sided printing not only saves on paper but combining it with the “Shrink to Fit” option and you’ll save on your ink and toner as well. Double-win.

Reader View Printing

If you find yourself in need of printing a page directly from the internet, one nice way to avoid including all those annoying banners and ads is clicking on the Reader View option. If the page is readable in that mode, alongside the link you will see three and a half lines stacked. It will change the page to only display the text and images directly affiliated with the subject.

By printing from the Reader View, you can bypass all the ads you would normally see along with the page.

Fast Draft/Resolution

Finally, one last way to save on ink is to change the printer setting to Fast Draft for documents that don’t require the ink to stand out in a commercial fashion. Similarly, changing the resolution to a lower setting will help as well. Most new printers begin at 600 DPI and you generally won’t need it so high.

Now that you’re aware of how to save on ink and paper, what do you do with your cartridges when they’re empty? The EPA has an opinion on that too.

But first…

Let’s go over what you can do with your UNUSED cartridges. (Did you think I was going to say “let’s take a selfie”? Because frankly I considered it).

At Toner Connect, this is where our speciality lies and where we come into play. If you’ve ever worked in an office setting or purchased your own home printer you know that the manufacturer will send toner cartridges, and for one reason or another they sometimes end up going unused.

Before the EPA came along and reminded us it was cool to be environmentally friendly, we would have just tossed it in the trash and called it a day. But what if I told you you’d be throwing away money instead? Dumpster diving anyone? Here at Toner Connect we will buy your unused toner cartridge and give you an excellent price for it. And it couldn’t be easier!

There are a few guidelines your toner must adhere to which are as follows:

Completely sealed
From an OEM manufacturer
In the original box
Free from any tampering

To view a complete explanation of our buyback program click here and let us pay you today!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I’ve always been keen on knowing who came up with the idea of recycling. Part of me enjoys picturing a member of the EPA committee sloshing through a depressing landfill and upon spotting an old tennis racket, holding it up and shouting “hey fellows! I bet we could still use this!”

But whatever it’s origins, recycling certainly includes your empty cartridges.

Luckily you have a few options. When it comes to ink cartridges, a lot of people prefer to home fill them which would certainly save money on new ink and of course save the cartridge from a very very very slow death at the dump.

Otherwise, you can do the following:

Return it to the original manufacturer. The company will refurbish it for resale.
Recycle at an office store. Most major office suppliers will have a recycling program in place for toner and ink cartridges.

Toner Connect and the EPA want to keep our earth “green” so the next time you find yourself with an empty ink/toner cartridge, make sure it gets a second life.

Top 4 Fonts to Use When Saving On Printer Ink

Who knew that a simple font like Arial could cost you much more of your ink and toner in the printer than other fonts? Is it that hard to believe?

Look closely at how prominent Arial really is. The letters are big. The ink’s deep. Makes sense that after a few dozen pages of printing, Arial might waste that ink cartridge faster than you can say ‘Epsilon’.

Apparently it’s true, and it’s been studied widely by experts: statistically you lose over 20% more of your ink by using this font you’re seeing right here, and the sad thing is Arial’s a standard in today’s content industry.

So what do you do? What can you do?

Four Different Fonts to Choose From Without Losing Quality

And the bonus is this: you’ll save on your ink.

It’s good to know, though, that Arial isn’t the only culprit. Other fonts waste ink as well, but one thing’s for sure – we have four different fonts you’ll probably love, as well as your printer and your pocketbook will love, and this first one is the one you’re seeing right here while reading this article: Times New Roman.

You see? Information truly is power, as no one ever would’ve thought a simple change from Arial to Times would make a difference. It does. Times New Roman outdoes Arial by 27%, apparently.

It seems like pennies and dimes to the budget, but in all honesty – do you really want to ignore the facts?

The ink and toner industry’s booming with a lot of competition to boot. Prices may go up. Ink’s a hot commodity.

You want to save as much money as possible in your company funds, keeping your cartridges running smoothly as you print out the next whitepaper or memo for your office, but let’s just say you’re not a fan of Times New Roman. What do you do then?

Well, the Good News Is You Can Also Switch to Calibri

How about this font? Is this more your style? A lot of professionals use this one as well. And it turns out here’s a font that also outperforms Arial just as much.

Again, though, printers vary in terms of efficiency, so there’s no real accurate way to measure the output versus the cost except for what you’re reading here. You either go with Times or Calibri, and you’re set.

Some problems, though, people have with Calibri is the lack of ‘professionalism’, for lack of a better term. The printer ink font looks a bit childish.

That’s, of course, a matter of opinion. We’ve seen resumes printed in this font, and we never saw any problem with them whatsoever. But each to his/her own.

So you’re facing a dilemma here: you don’t want Times, and you don’t want Calibri. And you certainly don’t want Arial, because you like your company profits to continue growing the way they are.

Century Gothic Also Saves Ink and Money

And just in case you print this out, freaking on the fact that we used Arial for just a bit in the intro paragraph, know this: it all adds up, and we can sweat the slight use of the expensive font given that over time and lots and lots of printing, costs for toner can get as high as $100K. That’s a lot.

But as we’ve mentioned – Century Gothic, what you’re looking at right now, is also a suitable replacement. We’re talking about a 30% decrease in printing ink versus Arial.

A decent change as well, however as you notice these words are a bit bigger, albeit a thinner print line accounting for the decrease in ink usage.

Century Gothic’s not for everyone. After all, if you want to jam in as much quality content on a page but start seeing the paper count add up due to the extra space, the decreased cost in ink might get balanced off by the fact that you’re using more of your stationary.

It all depends on your needs, really. Printing a novel? Century Gothic’s probably not what you want…. But you might like this last font choice:

Ecofont

Utterly revolutionary when it comes to printer ink fonts, because here’s the thing about this style – you can’t tell you’re using it! That’s why you’re seeing Times right now as the go-to, but just in case you’re curious as to what the difference is, here’s a shot for a comparison:

What you’re seeing is Vera Sans in regular font at the top. At the bottom is what Ecofont would look like up close.

Yes, it’s true: you can get Ecofont in the Sans style, Garamond, some other styles, and even Arial. You can see what the key is: those little holes you see in the letters cut down on the ink usage tremendously, so it might be worth a look.

What you have to understand, though, is that this is a very specialized font style. You can get it for an additional $19.95 to install in your Word processor and Outlook, but in the long run, the investment might be worth it in terms of the ROI. Might be something you’d want to look into….

In the End, It All Depends on Your Preferences

Do you print very little and still like Arial? Fine. Stick with it. Arial’s okay. And the cost on your printer ink will be minimal (just keep maintaining that printer if you’re not using it much).

But if your printer usage does go up a fair amount, you might want to consider Times, Calibri or Century Gothic. Choices, choices, choices.

Still, if you’re regularly using that printer – like, every day, every hour – spending that additional $20 for the Ecofont in the long run may be the very best bet.

You’ll be thanking your decision, as you can get this form in just about any font you fancy.

So, again, consider your options. Because you can’t afford not to, especially if you’ve already printed out this 1K-word whitepaper about saving ink. Ironic.