What is Page Yield?

When you are looking to buy an inkjet printer, all-in-one, or inkjet fax, page yield may be a part of the sales persons pitch. But what is page yield?  Page yield is defined as the number of pages one can print from an ink cartridge. In that case, it’s important to know if there are any standards set for page yield and the answer is Yes!

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) created a system to measure page yield. In order to do create this standard, the printer ink cartridge is put through a continuous print test until the ink begins to fade or stops printing because of low ink supply.  This test is performed by covering 5% of the page at a time which is equivalent to two small paragraphs of Times New Roman, font 12, double spaced. This is important as many customers believe that a page yield of 10K means 10K fully printed pages. However, it really means 10K page printed at 5% coverage – a big difference to take into account. Also, real page yield is dependent upon what is being printed. The amount of content on the page and whether you’re utilizing one color or many colors play a factor in yield. 

Compatible and remanufactured ink cartridge suppliers also test the cartridge to be sure that page yield matches the original brand cartridge. In so doing, you can be sure that you’re not losing any page yield when buying more affordable cartridges.

If you’re only printing a few pages a month, page yield may not be an important factor though it does play into the cost of printing.  Those who print large quantities of documents will find print yield to be important to their bottom line.

Should you have any further questions, feel free to contact our customer service department for assistance.