Buying toner can be frustratingly expensive endeavor. Some toner cartridges seem to cost almost as much as the printer itself! But don’t be discouraged, because there is another way. Here are five simple things you can do to save money on toner:

1. Buy remanufactured instead of OEM.

Printer companies will try to squeeze as much money out of you as possible by charging a premium for their cartridges, but you could save nearly half the cost by buying remanufactured cartridges instead. However, there is some risk with buying remanufactured cartridges if you don’t know who the company is that’s selling them. That’s why it is important to do some research to make sure they make a good product. If you find a good brand, like Print.Save.Repeat, the remanufactured cartridges will be indistinguishable from the original cartridge.

2. Buy high yield. (More prints for your money)

Most printers have different yield options available for their toner cartridges. Higher yield cartridges will almost always give you the most bang for your buck. For example, Print.Save.Repeat.’s high yield cartridge for the Lexmark MS410 printer is the 501H-IPS. It is rated at 5,000 pages and costs $99.95. Compare that to the extra high yield 501X-IPS which is rated at 10,000 pages and costs $159.95. With the extra high yield, you get double the prints for only $60 more!

3. Always keep a backup.

Running out of toner when you need to print something important can be the most frustrating thing ever. You end up scrambling to find another cartridge only to discover that there are none available in your area and you will have to spend extra cash to ship one overnight. If you always keep a backup cartridge, you can avoid the stress altogether and save on shipping costs.

4. Lower the toner darkness setting.

The darkness setting does exactly what you would expect. The darker you set it, the darker your prints will look at the expense of using more toner. The more toner the cartridge will use, the faster it will run out, so you will need to find a balance. We recommend setting it as light as you can without it looking washed out or faded.

5. Use the correct media settings.

Printers are very sensitive to the kind of media they print on. If you are printing on labels but the printer thinks you’re printing on plain paper, it could cause problems with the toner transfer rate and/or the fuser. This affects the cartridge causing it to overuse its toner reserves and fail prematurely. For general instructions on how to change media settings, see how to set your printer to labels. You can also refer to your owner’s manual, or contact us! We'd be happy to walk you through it.