Measuring Yield
Measuring Yield
Overview
Consumers will always want to make informed decisions when buying printers and printing supplies. Print quality, speed, features and ease-of-use are the usual areas that consumers want to compare but now more often consumers want to understand the total cost of owning a printer, and the price of the product is just one element.
When comparing costs, consumers need to look at a range of factors, including quality, reliability and productivity. Measurements of page yield and related estimates of cost-per-page (CPP) are one part of the economic picture. To help customers make the best choice of printing systems to meet their needs Epson use ISO standards to demonstrate print yield for Epson cartridges.
What is page yield?
Page yield is the total number of pages that can be printed with a print cartridge. Until now, print manufacturers have used a variety of methodologies to measure cartridge yields, making it challenging for customers to accurately compare brands.
Why are page yields standards important?
These page yield standards will help customers make more informed purchase decisions by objectively and accurately evaluating print cartridge yields. The new ISO standards for inkjet and toner cartridges yields clearly define the key attributes that affect page yield and apply robust statistical analysis so all manufacturer can utilize the same methodology when measuring yield.
ISO/IEC 24711 and 24712
The ISO/IEC 24711 and 24712 standard was created by the International Standards Organization for Standardization (ISO) with the support of national standards institutes throughout the world, independent experts and industry representatives. Representatives from Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark and other industry-leading manufacturers worked extensively to achieve a standard that provides customers with a reasonable basis for comparing printer performance.
The following is a brief summary of Epson's yield testing, conducted in accordance with the ISO/IEC 24711 and 24712 standard:
- Tests are conducted with at least three printers, each using at least three cartridges of each model, not including the first set of installed cartridges.
- A suite of five patterns (shown on the individual product yield pages) is printed continuously, in consecutive order. Cartridges are replaced when the printer indicates cartridges are expended and will not print without replacing the cartridge.
- Testing is conducted at a controlled temperature in Default Mode on plain paper with print commands from a late model PC with a Microsoft Windows operating system.
- In recognition of various factors that can affect yields, declared yields are rounded down (not up) in amounts that are at least sufficient to fulfill the standard deviation formula built into the ISO standard to assure accuracy and reliability.
All Epson products are tested using this criteria to determine yield. A more detailed explanation of the ISO/IEC 24711 and 24712 testing conditions can be found at www.iso.org
ISO/IEC 19752
The ISO Standard for determining monochrome toner cartridge yield.
The ISO standard is considered as the only widely available, appropriately rigorous method for determining monochrome toner cartridge yield for monochrome laser printers. Here is a summary of the criteria used to determine this ISO standard.
- A standard A4 page is printed in a controlled environment with default printer settings
- A combination of at least three cartridges are run on a combination of at least three printers.
- Cartridges and printers are purchased on the open market from three different sources.
- The maximum page yield is then calculated as a mean based on the number of cartridges and printers used.
All Epson products are tested using this criteria to determine yield. A more detailed explanation of the ISO/IEC 19752 testing conditions can be found at www.iso.org
ISO/IEC 19798
The ISO standard for determing toner cartridges yield of colour laser printers.
The ISO standard is considered as the only widely available, appropriately rigorous method for determining colour toner cartridge yield for colour laser printers. Here is a summary of the criteria used to determine this ISO standard.
- A standard A4 page is printed in a controlled environment with default printer settings.
- A combination of at least three cartridges per colour (C, M, Y, K) are run on a combination of at least three printers.
- Cartridges and printers are purchased on the open market from three different sources.
- The maximum page yield is then calculated as a mean based on the number of cartridges and printers used.
All Epson products are tested using this criteria to determine yield. A more detailed explanation of the ISO/IEC 19798 testing conditions can be found at www.iso.org