What Is 5% Page Coverage? Why It Decides How Many Pages Your Toner Cartridge Prints
5% page coverage means toner covers 5% of a page — roughly what a standard text-only letter uses. It matters because cartridge page yields are measured at this rate, under lab conditions (ISO/IEC 19752), not with your real documents. So the real question is your own coverage: Real pages ≈ Rated yield × (5% ÷ your actual coverage) Text-only printing (~5%) gets you close to the rated yield. Add headings, logos, or images (~10–20%), and you get half or a quarter of the number. That's why the box number always looks better than reality — and why you should compare cartridges by **cost per page**, not by sticker price. Looking […]