Plain English Guide to Laser Printer Jargon

Automatic duplex printing

Automatic duplex printing means the ability to print on both sides of a sheet of paper without manual involvement. Some laser printers offer a manual duplex option where the printer prints the odd pages and then allows you to reinsert the printed pages before it prints the even pages.

Consumables

Consumables are those parts of a laser printer that need to be replaced regularly. Although the toner cartridges are the most common consumable, others include the laser drums and fuser units.

CMYK

The cartridges in colour laser printers are sometimes referred to as CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black toner cartridges. In combination, they can replicate just about any colour in the visible spectrum.

DPI (dots per inch)

DPI is the term used to measure a printer’s resolution or how fine a printer can print - the higher the dpi, the more detail can be shown. Laser printers including multifunctional machines are generally in the region of 600 -2400dpi

OPC (organic photoconductive) drum

The OPC drum is important throughout the printing process. The printer's laser hits the drum, reversing the polarity of its static charge and magnetising those parts of the drum where the toner needs to stick. The drum is then rolled through the toner which clings to the magnetic parts of the drum. Finally, the drum is rolled over the paper and the toner is heat-fused onto the paper

Page Yield

Page yield refers to the number of pages that can be printed by a laser printer from a single toner cartridge. This figure is usually calculated on the basis of  5% coverage whereas in practice you are more likely to be printing on the basis of 20% coverage – something to be born in mind when calculating the actual cost of consumables to your business.

PPM (pages per minute)

PPM refers to the rate at which the printer can deliver finished pages once they have been processed. The actual time it takes to print a page will be affected by the time it takes for the printer to warm up sometimes described in terms of the number of seconds it takes to print the first page and the printer’s memory and processor capacity.

Monthly Duty Cycle

The monthly duty cycle is the manufacturer’s recommended number of pages a laser printer ought to produce over a month. This is not the same as the maximum monthly duty cycle or how much a printer can theoretically deliver which is often much greater than the monthly duty cycle.

RAM (random memory access)

RAM refers to the laser printer’s memory used to store fonts and documents in the print queue. Memory is generally more useful for networked printers, as it allows the printer to spool more documents from a range of sources, or temporarily store documents for reprinting or under password protection.

Toner

Toner is the 'ink' that a laser printer uses to print a document or image. It is fused onto the paper's surface, rather than absorbed into it (as is the case with ink) and because of this does not bleed or smudge in the way ink does.