Toner for your HP printer is always a painful purchase – the cost just seems so high.
On the other hand, if you want the best photos possible out of your printer, it is extremely important to choose high quality HP printer toner cartridges. With extremely high markups on toner and ink, the retail price is not a good indicator of how much effort went into its manufacturing.
Black and White Printing
One color toner and the negative space around it is all it takes, or so you think. You can indeed force an HP color inkjet to print only in black ink, and this may be the effect you are looking for, but left to make its own decisions, it will actually use the color cartridges to create a richer effect than with the black alone.
When you first get your new HP printer, print a picture you really enjoy utilizing both methods to see the differences between them. This will allow you to choose which you like better, and easily add another tool to your arsenal. Of course, if your laser is black and white only, this is not an issue. It does not have any color toner to draw from.
Color Printing
Color photo printing is where a printer really shows its strengths and weaknesses. Having crisp, vibrant colors is the goal. If one of these two elements is falling down on the job, the end result will be smudging or muted colors.
Keep in mind that what you see on the screen may not be calibrated exactly to what will come out of your printer. Again, a few test prints will do you a lot of good. This will help you know whether the colors on your screen match those on your printer.
Many monitors allow you to adjust the colors slightly, so you can get a pretty good match. Remember to redo your test print any time you make a major change such as getting a new brand of toner.
There are also specific colors you can use to get the right colors – CMYK, Pantones – etc. but these are not always practical for just any kind of photo.
Finding the Perfect HP Toner Cartridge
There are basically three options when it comes to HP printer toner cartridges. You can choose to purchase the standard toner, go with a refilled standard cartridge, or you can buy a cartridge manufactured by a third party for your specific model. Regardless of what you choose, it is extremely important to match the toner with the printer model. It is likely that when the wrong HP printer toner cartridge is matched with the wrong model, it will not fit, but if it does, you risk seriously damaging your printer.
The second choice is to refill a cartridge. You can either get a kit to do this yourself, or you can go to a store that offers refill services. Using a kit to do it on your own could potentially offer some great savings, but one wrong move and you will have a huge mess to clean up.
The final option is to buy HP printer toner cartridges manufactured by a third party. This option has become more and more popular as prices have risen. Keep in mind that there is no industry standard quality control in these products. That means if you make a poor purchase decision you may not be out just the toner, but an entire printer, as well. Using these third party cartridges voids your HP manufacturer warranty, so there will be no assistance available to you should a problem arise.
In the end, finding the best toner to put in your HP photo printer is a multi-step process. You need to figure out both what you need and what you want to spend to get it.
