Laser Toner Cartridges (in short often called Toners) are used in office machines such as Laser Printers, Fax Machines and Photocopiers.

The basic role of the toner cartridge is to supply the machine with a dry powder or liquid substance called Laser Toner. If dry toner is used, the printer melts the toner by heat of the fuser thereby binding the toner to the paper and forming images and text.

Toner cartridges are heavier and significantly larger in size compared to ink cartridges. As for Ink Cartridges, different types of toner cartridges exist on the market:

Compatible Toner Cartridges are produced by third party manufacturers. Instead of producing new cartridges many often reuse empty toner cartridges and refill them.

The toner will be of good quality if you buy from well known and established online ink and toner stores. These stores most often have a written product guarantee and a generous refund policy.

We recommend you to use compatible toner cartridges if you mostly print in black color. Our Compatible Cartridges article contains more information and advice on the subject.

OEM /Original Toner Cartridges are produced by the printer manufacturer. This cartridge alternative is almost always more expensive compared to a compatible cartridge.

Our general recommendation is to go with OEM Cartridges if you intend to archive your printout or if you print in full color and want to be sure of the printout quality.

Remember that a 100% perfect printout is in the eye of the beholder and that the printer and paper quality is also very important to the result. Read more about OEM Cartridges.

Both Compatible Cartridges and OEM cartridges can be of a Remanufactured origin. What this normally means is that old toner cartridges are reused and refilled with new toner after being examined, cleaned and tested. Read more about Remanufactured Cartridges.