The right printer for your workplace will, of course, depend on where you work. Most offices can make do with a basic black-and-white printer (after all, boring work memos are never especially vibrant), but what if you work in a design studio or somewhere similarly colourful?

We can't recommend a printer for everyone, but what we can do is look at the printing requirements of the 'average' office:

• Heavy Usage: Printers aren't the centre of the office like they were in the days before email, but work printers still tend to be very busy machines. Your office printer should be capable of working at a high capacity, and you'll want an appliance that isn't running out of ink every five minutes.
  
  
• High Speed: This is related to the 'heavy usage' thing - your work schedule is probably pretty full, and you don't want to waste any time waiting for stuff to print (especially if your colleagues are waiting for their documents to go through as well).
  
  
• Multiple Functions: While the average office won't necessarily need a colour printer, the scan and copy functions can still be very handy in even the most monotone working environments. An all-in-one printer can solve a lot of problems and save quite a bit of space to boot.

With all of the above in mind, we think that an All-in-One Monochrome Laser Printer is the best choice for the average office. Laser printing is quicker than inkjet printing (you don't even have to wait for the ink to dry), so even on a really busy Friday afternoon, the print queue should never get too hectic.

Moreover, a laser printer is arguably much better value for money. Toner cartridges cost a little more than standard ink cartridges, but they also last a lot longer, saving you money in the long run. Note also that colour printers use four different toner cartridges whereas mono printers use only one - it's best to stick with black and white if your company can manage that way!

So which printer should I buy?

We recommend something from HP's LaserJet Pro range. The HP LaserJet M1536dnf, for example, is a heavy-duty monochromatic laser printer that also functions as a scanner, copier, and a fax machine.

And don't forget, when your office printer needs a new toner cartridge...we can help!

Canon Toner Cartridges make up a large percentage of our toner sales, and when you consider the quality of Canon printers it's not really a surprise is it? Due to the immense popularity of Canon printers, we like to make sure that our range of Canon toner cartridges is well-stocked, diverse and full of compatible and genuine Canon toner to fit a variety of printer models. We also strive to offer competitively-priced Canon toner, offering a Canon toner cartridge to meet every budget! 

Canon MF-4450 - Compatible Toner Cartridges

Where possible, we will always try and offer a genuine Canon toner cartridge and a high-quality alternative replacement toner for each and every Canon printer model we supply toner for. Currently we have toner cartridges available for the Canon CLC Series, Canon Fax L Series, Canon Fax Series, Canon FC Series, Canon FP Series, Canon GP Series, Canon Image Class Series, Canon IR Series, Canon Laser Class Series, Canon LBP Series, Canon MF Series, Canon NP Series, Canon P series and the Canon PC Series.

Of course, there are numerous model numbers within these manufacturer types, so simply head over to our Canon Toner Cartridges page and select your model to see a list of the available toner cartridges. 

Canon Mf8580CDW - Compatible Toner Cartridges

As well as toner cartridges we also strive to offer a variety of general Canon spare parts including feed rollers, fuser units, drums, imaging units and imaging toner drum cartridges to help nurse your printer back to full health! 

If we don't stock toner cartridges compatible for your Canon printer or you are looking for another replacement part for your Canon printer then please don't fear, simply drop us a note over on our Contact Page or give us a call on 01332 832752 and we will do our very best to find you a suitable and affordable toner cartridge or printer part to get your printer working back in tip-top condition in no time! 

Laser printers can seem like complicated machines, unfathomable to anyone without an engineering degree. The average person simply prints his documents and gets on with his day, never stopping to wonder how his business memo materialised on that piece of paper.

Still, if you’re reading this, it’s probably because you did stop to wonder, and now you’re naggingly curious about the inner workings of your laser printer. So...

How Do Laser Printers Work?

Well, for one thing, they don’t just squirt ink onto the page like inkjet appliances. Ink and toner are two very different things, and the laser printing process is a little more intricate than printing with ink.

Laser printers make clever use of things like static electricity and oppositely-charged ions, but here’s an analogy that’s slightly easier to swallow: printing with toner is a lot like playing with glitter and glue. You probably did this when you were small; wrote your name in glue, covered the page in glitter, and then shook off the excess to reveal that the glitter had stuck to the glue in the right shapes, spelling your name out in glimmering golden letters.

Well, laser printing is actually very similar to that. Toner is the glitter that spells things out, and because the toner is positively-charged, it sticks to the negatively-charged parts of the imaging drum, which then transfers your images and/or text to the page.

So where does the ‘laser’ enter into it?

Ah, well, the laser is what creates the negative charge on the imaging drum, effectively telling the toner where to stick and what shapes to form. In our glitter analogy, the laser is YOU, squeezing glue onto the page to spell out your name.

This is a somewhat simplified explanation of the whole process, of course, but next time you look at your laser printer, at least you’ll have a reasonable idea of what’s going on in there!

Any other questions? Pop over to our Contact page and the City Ink experts will help you out!

Image by MrCrackers (view original here)

How to Cut Costs with Toner

It should come as no surprise to you that the rising costs of printing ink is somewhat of a concern to most. In fact, it was actually worked out that if you filled the fuel tank of a brand new £300,000 Lamborghini Aventador with Neopost’s printer ink, the ink would cost more than the car itself!

This is the kind of ‘oh my god - how much?’ reality we’re faced with, but the good news is there are alternatives! By purchasing a laser printer and then looking towards toner cartridges you may be able to make some significant savings on costs. We live in an increasingly digital age but sometimes hard documents are compulsory, so it makes sense to make the changes necessary to reap the rewards of more efficient printing.

Something that puts people off of laser printers is the cost of toner cartridges themselves, but remember, laser printers have a much lower cost-per-page yield than any inkjet printer, and while ink cartridges are on the surface more reasonable, they tend to run out a lot more quickly. It’s all about speculating to accumulate; spending that bit more initially will drive your overall costs down, and another little redeeming fact is that toner cartridges needn’t be that expensive anyway…

By using compatible toner cartridges you can still get high-quality, plentiful yielding toner but at a much lower cost than the branded originals. These toner cartridges are made by third parties for more reasonable costs, and we City Ink Express for example offer compatible options for pretty much every laser printer imaginable! 

It can be extremely frustrated when your toner cartridge runs out and your printer is out of action. Having to find a genuine replacement toner cartridge or a high-quality alternative spare toner cartridge to meet your printing standards can be a daunting task (unless you use City Ink Express of course), as well as being a very expensive affair indeed. However, we're here to tell you that replacing your toner cartridge needs not be a difficult and frustrating task, and can infact be an extremely rewarding act - both financially and consciously! 

Recycling your empty toner cartridges is a fantastic way for you to contribute to saving the environment. Once your toner has run out the empty cartridge is no use to you is it? Well rather than dispose of it, you can send it away or even arrange for a company to come and pick it up for them to refill it with new toner and then re-sell it, recycling the empty cartridge which is now of no use to you. Aside from the environmental benefits, many companies will actually pay you per toner cartridge - so you could indeed earn money whilst desposing of your waste! It almost seems to be too good to be true doesn't it? 

Here is a list of some of the top companies online who will help you recycle your toner cartridges. Some of these companies will collect your toner free of charge, so make sure you research and find the company that offers the right service for you.

• Recycle 4 Charity
• Infotone 
• The Recycling Factory 
• Office Green
• Office Xpress 
• Empty Cartridge Recycling Ltd 
• Take Back Ltd 

Of course, there are many more companies available online who will help you recycle your toner cartridge. 

If you own an Epson laser printer, we want to be your first port-of-call when it comes to replacing your Epson toner cartridges. We realise that you don’t have the time, care, or patience to scour the entire online market looking for the most suitable ink vendors, so we thought we would save you the trouble…

Here are 7 quick reasons why we think we deserve your custom when it comes to replacing your Epson toner:

• Our immense range means that whatever Epson device you own, we have a suitable toner cartridge for it – and even if you cannot find your particular model on our list, contact us and we’ll be happy to find you a compatible cartridge.

• When you have selected your model, you’ll notice that we offer both original and compatible Epson toner options, meaning that you’ll probably be able to save a small fortune.

• Whether you’re making a purchase for the home or office, we are confident that our pricing is competitive, and that you'll struggle to find cheaper alternatives around.

• All of our ink and toner products are extensively tested, so just because you are paying less do not think you need to compromise on quality in any way.

• We realise that time is of the essence, so we offer a swift delivery service that can have your Epson toner delivered the next day providing you order by 4pm (which is later than most).

• When you purchase your toner from us, our relationship needn’t be over. Through our large number of potential mediums you can contact us and we’ll endeavour to help you with any printing related concerns you may have.

• Not only do we offer support via phone, email, and social media, we also have a thriving YouTube channel with hundreds of instructional videos primarily aimed at helping you install your shiny new toner.