Toner Purchasing Guidelines
WHAT IS PRINTER TONER?
Printer Toner is a fine powder that is typically used in Laser Printers, Photocopiers and Multifunction Printers. Each Printer brand will have its own formulations, but in general, Toner is composed of finely ground plastic, silica or various organic compounds like iron, chromium and zinc.
WHAT IS PRINTER INK?
Printer Ink is a liquid used in Inkjet Printers. The Ink in your Desktop Printer is made from a mixture of water, dyes or pigments and chemicals that are sprayed onto a page. The base ingredient of Printer Ink is usually Oil, either linseed, soybean or petroleum-based.
TONER AND INK PROPERTIES
Toners and Inks fall into three general categories – OEM, Compatible & MICR. Please view a summary of each type.
- OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. It is also referred to as Genuine or Original, and is manufactured by the company who produced your device.
- COMPATIBLE is a term given to products that are manufactured by companies other than OEM. These companies must maintain the same high level of quality as the OEM’s. Itek is very proud of the fact we only choose manufacturers that are capable of maintaining our reputation as a supplier with the highest quality standards in the industry.
- MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. It is a specialized type of toner that can be magnetized by a reader machine and then analyzed by the machine with complete accuracy. Bank Reader machines used in most countries in the world have Routing numbers on checks that must be printed using MICR Toner. This toner is used in special applications only, such as checks and automatic draft printing.