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I regularly need to print a document that takes the top half of an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. I end up folding the page in half after it's printed so that I can store it easier.

It recently occurred to me that cutting the paper in half before the printing would let me save money on computer paper.

I'm going to be cutting the paper in half 'hamburger'-wise, not 'hotdog' style. See the following image: enter image description here

I've tested my HP laserjet and it takes the half sheets without issue.

What happens to the extra toner, though, if a page gets printed that has a full page of text while the printer is still loaded with these half-sheets?

Does the toner disperse in the printer? Does it get reclaimed? Is this harmful or safe?

Community
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Tyler Faile
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2 Answers2

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Ideally, the majority of the unused toner is recycled back into the cartridge. Most cartridges, however have a page-counter that will tell you the cartridge is low/empty after X pages... rather than have any kind of sensor telling if it's actually empty/full. So.... if a cartridge says it'l print 1000 copies... 1000-blank pages = assumed empty. Sometimes they have some heuristics that try & guess the amount of page-coverage and do a better job of estimating the actual full-empty status...

Alternatively... you frequently can do page-scaling on HP printers and set it to fit 2-per-page instead of printing on 1/2 of a page and cutting it in half/throwing the half away...

TheCompWiz
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You should be able to specify a user supplied page size in the printing dialogue.

Just set it to 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 and you won't have to worry about extra toner.

Dennis
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