MICR Toner and Check Printing
New HP Printer – HP P3015 MICR Toner?
HP has a new printer, the HP LaserJet P3015. It uses a hp CE255A and CE255X toner cartridge. We are already working on CE255A MICR and CE255X MICR toner cartridges for check printing. We don’t have a release date on the printer. At first glance, the printer looks like a juiced up P2015. They’ve increased the speed from 27ppm to 40ppm. They’ve increased the paper tray from 250 sheets to 500 and they’ve increased the recommended monthly page volume from 3,000 to 5,000. Still from the looks of it there doesn’t appear to be anything drastically different from the P2015. The printer does support PCL 5e and PCL 6, so it’s not another mindless host based laser printer.
- Speed: 40ppm
- Recommended Monthly Volume: 1,500 – 5,000
- Monthly Duty Cycle: 100,000
- CE255A – 6,000 Pages
- CE255X – 12,500 Pages
Density Settings and MICR Fonts for the HP P1005, P1006, P1505
If you have one of the newer HP LaserJet printers, one thing you’ll notice is the TrueType MICR fonts can appear faint or have a thinner stroke than they should. This is not a toner problem, as as the image quality and density is fine, but rather a result in the way the newer printers render the font itself. If the MICR font doesn’t have the proper stroke width the signal strength of the characters will decrease. Low signal strength may cause your bank’s check scanners to reject them. This will result in your bank in having to manually encode each check. If this happens your bank will likely contact you about the problem. But you’ll need to get the problem fixed or the bank may assess an additional processing charge.
P2035 New MICR Toner Cartridge Release
HP released a high yield toner cartridge, the CE505X, but the high yield only fits the P2055 series and will not fit in the P2035. Based on this we decided to initially release only the standard yield toner cartridge. We still have plans to release the high yield MICR toner cartridge once the market shows some demand.Weak dollar and high oil prices driving HP prices up
HP announced the price increase effective September 1st, but our suppliers have told us they will not actually increase the price until October 1st. So be warned, new pricing will be here by October 1. If you are a big HP toner user, I’d go ahead and make an extra big order before October comes around.
Why don’t you make a MICR toner cartridge for my machine?
This is one of the most common questions we are asked. Many times it is asked in frustration and many times our answers leave people feeling empty inside. Ok, maybe not empty inside but companies who want to print checks also want to use the printer they already have.
If you aren’t using a Hewlett Packard or Lexmark monochrome printer, chances are there isn’t a MICR toner available for your machine. Supply and demand dictates where production dollars will be allocated for both the toner cartridge and consumable (cartridge, parts and loose toner) manufacturers. Since HP and Lexmark have a stranglehold on the laser printer industry, companies such as ours will spend money to produce a MICR toner cartridge for those very machines that saturate the market. This trickles down to the loose toner vendors, they too will not create a MICR toner powder for machines that don’t saturate the market.
All you need to do is dump some MICR toner into a cartridge!
I have been quietly to very loudly told this by many customers who think they understand the toner manufacturing industry. We wish it were that simple because it would have saved us a lot of time and money. It is far more sophisticated of a process to make a MICR toner cartridge because not every cartridge takes the same MICR toner. The component parts of a HP 4200 toner cartridge will not work with the MICR toner used in a HP 1100 cartridge and vice-versa. The component parts may also need to be manufactured specifically for MICR printing. There are even more variables that need to be considered, but it would be silly and equally boring to list them all.
So what do you do if you can’t find a MICR toner for your laser printer?
1. Research what MICR toners are available and then buy that machine
2. Buy pre-printed checks
3. Find a company that claims they can produce it.
Buyer Beware- if a company claims to produce a MICR toner for machines other than HP and Lexmark, research that company’s return policy and make sure they have a money back guarantee. We carry some MICR toners for laser printers outside of HP and Lexmark lines however they either have the same engine as a HP/ Lexmark machine or the demand at one point substantiated producing it.
Good luck and Happy Check Printing!