Patent ID: 6977752

Claim:
A method for determining toner usage by a designated printing device for a document of at least one page, comprising the steps of: accumulating toner values of pixels that are on in the at least one page of the document to be printed on the designated printer, which toner values have a plurality of different values between completely off to completely on; comparing the accumulated toner values of pixels that are on to a predetermined toner usage for a defined number of pixels that are completely on in a reference page defined for the designated printing device, which reference page was generated on the designated printing device, and which predetermined toner usage incorporates the characteristics of the designated printing device on which the document is to be printed; calculating the amount of toner utilized by the at least one page as a proportion of that used by the reference page; determining the toner usage for the defined number of pixels on the reference page by the steps of: generating a page having the defined number of pixels contained thereon as a test page, initiating printing of the test page with a toner cartridge of a known toner level, terminating printing of the test page after the toner level in the toner cartridge has reached a known lower limit such that total toner utilized is known, and determining an average value of total toner utilized for the printing of the test page as a function of the pixels that are on for the total toner utilized for the printing of the test page.