CF501A cyan · standard

The cyan in a standard 202A set is the CF501A, and it fits the Color LaserJet Pro M254dw and the MFP M281fdw. HP rates it at 1300 pages against a list price near $80.00, so a page of cyan costs 6.15c.

That figure only tells you what one colour costs. A page that puts all four toners down runs to about 23.82c on the standard set, because three colours each cost more per page than the black does. On these printers the colours are the expensive half, and the surest way to spend less on them is to stop using them by accident.

That happens more than people expect. Sending a document to a colour laser without forcing greyscale lets the printer lay down colour toner for anything that is not pure black, including logos in a letterhead and the shading in a spreadsheet. Setting the driver default to print in greyscale, and choosing colour deliberately when you need it, keeps a cyan cartridge in the machine for months longer at no cost in quality on text.

The M254dw carries HP's dynamic security notice, so a compatible CF501A can be refused after a firmware update even if it has been printing happily. The imaging drum is built into this cartridge rather than shared, which is useful diagnostically: a streak or a mark repeating down the page that shows up only in cyan is this cartridge's fault, and a new one clears it. If cyan is missing from the page entirely, check the shipping seal was pulled and the cartridge is seated before ordering anything.