[cups] CUPS basic accounting

[Steve Root]

On Fri, 20 Mar 2020 at 17:09, <sawbona at xsmail.com> wrote:

> I'm looking for a way to be able to know (without too much fuss) how
> many pages my Samsung M2020W has printed at any point in time.
> ...
> The original OEM cartdrige lasted for few pages (I know that is the
> usual thing) so I have had it refilled and would like to keep a tab
> on how well the refill actually works. ie: lives up to what the
> refill service says.
>

small observation:
I've normally seen the printed pages per cartridge/refil being based on 5%
of page being covered by toner.
Your actual prints will have a different coverage, so counting pages alone
won't tell you if the refil is achieving the claimed coverage.
That's not to say checking page count is not a useful indicator, just your
type of printing may give you a higher or lower page count even if the
performance is exactly as they claim.

Secondly, if you're just looking for page count the printer itself may have
an easily accessible value. Some of my printers email me a status report
that includes page count.

I hope thats helpful
Steve