I wanted to see how much toner my current cartridge I have left, so I looked in the printer settings, but it says only that "toner levels are not reported" for my printer (HP 2170W). Even if there's a software fix, it made me wonder why every toner cartridge I've ever seen is colored black by the manufacturer. If they were made of clear plastic, then if your software couldn't detect the toner level, you could always fall back on the physical: pull the cartridge out and look at it. Or have some manufacturers already thought of this?

If there's a way to look in the cartridge, I wouldn't necessarily know, and had the impression there wasn't. I usually use my laser printer so sparingly that I haven't researched these issues much.

I have a Brother HL 3040 CN colour laser printer.
I have searched i nthe Inet and found how to reset the page counter.

After resetting the page counter, the config of the printer says, that the tonter cardrige is nearly full.

Isn't that somewhat like manually resetting a car's odometer? Why would you want your printer monitor to say the toner cartridge is nearly full, when it might not be?

2170W looks a like a Brother model number vs HP.

I do not know the exact reason but it might be that the cartridge needs to be grounded. One method would be to embed graphite which would then make it black.

Correction: Brother HL-2170W. Sorry for misstating that information.

Also, the toner might line the inside walls of the cartridge, making it appear solid black anyway.

Probably toner cartridges aren't transparent because you would buy a new cartridge and then say: why in the world is this new cartridge filled just one third?

Actually, it's probably just because transparent plastics are a bit more expensive.

After all, laser toner cartridges are not ink-jet cartridges rip-offs.

Toner cartridges have components that are sensitive to light, maybe a transparent case would let light in and cause other problems with print quality

True, but once installed would it matter? Don't know.

Searching shows a pricey one or two but for office printers, also pricey...

Attached Thumbnails

 

Never refilled my own; however I would think that one or two persons who have done the self refill of print toner cartridges would've chimed in here. My point is that the world is not perfect and when you do something like that, likely you've had some "oops" occurrences where it overflows, or whatever.

I think we all know that the print toner cartridges amazingly show low ink but the thing still prints, and I'm sure someone has taken the risk of cracking one or two open to find just how much toner is left when the thing claims it is empty.

I have to admit my solution is to not print much, thus saving paper, and also to only print using black ink.

+1 on not printing much... here is my old email signature:

_This electronic mail complies with all Paper Conservation Acts.
__Now we just need clean, efficient and free power.

...ironically when pasting it I accidentally (perhaps a Freudian slipped) hit [Ctrl]+P instead of V!

Frankly I'm glad toner cartridges are opaque since clear plastics are generally more expensive and less rugged. This is important for the same reason as I will gladly pay for a new cartridge rather than attempt to refill. Toner dust is carcinogenic.

Even if cartridge will be made of transparent plastic you will not see a toner level.
Impeller that stirs the toner raises a dust and it sticks to the electrified inner cartridge surface. So inner surface becomes opaque, and you almost can't see anything. Even if you can see through the cartridge you will not be able to determine the level of toner.
Though some of Brother cartridges has a small transparent window (for LDR) it impossible to determine how much of toner remained inside.