Frequently Asked Questions

Why does nobody notice the yellow running out until the greens go wrong?

Because yellow is the quietest color on the page. A fading GPR-31Y rarely announces itself in the yellow areas — there often are none — it shows up sideways: greens slide toward blue, warm photographs lose their warmth, and skin tones go slightly cold while every individual color still looks plausible. By the time someone says "these copies look off," the yellow has usually been running on fumes for a while.

How can we check the yellow before it ambushes a job?

Run the machine's color test page and read the yellow block on its own merits — it should be solid, even and unmistakably yellow. Weak, streaky or patchy yellow on the test page means this cartridge is the problem even if finished copies still look "almost right." On a production machine, a thirty-second test page beats reprinting a 500-copy run.

What is this cartridge's place in the family's price order?

The middle. The GPR-31Y is $116.76 — $30.95 above the cyan and $16.88 below the magenta — with the same 27,000-page rating as both. That works out to roughly 0.43 cents per page at standard coverage. We quote the spread as it stands rather than inventing a reason for it; what a buyer can act on is that a full three-color refresh costs less as the family's 3-color set than as three singles at these prices.

Which production work draws hardest on yellow?

More than most people expect. Yellow pairs with magenta for reds and oranges and with cyan for greens, so it is a component in most of a color image — photographs, charts, warning labels, highlighted documents and branded material with warm tones all spend it steadily. A queue that looks "mostly blue" can still be quietly draining the yellow.

Should we keep a spare yellow on the shelf?

For a production or departmental machine, yes — precisely because this color fails silently. A spare GPR-31Y turns a mid-run color drift into a two-minute swap instead of a stopped job and an emergency order. Keep it sealed, flat and away from heat, and rotate it in as the working cartridge ends rather than letting shelf stock age forgotten.

What if this cartridge arrives and prints badly?

Then it comes back. Every compatible cartridge we sell carries a 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns, this one included. Talk to support Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST, describe what the test page shows, and we will sort out whether the fault sits with the cartridge or the machine.

About This Canon GPR-31 Yellow Cartridge

A single compatible Canon GPR-31Y yellow toner cartridge, rated at up to 27,000 pages, for the color imageRUNNER machines built on the GPR-31 family. It works in a bank with the GPR-31BK black (rated 36,000 pages), the GPR-31C cyan and the GPR-31M magenta, each changed independently as it empties. Priced at $116.76, with shipping from our Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia or California warehouses and cover from our 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns — terms on the shipping & returns page. Browse the rest of the family on our Canon page.

The machines behind this yellow cartridge (GPR-31Y) are the ImageRunner C5035, ImageRunner Advance C5030, ImageRunner Advance C5035, ImageRunner Advance C5235, ImageRunner Advance C5235A, ImageRunner Advance C5240, and ImageRunner C5030. The same family also offers the black cartridge (GPR-31BK), the magenta cartridge (GPR-31M), the cyan cartridge (GPR-31C), and the GPR-31 4-cartridge set.