Frequently Asked Questions

Our D1520's pages have gone patchy — dark at the edges, faint in the middle. Is that toner?

Very often, yes. When a C120BK runs low, the remaining powder no longer coats evenly, and the middle of the page starves first. Remove the cartridge and rock it gently side to side five or six times: if the next pages print evenly again, you have confirmed it was distribution, and you also know the cartridge is in its last stretch — time to order the next one.

And if a fresh cartridge prints patchy too?

Then the toner was not the cause, and swapping cartridges has usefully ruled it out. This cartridge is the Canon 120, code C120BK — the D1520's single black consumable — so there is only one variable to eliminate. Our support team can help you reason through the next suspects Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM CST.

What yield should I plan around?

The C120BK is rated for 5,000 pages, and at $32.42 that is roughly 0.65 cents a page. Pages heavy with text and graphics draw more toner than light drafts, so a D1520 doing dense document work will land under the rating — normal behaviour, and worth knowing before anyone declares a cartridge short.

Why run a compatible in a machine we rely on?

Because the D1520's work is routine black-and-white output, and this compatible Canon 120 delivers it at a compatible price with the same 5,000-page rating. The printer does not need a premium-priced cartridge to produce an ordinary letter or copy; it needs a cartridge that fits, feeds evenly and is warranted — see below.

What warranty stands behind it?

A 1-year warranty and 1-year free returns, standard on our compatible cartridges. The full terms are published on our shipping and returns page. We ship from warehouses in IL, PA, GA and CA, so a warranty replacement is never a cross-country wait.

Is there anything I can do to get cleaner results from every cartridge?

Store spares sealed and flat, fit them promptly once opened, and give any cartridge the gentle rock described above when output first fades rather than shaking it hard. Small habits; they are the difference between using all 5,000 rated pages and arguing with the last 500.

About This Canon 120 (C120BK) Toner Cartridge for the imageCLASS D1520

Most D1520 print-quality complaints trace back to a cartridge at the end of its toner, and the fix is this box: a compatible Canon 120 black cartridge — C120BK — for $32.42, rated at 5,000 pages and about 0.65 cents per page. It is the machine's only consumable, it is backed by a 1-year warranty with 1-year free returns, and fitting a fresh one is also the fastest diagnostic the D1520 has: even pages again means toner was the story all along. Heavier stockists can take the same cartridge in multi-packs at lower per-cartridge prices, listed on our Canon page.