HP 125A

The smallest color lasers HP ever sold for the home office — the CP1215 line and the CM1312 multifunction series — share the HP 125A family: CB540A black, CB541A cyan, CB542A yellow and CB543A magenta. These are compact machines with compact cartridges, made for desks rather than print rooms, and the family comes in one standard size with no high-yield option. One caution lives on this shelf: a three-color set named for the older 2600n carries different cartridge codes entirely and does not fit these printers; it is flagged where it appears below.

Size shapes everything about this family. The printers are small, the cartridges are small, and the jobs are personal: school projects, home-business invoices, photo handouts, the occasional presentation printed the night before. Owners of CP1215 and CM1312 machines tend to keep them for years, because for this workload nothing newer is meaningfully better. The buying pattern that follows is singles, bought rarely — plus a full set on the day a machine changes hands or several levels finally dip together.

Toner Cartridges for HP 125A

Cartridge	Color	Yield
CB540A black cartridge (125A)	Black	See product page
CB541A cyan cartridge (125A)	Cyan	See product page
CB542A yellow cartridge (125A)	Yellow	See product page
CB543A magenta cartridge (125A)	Magenta	See product page
125A 4 Color Set	Black, cyan, yellow, magenta	See product page
125A black 2 Pack (CB540A)	Black	See product page
125A Tri Color listing	Cyan, yellow, magenta	See product page
125A 4 Color Set, full-model listing	Black, cyan, yellow, magenta	See product page
125A 8 Color Set	Black, cyan, yellow, magenta	See product page
125A 3 Color Set	Cyan, yellow, magenta	See product page

Sets named after the individual printers are stocked too. Read the third one carefully — it is built around the 2600n's cartridge codes, not the 125A codes, despite sitting on this shelf: CM1300 Toner Cartridge Color Laserjet 4 Color Set; CP1215n (CB540A, CB541A, CB542A, CB543A) Toner Cartridge 4 Color Set; 2600N (Q6001A Q6002A Q6003A) Toner Cartridge 3 Color Set; CP1215 (CB540A, CB541A, CB542A, CB543A) Toner Cartridge 5 Color Set.

Which cartridge should you buy?

For desk-duty machines the answer is usually the single cartridge the printer names. Take the 2-pack of black if your CP1215 or CM1312 prints documents daily and you would rather not reorder often. Take a four-color set when you are setting a machine up fresh or refreshing all channels at once; the 8-color set doubles that for households that print color constantly. Before any of it, check the code on the cartridge you remove — CB540A through CB543A is this family, and anything else belongs to a different shelf. Every listing here is a compatible replacement with a 1-year warranty and 1-year returns.

Chip, toner and everyday use

Small cartridges in small printers means the swap is the easiest in the HP range: the front panel drops, the tray slides out, and each cartridge lifts by its handle. These machines estimate levels from the cartridge chip, so a recognized compatible cartridge restores the gauge as well as the printing. If a color looks weak after a long idle stretch, lift that cartridge and tilt it gently side to side to loosen settled toner. Store spares in the box in a drawer — on top of a warm printer is the worst shelf a cartridge can have.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the 125A family fit the CP1515 and CP1518 too?

Yes. The CP1510 through CP1518 models sit in this family's printer list alongside the CP1210 series and the CM1300/CM1312 multifunction machines, and all take the CB540A through CB543A cartridges.

What is the 2600n set doing on this page?

It is stocked on this shelf but it is not a 125A product: it is built around the Q6001A, Q6002A and Q6003A codes for the older 2600 series. It will not fit a CP1215 or CM1312 — check the codes before ordering anything from that listing.

Is there a high-yield version for these small printers?

No. The 125A family is a single standard size. If you print often, the black 2-pack and the multi-color sets are how this family stretches the interval between orders.

My CM1312 says a cartridge is missing after I changed it. What now?

Open the tray again and press that cartridge firmly down until it clicks, then check that its sealing tape came all the way out. A cartridge sitting a fraction high is the usual cause of a missing-cartridge message on these machines.