Color Printer Vs Black And White – Which One To Choose?

Are you unaware of the difference between color printer vs black and white? No need to worry anymore. 

Both the color printer and the black and white printer have their own usages in certain criteria. 

But, what are the differences between them? The main focus of this article is to show you the differences between color printer vs black and white printer and how they work.

So, stay tuned for further information. 

A Brief Overview Of Color Printer Vs Black And White

Let’s learn about the printers before going for the differences. The color printer and the black and white printer have their own expertise in printing papers. 

You can use both of them at the same time too.

An Overview Of Color Printers

A color printer can print papers with the help of different colors. That is when you use the word “Colorful” comes in. Now, there are four major and basic colors in a color printer. The colors are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. 

Together these colors are known as CMYK. Now, these colors are processed through numeral ways and that is how a colorful paper is printed. 

You can print any type of magazine, color books, documents, etc. using a color printer. But if you try to use color printers to print black color, they will give a fading color. You will not get an actual black color.

Techniques A Color Printer Use

There can be a lot of techniques that a color printer can use to create different color combinations. Here are some of them.

• Thermal Wax Transfer Printers: The wax is melted and turned into ink before printing. The printers lay down the thermal wax into the papers that you are printing.
  Although this technique has some flaws like not being photo-realistic and all, they can be great to use too. They print faster and do not require any unique paper to print.
• Thermal Dye Transfer Printers: This is a dying and diffusing process. In this process, the ribbons containing dye are first heated and then diffused to the paper.
  As this is a process-based printer, it may take quite some time. Also, the price of these printers is quite high too.
• Ink-jet Printers: These printers also melt the dyed wax first. But the twist of ink-jet printers is, they spray the wax on paper instead of laying it down on regular paper.
  You can use these printers to print any type of paper with bright colors. Moreover, you can even create decals with inkjet printers.

An Overview Of Black And White Printers

Black and white printers, also called monochrome laser printers, are used to print only one color(black) to print paper. 

Now, all the administration, offices, and universities love to use these monochrome laser printers because they provide accurate color. 

They produce black and white papers. But the produced black color is very thick and glowy. 

Color Printer or Black And White Printer Comparison

When it comes to comparison between color printer vs black and white, a lot of points conclude their verdict.
There can be cost comparison, Affecting the environment, Usage, etc. So, let’s learn about the comparison and then learn which one is better overall.

Cost Of Color Printing Vs Black And White Printing

It is pretty normal that color printing will cost more than black and white printing. Because color cartridges have different models than the black and white system. 

Now, the question is, how much can they vary from each other?

• Color cartridges can be costly and differ from different companies and models. Unlike color cartridges, black and white printers do not differ that much. 
• If you compare a normal color cartridge with an expensive color cartridge, there will be a sky and soil difference. But if you compare an average black and white ink with an expensive black and white ink, the difference is very minimal. 
• Also, as you may know, color printing uses four cartridges at once (CMYK). Whereas, black and white printers only use a color cartridge at a time. 
• If you have a look at the cost per copy(CPC) of a color printer vs a black and white printer, then you will get the difference more broadly. 
• Color printers need to change the cartridges quickly because the ink inside the cartridge gets finished very quickly. So, the cost goes way up in this circumstance.
  On the other hand, the black and white printer does not finish the ink that quickly. You can use them for quite some time. 

Quantity Production Color Printer Vs Black And White

Depending on the production of copies per month, you can also differ between color laser printer vs black and white printer. If you do not print that many copies, then you always go for color printers.

On the contrary, if your printing volume goes way higher than normal volume, then you will preferably go for a black and white printer. The more precise the printer can fill the volume per month, the better the payment will be.

Speed Difference Of Color Laser Printer Vs Black And White 

Speed can be determined depending on a few things.

1. Quality and size of the image

2. Age of the printer

3. Software updates of the printer

4. Resolution of the image. 

Now, normally, if you compare color laser printer vs black and white, isn’t it obvious who will win? Yes, it will be a laser printer. 

Now, why do we need to compare the speed between color laser printer vs black and white?

Normally, it does not matter whether you are printing using a color printer or a black and white printer. But if you are in a rush and need to make a bunch of copies of a bunch of papers, then you need to look for the faster printers. 

So, that is why the above comparison is given to you so that you can understand how things may work using them.

Color Benefits Comparison Between Color Printer Vs Black And White Printer

In case of color benefit comparison, color printers will get the highest priority of course. For this only reason, the color printer cost gets higher than regular black and white printers.

When using the black and white printer, only black colors are printed on the pages and other parts keep white. So, there is only one color used in the black and white printer.

But unlike black and white printers, the color printers use four colors at once when printing a paper. The colors are in total known as CMYK. 

Besides, the color printer can create multiple toners at once. Imagine you want to print a colorful picture. 

The image has eight or more colors in it. When printing using a color printer, the four colors inside the color printer will create toners and will print out the accurate picture like the original picture.

So, we can say that in the comparison of color between the color printer and the black and white printer, the color printer will get the highest priority.

Environmental Effect Color Printer Vs Black And White

There is no denying that both black and white cartridges and color cartridges are thrown on the wasteland after they get finished. So, normally they both are making a negative impact on the environment. 

The toner and the color created by the industries make a huge impact on the environment. The wastes of production material can be deadly.

But comparably, the black and white printer seems to be more environmentally friendly than the color printer. Why?

If you look at it normally, the color printer’s cartridges get finished quicker than the black and white printer. So, to make the office eco-friendly, using monochromic printers will be the best option.

Differences Between Color Printer Vs Black And White

As the new generation printers are coming out every day, the competition is getting more intense too! Now, there can be a lot of key differences between the color printer and the black and white printer.

Let’s check the differences from the below table-

Color Printer	Black And White Printer
1. Color printers have more than one color. In fact, there are four major colors that can print a colorful paper.	1. Black and white printers have only one color. It will print out the pages in black color and the surfaces will be white.
2. Color printers can be very expensive. The difference between an average color printer and a good color printer can be huge!	2. Monochrome printers can be found cheap. Also, the differences between an average monochrome printer and a good monochrome printer can be very minimal.
3. The colors of a color printer can finish very quickly. So, the cost goes way up when you buy a color printer.	3. The color of a black and white printer can last for quite a long time. So, if you buy a black and white printer, then you can save a lot of money.
4. As there are a lot of cartridges thrown from color printers, the environment is getting polluted more.	4. The extraction of cartridges of black and white printers is less than color printers. So, comparably, black and white printers are creating less wastage in the environment. But we should look forward to this matter. Wasting the environment can be one of the biggest problems in the near future.

Make sure to choose your righteous printer after learning everything about color printers and black and white printers. You may have different opinions after learning everything about them.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can Color Printer Be Used As Black And White?

Yes, you can print black and white images by using a color printer. But you need to do this using a software application.

To print black and white using a color printer-

• Go to the start menu.
• Write settings and press “Enter” to go to the settings.
• Then go to the option “Printers and Faxes”
• After finding that, right-click on the name of your printer.
• Now, select printing preferences.
• Check the advanced tab inside printing preferences. There you will find the option to print in black and white.
• Select the option and then try to print.

2. Should You Buy A Color Printer?

It totally depends on you. You can learn everything about color printers from above. But to buy the color printer, you need to choose depending on your circumstances.

Now, buying color printer decisions can depend on two major questions-

1. What is the purpose?
2. When do you need it?

So, think about these two criteria. If you think yes, a color printer is a choice after going through both the circumstances, then you can buy it. Else, buying it will be just loading money into nothing.

3. Can Monochrome Printer Print color?

No, a monochrome printer can not print color. Monochrome printers are only suitable to print black. 

The reason why it can not print color is that this machine does not function that way. You will see that a color printer can print black and white because the functions are embedded into it.

Even if you try to print a color image, it will only print the image in black and white.

Final Words

What do you think about the difference between color printer vs black and white? Both the color printer and the black and white printer have their own usage in their own category. 

So, if you are looking forward to buying one, you can check these differences out and choose which one you like.  

Question yourself how the printers will come in handy and compare them, you will get an answer.

Still, if you are facing any problems or think we missed anything, let us know.