Monochrome printers are a popular choice in offices or homes that need text-heavy documents, barcodes, or technical drawings. This type of printer only prints in the color black, making text stand out on bright white printer paper. Why you should invest in a monochrome printer, what its drawbacks are, and its most common types will be explained in this article.
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Definition: Monochrome printer
A monochrome printer is a printer that solely creates black and white copies since it only uses black printing ink or black toner cartridges. It’s typically sold as a monochrome laser printer; however, there are inkjet printer options available as well. To find out more about the printing term monochrome and how it differs from grayscale printing, refer to our monochrome article below.
Types
As mentioned before, monochrome printers typically use laser technology, although monochrome inkjets can also be found. Let’s get into detail on how they work and which one you should choose.
Laser
Monochrome laser printers are the most common type of monochrome printers because they are fast, efficient, and low maintenance. Laser printers use a laser beam and toner powder to create sharp text with high speeds. This printing speed is especially helpful when bulk printing documents at home or at work. However, monochrome photo prints might not be that good quality-wise, which is why laser printers are generally recommended for document printing.
Inkjet
Inkjet printers are better known for printing vibrant, colorful images, which is why they’re not as popular when it comes to monochrome printing. Monochrome inkjet printers use nozzles to spray black liquid ink onto paper, which is ideal for photo printing. For documents, this can become a hassle, especially when you don’t use your printer weekly as the ink can dry out.
We recommend inkjet printers for color printing and occasional black-and-white prints; however, the issue with inkjet printers is that if one color cartridge is empty, the black ink can’t be used until you refill all cartridges.
Benefits & disadvantages
Below, we have listed both benefits and disadvantages of monochrome laser printers.
Pros
- Low maintenance
- Fast laser printing
- Printer has long lifespan
- Toner lasts longer than ink
- Black toner costs less than color
Cons
- No color printing option
- Not ideal for photo printing
- Toner cartridges are expensive
- Higher upfront cost than inkjets
If you occasionally need color prints, you can save money by buying a monochrome laser printer and letting a cheap online printing service or a local store print your color copies.
Print black & white copies online for $0.10
- Print black & white copies in bulk or in small quantities
- Affordable single- & double-sided black and white copies
- Professional printing service for individual printouts
Learn more!
FAQs
A monochrome printer is a printer that only uses black toner or ink.
Yes, monochrome laser printers need toner, however only black toner. This significantly reduces the consumables that monochrome laser printers need.
Yes. A printer that only prints black and white is called a “monochrome printer.” For these printers, you only need one color: black.
Black-and-white printing is a type of monochrome printing since it uses one singular color. However, not all monochrome printing is black-and-white since “monochrome” originates from the Greek “monokhrōmatos ,” meaning “of a single color.” As such, an image made of only red tones would also be referred to as monochrome.
