Monochrome laser printers are commonly known as black and white printers. They revolutionized the world of word processing by allowing the digitizing of a document prior to the impression of the words to a physical page. Previously, typewriters had been used to create documents, depositing ink on the page with each keystroke. This made correction of errors extremely difficult. With the advent of monochrome laser printers, the typist could compose the entire document first and then read and edit it without having to completely retype the entire document by mechanically enter all of the same keystrokes as before.

Monochrome printers, however, are not very effective for printing images. Black and white images never convey the same level of vividness that a color printer can convey. However, monochrome printing is substantially cheaper than color printing. This allows for a substantial cost savings for business. As such, over the past 20 years, adoption of color printing has been markedly slow and the cost per print is still greater than a factor of five for color versus black and white laser printing.

Currently, the largest brand of black and white printers is HP. Several other competitors include Samsung and Dell, but Hewlett-Packard printers have been dominant for years. These companies have been selling printers at a sizeable loss in order to sell more ink. HP has turned into a sort of chemical company by selling more ink than it sells printers. This has been to encourage adoption of the particular printer with its incompatible cartridges to ensure that the customer continues to buy the ink from the same company. Thus, when deciding upon which printer to buy, the cost of the ink should always be considered. Replacement cartridges can be very expensive, but they can usually be refilled locally at a substantially lower cost. All things considered, monochrome printers serve the purpose of everyday document printing, but color should be opted for if the printer will be used for photos or non-textual printing. Visit best monochrome laser printer or portable printers for laptop for further information.