This is disingenuous; a car needs both gas and oil to run. A printer should only need black ink to print black and white documents.

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Grombobulous 2 hours ago | parent [-]

That’s what you think, though, you didn’t design the printer. I assume you don’t have a background in color theory or chemistry or whatever else you need to produce ink.

For all you know, the black ink isn’t really a perfect black and the color inks are used in conjunction with the black ink.

I also think a lot of people are just being cheap about it. It’s just not a big deal.

In my experience a color inkjet printer makes a much better print than a black and white laser printer. If you are willing to sacrifice print quality then buy a black and white laser printer.

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hamburglar 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You are bending over backwards to justify this user hostile practice. Most people wouldn’t choose to not print at all just because it “isn’t really a perfect black.” They’re just trying to get their homework printed.

I bought a color laser in 2004 and I’ve never replaced the C M or Y toner because I almost never print color. Miraculously, it is still happy to print “imperfect” black and white, which is exactly what I want.

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Ensorceled 35 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> That’s what you think, though, you didn’t design the printer. I assume you don’t have a background in color theory or chemistry or whatever else you need to produce ink.

Do you?

Monotone printers are a thing and have been since the 60's.

	▲	Grombobulous 25 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I agree, monotone printers are available technology, and monotone printers have worse output quality than a color inkjet printer. If you want a monotone printer, buy one. I just have a little bit of confusion around the situation where people who bought color inkjet printers aren’t willing to put color ink in the printer.