With the crazy year that was 2020 behind us, it’s time to take a look at the best black and white office printers for 2021.

The pandemic has forced a lot of Canadian businesses to rethink their operations and budgets. It’s as important as ever to contain costs, which is one reason the best black and white printers for 2021 happen to be Epson WorkForce printers. These models offer ink and energy cost savings to help keep your operating costs low. Meanwhile, they get the job done with ease and crisp quality.

Why Black and White Inkjet Printers?

While colour office printers are ideal for many industries and applications, there are many applications that simply do not require colour. Use cases for monochrome printing include:

• Legal documents
• Invoices
• Purchase orders, work orders, and service orders
• Contracts
• Transcripts
• Memos and correspondence
• Billing statements
• Bank statements
• Warehouse and logistics documents
• Forms

Let’s face it, many office documents printed in Canada do not need colour and monochrome remains the cheapest way to print.

Which Black and White Printers are the Best for 2021?

With recent innovations in Heat-Free Technology, Epson’s newest WorkForce monochrome printers are the best choice for businesses in Canada this year. Let’s take a look.

Epson WorkForce ST-M1000 Monochrome Supertank Printer @ $329 CAD

The Epson WorkForce ST-M1000 is a “supertank” model offering cartridge-free printing and low ink cost. The supertank is refilled with affordable ink bottles that yield 6,000 black ISO pages. The ST-M1000 is a compact unit offering a print resolution of 2400 dpi and a print speed of 20 ISO pages per minute.

Since there’s no warm-up time with Epson PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology, the printer has a fast first page out speed. For smaller print jobs, which tend to be the most common ones in the typical office, your documents could be done printing before a laser printer has even warmed up.

Despite the printer’s compact size, it has a generous high capacity 250-sheet paper tray. It also has a rear tray for specialty paper. The Epson WorkForce Supertank ST-M1000 comes with two years of ink in the box, which is enough ink to print up to 11,000 ISO black pages. Its per page ink costs are estimated to be about ⅓ of a cent per ISO page printed.

In addition to its ink cost savings, the ST-M1000 is Energy Star qualified with low energy costs. It plugs into a standard outlet as well, so there’s no need for special wiring. It also features automatic two-sided printing, which can reduce your office’s paper consumption dramatically.

The Epson WorkForce ST-M1000 features USB, wireless, wired Ethernet, and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity. You can print wirelessly to the ST-M1000 from smartphones and tablets via Epson iPrint. You can also print remotely using Epson Remote Print.

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 Monochrome Printer @ $259 CAD

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 is another monochrome printer featuring Epson PrecisionCore Heat-Free Technology. The WF-M5299 printer has a print resolution of up to 4800 dpi. The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 prints at up to 24 pages per minute and has a fast first page out speed.

This printer uses a large replaceable black ink packs, which is available in several different capacities: standard (5,000 ISO pages), high capacity (10,000 ISO pages), and extra high capacity (40,000 ISO pages). The WF-M5299 monochrome printer uses Epson DuraBrite Ultra pigment ink, which offers fade resistance of up to 118 years.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 has a 250-sheet paper tray and an 80-sheet rear feed. An optional 500-sheet paper tray is available for this unit (sold separately) can be added for a total of 830 sheet capacity.

The WF-M5299 is a versatile monochrome printer for busy offices. Depending on your print volume requirements, the standard model with standard replaceable ink packs could be just right. However, if your print volume increases, you can easily add the second paper tray and use either a high capacity or extra high capacity replaceable ink packs to boost productivity and reduce your per page ink costs.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 monochrome printer offers wired (for networked workgroup), wireless, and remote connectivity and includes PCL and PS support, making it easy to integrate into most managed networked environments. Advanced security features include user control access, PIN number certification, and SSL to prevent unauthorized access.

With its Heat-Free Technology, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 uses up to 60 percent less power than the average laser printer. Automatic duplex printing helps to cut your paper use, further helping the environment and reducing your costs.

Both of these Epson monochrome printers are cost-effective alternatives to laser printers, offering ongoing ink and energy savings and outstanding print quality. Both come with Epson’s 2-year limited warranty which includes one year of Premium and one year of Standard warranty coverage. Optional extended warranty options and upgrades are available for up to 5 years.

The WorkForce WF-M5299 seems like a more powerful printer than the ST-M1000, but it has a lower price at only $259 versus $329 for the ST-M1000. This is because the ST-M1000 ships with enough ink to print 11,000 ISO pages while the WF-M5299 ships with enough ink to print 2,000 ISO pages. The WF-M5299 is packaged so that larger offices can add one of the M02 Black (5,000 page yield), M02XL Black (10,000 page yield) or M02XXL Black (40,000 page yield) inks separately with the printer purchase.