Manufacturers of thermal transfer and ink-jet printers now offer color ribbons/ink for color printing. By replacing the black ribbon or cartridge with a three color model, some printers can produce full-color output.

For ink-jet printers, color tends to be quite acceptable. You will find that color cartridges do not last very long, but portable models are acceptable for a few color pages.

Color with thermal transfer printers tends to be less useful. Most color ribbons have difficulty lasting even a full page. Even worse, color tends to be not professional enough for most businesses.

Thermal printers cannot print in color, since the paper controls the printing process.