Why are newspaper cartoons in color only on Sunday?

Answer 1

Years ago, printing in colored ink cost a lot more than plain black and white, so it was only used on Sundays. I'm not sure what the reason is today.

Answer 2

The reason is cost. Regular newspapers are printed with black ink only. This requires just one plate per page. Printing in color uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink so it requires four plates per page. This makes color printing more expensive both in terms of cost of ink and in terms of setup time.

Remember that not only does a Sunday paper cost more but it is also loaded with color ads. When you have lots of color ads the cost of a few pages of color comics is minor and the extra advertizing revenue helps pay for them anyway. Also, most newspapers would be hard pressed to setup a color printing everyday.

There used to be a similar situation with pulp comics and magazines back before 1950. The paper used was very cheap and printed with black ink only. Just the cover was printed in full color. You can also see this situation today with the "National Enquirer" which is printed in color while it's other magazine "The Weekly World News" is printed on its older black and white printing press.

Answer 3

Because newspaper owners are cheap and will only fork out the cash once a week, and then on the edition which will sell/be read the most.