Black and white is a broad adjectival term used to describe a number of monochrome forms of visual arts. Most forms of visual technology start out in black and white, then slowly evolve into color as technology progresses.

Black and white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white most of these media included varying shades of grey. Further, many prints, especially those produced earlier in the development of photography, were in sepia (mainly to provide archival stability), which gave a richer, more subtle shading than reproductions in plain black and white, although less so than color.