black-and-white
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black-and-white
Consisting only of the colors black and white and their shades of gray, without any other colors.
Ich liebe alte schwarzweiß-Fotografien aus den 50er Jahren.
I love old black-and-white photographs from the 1950s.
The adjective is formed directly from the colors 'schwarz' (black) and 'weiß' (white). In official spelling, it is written with a hyphen ('schwarz-weiß'), but writing it as one word is also very common.
Der alte Film war noch schwarz-weiß.
The old film was still black-and-white.
When 'schwarzweiß' (black-and-white) describes an action (e.g. with verbs like 'denken' (to think) or 'sehen' (to see)), it functions like an adverb and is not declined.
Man sollte die Welt nicht immer nur schwarzweiß sehen.
You shouldn't always see the world only in black and white.
In its literal meaning, the adjective is often used for visual media. Typical nouns are 'ein schwarzweißer Film' (a black-and-white film), 'ein schwarzweißes Foto' (a black-and-white photo), or 'ein schwarzweißer Fernseher' (a black-and-white television).
Im Kunstunterricht sollten wir eine schwarzweiße Zeichnung anfertigen.
In art class, we were supposed to make a black-and-white drawing.
You can recognize the figurative meaning from the context. It is almost always used in discussions about opinions, judgments, or complex situations, often together with verbs like 'denken' (to think) or 'malen' (to paint/portray).
Seine Argumentation ist mir zu schwarzweiß, die Realität ist komplizierter.
His argument is too black-and-white for me; reality is more complicated.
colorful
'bunt' and 'schwarzweiß' are clear opposites when talking about pictures, clothing, or design. 'bunt' means that several colors are present. 'schwarzweiß' means that only black, white, and shades of gray appear. If a photo has no colors, it is not 'bunt' (colorful), but 'schwarzweiß' (black-and-white). So the difference is simple: 'bunt' has many colors, while 'schwarzweiß' has no other colors.
Jonas druckt das Foto schwarzweiß aus, weil die Farbe im Drucker leer ist.
Jonas prints the photo in black and white because the printer is out of color ink.
Für das Sommerfest hängen die Kinder bunte Fahnen in den Garten.
For the summer party, the children hang colorful flags in the garden.