Apple has produced several lines of printers in its history, but no longer produces or supports these devices today. Though some early products use thermal technology, Apple's products can be broadly divided into three lines: ImageWriter (dot matrix), LaserWriter (PostScript laser), and StyleWriter (thermal inkjet).

Early products

Apple's first printer was the Apple Silentype, released in June 1979, shortly after the Apple II Plus. The Silentype was a thermal printer, which used a special paper and provided 80 column output. Also compatible with the Apple III, the Silentype was a rebranded Trendcom 200.[1][2]

The Apple Dot Matrix Printer (often shortened to Apple DMP) is a printer manufactured by C. Itoh and sold under Apple label in 1982 for the Apple II series, Lisa, and the Apple III.[1] Apple followed this release with a Qume daisy wheel engine, the Apple Letter Quality Printer (also known as the Apple Daisy Wheel Printer), in January 1983. This printer could print at forty characters per second.[1] Also in 1983, Apple released its only plotter, the Apple Color Plotter. This printer moved and rotated four color pens along the horizontal axis, the device moving the paper into order to allow its pens to render along the vertical axis.[1] The Apple Scribe Printer was a thermal transfer printer, first introduced in 1984 alongside the Apple IIc for a relatively low retail price, and compatible with the Apple IIe computer.[1]

ImageNameTypeInterfaceDPIIntroducedDiscontinuedNotes
Silentype Silentype ThermalserialN/AMarch 19801982Uses nonstandard DE-9 pinout[3]
DMP Dot Matrix Printer Dot MatrixparallelN/AOctober 198219849-pin[4][5]
Daisy Wheel Printer Daisy WheelparallelN/AJanuary 1983unknownOffers graphics[4][6][7]
Color Plotter Color Plotter PlotterserialN/A1983unknown[8]
Scribe Scribe Thermalserial1441984unknownReviewed[9]

Dot-matrix series

ImageNameTypeInterfaceDPIIntroducedDiscontinuedNotes
ImageWriterImageWriterDot matrixserial144June 1, 1984December 1, 19859-pin[10]
ImageWriter IIImageWriter IIDot matrixserial160x144September 1, 1985Late 19969-pin[11]
ImageWriter IIImageWriter LQDot matrixserial320x216August 1, 1987December 1, 199027-pin, Letter Quality[12]

Laser printer series

The LaserWriter was a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter introduced by Apple in 1985. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMaker, that operated on top of the graphical user interface of Macintosh computers, the LaserWriter was a key component at the beginning of the desktop publishing revolution.[13][14]

ImageNameTypeInterfaceEnginePPMDPIIntroducedDiscontinuedWeightNotes
Apple LaserwriterLaserWriterPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
Canon
LBP-CX
8300March 1, 1985February 1, 198877 lbs.[15]
Apple LaserwriterLaserWriter PlusPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
Canon
LBP-CX
8300January 1, 1986February 1, 198877 lbs.[16]
LaserWriter IILaserWriter II SCQuickDraw
laser
SCSICanon
LBP-SX
8300January 1, 1988July 1, 199045 lbs.[17]
LaserWriter IILaserWriter II NTPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
Canon
LBP-SX
8300January 1, 1988October 1, 199145 lbs.[18]
LaserWriter IILaserWriter II NTXPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
Canon
LBP-SX
8300January 1, 1988October 1, 199145 lbs.[19]
LaserWriter IILaserWriter II fPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
Canon
LBP-SX
8300October 1, 1991May 1, 199345 lbs.[20]
LaserWriter IILaserWriter II gPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
AAUI
Canon
LBP-SX
8300October 1, 1991October 1, 199345 lbs.[21]
Personal LaserWriter SCPersonal LaserWriter SCQuickDraw
laser
SCSICanon
LBP-LX
4300June 1, 1990September 1, 199332 lbs.[22]
Personal LaserWriter NTPersonal LaserWriter NTPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
Canon
LBP-LX
4300July 1, 1990May 1, 199332 lbs.[23]
Personal LaserWriter LSPersonal LaserWriter LSQuickDraw
laser
serialCanon
LBP-LX
4300March 1, 1991May 1, 199331 lbs.[24]
Personal LaserWriter NTRPersonal LaserWriter NTRPostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
parallel
Canon
LBP-LX
4300March 1, 1992September 1, 199329.5 lbs.[25]
Personal LaserWriter 300Personal LaserWriter 300QuickDraw
laser
serialCanon
LBP-PX
4300June 1, 1993September 1, 199415.4 lbs.[26]
Personal LaserWriter 320Personal LaserWriter 320PostScript
laser
LocalTalkCanon
LBP-PX
4300October 1, 1993September 16, 199515.4 lbs.[27]
LaserWriter Pro 600LaserWriter Pro 600PostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
parallel
Canon
LBP-EX
8600January 1, 1993October 1, 199339 lbs.[28]
LaserWriter Pro 630LaserWriter Pro 630PostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
parallel
AAUI
Canon
LBP-EX
8600January 1, 1993September 1, 199439 lbs.[29]
LaserWriter Pro 810LaserWriter Pro 810PostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
AAUI
Fuji/Xerox
XP 20[30]
20800October 1, 1993November 1, 199481 lbs.two built-in paper trays[31]
LaserWriter Select 300LaserWriter Select 300QuickDraw
laser
serialFuji/Xerox
XP 5 (P1)
5300February 1, 1993January 3, 199526 lbs.[32]
LaserWriter Select 310LaserWriter Select 310PostScript
laser
serial
parallel
Fuji/Xerox
XP 5 (P1)
5300February 1, 1993January 1, 199426 lbs.[33]
LaserWriter Select 360LaserWriter Select 360PostScript
laser
serial
LocalTalk
parallel
Fuji/Xerox
XP 10 (P1)
10600October 1, 1993April 22, 199629 lbs.[34]
LaserWriter 16/600LaserWriter 16/600 PSPostScript
laser
LocalTalk
parallel
AAUI
Canon
LBP-EX
17600September 1, 1994June 17, 199640 lbs.[35]
LaserWriter 4/600LaserWriter 4/600PostScript
laser
LocalTalkCanon
LBP-PX
4600June 1, 1995unknown15.4 lbs.[36]
LaserWriter 12/640LaserWriter 12/640 PSPostScript
laser
AAUI
LocalTalk
parallel
Fuji/Xerox
P893
12600June 17, 1996199726.5 lbs.8 ppm duplex[37]
LaserWriter 8500PostScript
laser
Ethernet
LocalTalk
parallel
Fuji/Xerox
P880
20600August 5, 1997January 199970.4 lbs.11x17 paper tray[38]
Color LaserWriter 12/600Color LaserWriter 12/600PostScript
laser
Ethernet
LocalTalk
parallel
Canon
LBP-HX
12600June 1, 1995October 1, 1996110 lbs.3 ppm in color[39]
Color LaserWriter 12/600Color LaserWriter 12/660PostScript
laser
Ethernet
LocalTalk
parallel
Canon
LBP-HX
12600October 1, 19961997110 lbs.3 ppm in color[40]

Inkjet series

The StyleWriter was the first of Apple's line of inkjet serial printers, targeted mainly towards consumers. They produced print quality that was better than the dot matrix ImageWriters, and were cheaper than the LaserWriters. All but a few models contained Canon print engines, a few were rebadged Canon printers, while the last few were rebadged HP DeskJet printers.

The Apple Color Printer was the first color inkjet printer sold by Apple. Introduced in 1993 alongside the StyleWriter II, it was a rebadged Canon BJC-820 printer.[41] Its maximum resolution was 360 DPI and connected to the computer via SCSI. Unlike many inkjet printers of the time, the Apple Color Printer did not suffer from print slowdowns caused by slow communication from the computer performing rasterization, since the SCSI bus is relatively fast. The model was discontinued in 1994 when Apple introduced the Color StyleWriter series of printers.[42]

ImageNameTypeInterfaceEnginePPMDPIIntroducedDiscontinuedWeightNotes
StyleWriterStyleWritermonochrome
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon0.5360March 1, 1991January 1, 19937.5 lbs.[43]
StyleWriter IIStyleWriter IImonochrome
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon1360January 1, 1993April 17, 19956.6 lbs.[44]
Portable StyleWriterPortable StyleWritermonochrome
thermal
inkjet
parallelCanon0.5360June 1, 1993May 15, 19954.5 lbs.Cable adapter allowed connection to serial[45]
Color StyleWriter Procolor
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon2/0.5360February 1, 1994December 16, 199511 lbs.[46]
StyleWriter 1200StyleWriter 1200monochrome
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon1360April 1, 1994unknown6.6 lbs.[47]
Color StyleWriter 2400Color StyleWriter 2400color
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon3360September 1, 1994unknown7.9 lbs.LocalTalk option[48]
Color StyleWriter 2200Color StyleWriter 2200color
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon3720x360June 1, 1995unknown3.1 lbs.portable[49]
Color StyleWriter 1500color
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon3720x360February 19, 1996unknown5.5 lbs.LocalTalk option, EtherTalk option[50]
Color StyleWriter 2500Color StyleWriter 2500color
thermal
inkjet
serialCanon3720x360February 19, 1996unknown6.9 lbs.LocalTalk option, EtherTalk option[51]
Color StyleWriter 4100color
thermal
inkjet
serial
LocalTalk
HP5600June 16, 1997unknown11.7 lbs.[52]
Color StyleWriter 4500Color StyleWriter 4500color
thermal
inkjet
serial
LocalTalk
HP5600June 16, 1997unknown11.7 lbs.[53]
Color StyleWriter 6500color
thermal
inkjet
serial
LocalTalk
parallel
HP8/4600June 16, 1997unknown14.3 lbs.EtherTalk option[54]

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