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]

Image Name Type Interface DPI Introduced Discontinued Notes
Silentype Silentype Thermal serial N/A March 1980 October 1982 Uses nonstandard DE-9 pinout[3]
DMP Dot Matrix Printer Dot Matrix parallel N/A October 1982 December 1984 9-pin[4][5]
Daisy Wheel Printer Daisy Wheel serial N/A January 1983 December 1984 Offers graphics[4][6][7]
Color Plotter Color Plotter Plotter serial N/A December 1983 January 1988 [8]
Scribe Scribe Thermal serial 144 April 1984 December 1985 Reviewed[9]

Dot-matrix series

Main article: ImageWriter
Image Name Type Interface DPI Introduced Discontinued Notes
ImageWriter ImageWriter Dot matrix serial 144 June 1, 1984 December 1, 1985 9-pin[10]
ImageWriter II ImageWriter II Dot matrix serial 160x144 September 1, 1985 Late 1996 9-pin[11]
ImageWriter II ImageWriter LQ Dot matrix serial 320x216 August 1, 1987 December 1, 1990 27-pin, Letter Quality[12]

Laser printer series

Main article: LaserWriter

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]

Image Name Type Interface Engine PPM DPI Introduced Discontinued Weight Notes
Apple Laserwriter LaserWriter PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk		 Canon
LBP-CX		 8 300 March 1, 1985 February 1, 1988 77 lbs. [15]
Apple Laserwriter LaserWriter Plus PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk		 Canon
LBP-CX		 8 300 January 1, 1986 February 1, 1988 77 lbs. [16]
LaserWriter II LaserWriter II SC QuickDraw
laser		 SCSI Canon
LBP-SX		 8 300 January 1, 1988 July 1, 1990 45 lbs. [17]
LaserWriter II LaserWriter II NT PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk		 Canon
LBP-SX		 8 300 January 1, 1988 October 1, 1991 45 lbs. [18]
LaserWriter II LaserWriter II NTX PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk		 Canon
LBP-SX		 8 300 January 1, 1988 October 1, 1991 45 lbs. [19]
LaserWriter II LaserWriter II f PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk		 Canon
LBP-SX		 8 300 October 1, 1991 May 1, 1993 45 lbs. [20]
LaserWriter II LaserWriter II g PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk
AAUI		 Canon
LBP-SX		 8 300 October 1, 1991 October 1, 1993 45 lbs. [21]
Personal LaserWriter SC Personal LaserWriter SC QuickDraw
laser		 SCSI Canon
LBP-LX		 4 300 June 1, 1990 September 1, 1993 32 lbs. [22]
Personal LaserWriter NT Personal LaserWriter NT PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk		 Canon
LBP-LX		 4 300 July 1, 1990 May 1, 1993 32 lbs. [23]
Personal LaserWriter LS Personal LaserWriter LS QuickDraw
laser		 serial Canon
LBP-LX		 4 300 March 1, 1991 May 1, 1993 31 lbs. [24]
Personal LaserWriter NTR Personal LaserWriter NTR PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk
parallel		 Canon
LBP-LX		 4 300 March 1, 1992 September 1, 1993 29.5 lbs. [25]
Personal LaserWriter 300 Personal LaserWriter 300 QuickDraw
laser		 serial Canon
LBP-PX		 4 300 June 1, 1993 September 1, 1994 15.4 lbs. [26]
Personal LaserWriter 320 Personal LaserWriter 320 PostScript
laser		 LocalTalk Canon
LBP-PX		 4 300 October 1, 1993 September 16, 1995 15.4 lbs. [27]
LaserWriter Pro 600 LaserWriter Pro 600 PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk
parallel		 Canon
LBP-EX		 8 600 January 1, 1993 October 1, 1993 39 lbs. [28]
LaserWriter Pro 630 LaserWriter Pro 630 PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk
parallel
AAUI		 Canon
LBP-EX		 8 600 January 1, 1993 September 1, 1994 39 lbs. [29]
LaserWriter Pro 810 LaserWriter Pro 810 PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk
AAUI		 Fuji/Xerox
XP 20[30]		 20 800 October 1, 1993 November 1, 1994 81 lbs. two built-in paper trays[31]
LaserWriter Select 300 LaserWriter Select 300 QuickDraw
laser		 serial Fuji/Xerox
XP 5 (P1)		 5 300 February 1, 1993 January 3, 1995 26 lbs. [32]
LaserWriter Select 310 LaserWriter Select 310 PostScript
laser		 serial
parallel		 Fuji/Xerox
XP 5 (P1)		 5 300 February 1, 1993 January 1, 1994 26 lbs. [33]
LaserWriter Select 360 LaserWriter Select 360 PostScript
laser		 serial
LocalTalk
parallel		 Fuji/Xerox
XP 10 (P1)		 10 600 October 1, 1993 April 22, 1996 29 lbs. [34]
LaserWriter 16/600 LaserWriter 16/600 PS PostScript
laser		 LocalTalk
parallel
AAUI		 Canon
LBP-EX		 17 600 September 1, 1994 June 17, 1996 40 lbs. [35]
LaserWriter 4/600 LaserWriter 4/600 PostScript
laser		 LocalTalk Canon
LBP-PX		 4 600 June 1, 1995 unknown 15.4 lbs. [36]
LaserWriter 12/640 LaserWriter 12/640 PS PostScript
laser		 AAUI
LocalTalk
parallel		 Fuji/Xerox
P893		 12 600 June 17, 1996 1997 26.5 lbs. 8 ppm duplex[37]
LaserWriter 8500 PostScript
laser		 Ethernet
LocalTalk
parallel		 Fuji/Xerox
P880		 20 600 August 5, 1997 January 1999 70.4 lbs. 11x17 paper tray[38]
Color LaserWriter 12/600 Color LaserWriter 12/600 PostScript
laser		 Ethernet
LocalTalk
parallel		 Canon
LBP-HX		 12 600 June 1, 1995 October 1, 1996 110 lbs. 3 ppm in color[39]
Color LaserWriter 12/600 Color LaserWriter 12/660 PostScript
laser		 Ethernet
LocalTalk
parallel		 Canon
LBP-HX		 12 600 October 1, 1996 1997 110 lbs. 3 ppm in color[40]

Inkjet series

Main article: StyleWriter

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]

Image Name Type Interface Engine PPM DPI Introduced Discontinued Weight Notes
StyleWriter StyleWriter monochrome
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 0.5 360 March 1, 1991 January 1, 1993 7.5 lbs. [43]
StyleWriter II StyleWriter II monochrome
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 1 360 January 1, 1993 April 17, 1995 6.6 lbs. [44]
Portable StyleWriter Portable StyleWriter monochrome
thermal
inkjet		 parallel Canon 0.5 360 June 1, 1993 May 15, 1995 4.5 lbs. Cable adapter allowed connection to serial[45]
Color StyleWriter Pro color
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 2/0.5 360 February 1, 1994 December 16, 1995 11 lbs. [46]
StyleWriter 1200 StyleWriter 1200 monochrome
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 1 360 April 1, 1994 unknown 6.6 lbs. [47]
Color StyleWriter 2400 Color StyleWriter 2400 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 3 360 September 1, 1994 unknown 7.9 lbs. LocalTalk option[48]
Color StyleWriter 2200 Color StyleWriter 2200 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 3 720x360 June 1, 1995 unknown 3.1 lbs. portable[49]
Color StyleWriter 1500 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 3 720x360 February 19, 1996 unknown 5.5 lbs. LocalTalk option, EtherTalk option[50]
Color StyleWriter 2500 Color StyleWriter 2500 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial Canon 3 720x360 February 19, 1996 unknown 6.9 lbs. LocalTalk option, EtherTalk option[51]
Color StyleWriter 4100 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial
LocalTalk		 HP 5 600 June 16, 1997 unknown 11.7 lbs. [52]
Color StyleWriter 4500 Color StyleWriter 4500 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial
LocalTalk		 HP 5 600 June 16, 1997 unknown 11.7 lbs. [53]
Color StyleWriter 6500 color
thermal
inkjet		 serial
LocalTalk
parallel		 HP 8/4 600 June 16, 1997 unknown 14.3 lbs. EtherTalk option[54]

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