Apple has produced about fifty printers in almost thirty years, from the Apple Silentype (thermal), to the LaserWriter 8500 (laser) or the Color StyleWriter 6500 (inkjet), the most recent ones. These are printers made by manufacturers such as Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Fuji/Xerox or Itochu, and then rebadged by Apple. The modifications made concern the connectors and the plastic colours, and Apple added the drivers to make them work with its operating system.
- Apple Silentype - 1979
The manufacture and sale of printers stopped shortly after Steve Jobs’ official return in 1997 in order to limit expenses and allow Apple to return to profit.
Some clarifications about the different types of printers (in alphabetical order):
- Daisy Wheel: these are printers with a daisy, a kind of rosette where the characters are fixed, like typewriters, but on 360°. The character is struck mechanically on the paper, through an ink ribbon. There are several sets of characters.
- Dot Matrix: dot matrix printers use needles that strike a ribbon to mark one or more dots on the paper. Several dots form a character or a series of drawings. These were the most common printers in the 80s and 90s before inkjet came along. There is even a colour ribbon for the ImageWriter II (yellow, red, blue and black).
- Inkjet : inkjet printers, still in use today. Droplets of ink are projected onto the paper. They existed in black/grayscale and white at first, then in colour.
- Laser : laser printers, also still in use today. Fine powder is deposited on the paper which is then heated to fix it. In black/grayscale and white at first, then in colour. It is this technology that has enabled Apple to expand into the world of desktop publishing. Note that there is only one colour laser printer, the Color LaserWriter, which comes in two models.
- Plotter: a plotter with pens of several colours. Plotters have been used in industry for technical drawings. Only one model sold by Apple.
- Thermal : a thermal transfer printer. The ribbon ink, sensitive to the heat created by the print head, is deposited on the paper. Only two printers listed, including the Silentype, the first official printer with an Apple logo.
- Imprimantes Laser Apple
There are models with small physical differences, which is why you will find several revisions for the same printer.
For example, the Dot Matrix Printer comes in two models, one with just the Apple logo, and one with the Apple logo and name. The plastics are not all the same colour. However, there is no way to distinguish them with the nameplates.
- Dot Matrix Printer - Logo + Apple
- Dot Matrix Printer - Logo seul
- Mêmes caractéristiques mais imprimantes légèrement différentes
As another example, the ImageWriter II comes in three different models:
- the first one, yellow in colour, without the "ImageWriter" written on the top.
- the second one, platinum coloured, with "ImageWriter" written on the top.
- The third, where the connectors have been moved to the side, unlike the other two where the connectors are on the back.
Some laser printers could be upgraded very simply by changing the motherboard. This is why they often have the same model number, with a variation for the motherboard, for example, the II SC, II NT, II NTX, II f and II g series of laser printers which are based on the same model printer M6000G, with a different motherboard M6003, M6609, M6004, M8013 or M8009.
There are two ribbon printers I have found references for, the Apple Printer II (A2M0010) and the Apple Printer IIA (A2M0011). The Apple Printer II would be a Centronics Microprinter-P1 / Micro P1 / µP1 (three possible designations) and the Apple Printer IIA a Centronics 779. The printers do exist and appear on official Apple brochures, but do not appear to have been rebadged by Apple. For this reason they do not appear in the listings.
The ranking has been done by type of printer in alphabetical order, then in chronological order of their appearance.
For the sake of clarity and to avoid translation errors, the English language has been used.
For a few printers, the model number differs by a single letter. In general, the "Z" stands for international, the "F" for French.
- Imprimantes à jet d’encre Apple
Icon legend:
-
: the material exists. The informations are official from the manufacturer and has been verified by the presence of the equipment (personal, in my environment or otherwise). -
: some informations are available on the Internet or other sources, but the material existence has not really been confirmed, or not yet. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist...
Daisy Wheel :
| Name | Model Numbers | Connection | Comments | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daisy Wheel Printer / Apple Letter Quality Printer - Logo only | A3M0027 / A3M0025 | Serial | | |
| Daisy Wheel Printer / Apple Letter Quality Printer - Logo + Apple | A3M0027 / A3M0025 | Serial | |
Dot matrix :
| Name | Model Numbers | Connection | Comments | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Dot Matrix Printer - Logo only | A2M0059 / A2M0058 | Parallel | | |
| Apple Dot Matrix Printer - Logo + Apple | A2M0059 / A2M0058 | Parallel | | |
| ImageWriter | A9M0303P / A9M0303 | Serial | | |
| ImageWriter 15" | A9M0305P / A9M0305 | Serial | Called too ImageWriter 15" wide carriage | |
| ImageWriter II - Rev 1 | A9M0310F / A9M0310 | Serial | Yellow color - Without "ImageWriter" on the top-cover | |
| ImageWriter II - Rev 2 - Platinum color | A9M0320 | Serial | Platinum color - With "ImageWriter" on the top-cover | |
| ImageWriter LQ | A9M0340Z | Serial | | |
| ImageWriter II/L - Rev 3 | G0010 | Serial | Platinum color - With "ImageWriter" on the top-cover - Connectors on the side. | |
Inkjet :
| Name | Model Numbers | Connection | Comments | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Color Printer | M9500 | SCSI | | |
| StyleWriter | M8000 | Serial | | |
| StyleWriter II | M2003 | Serial | | |
| Portable StyleWriter | M1446 | parallel | Battery inside. | |
| Color StyleWriter Pro | M1934 | Serial | | |
| Color StyleWriter 2400 | M2841 | Serial | | |
| StyleWriter 1200 | M2003 | Serial | | |
| Color StyleWriter 2200 | M3960 | Serial | | |
| Color StyleWriter 1500 | M3374 | Serial | | |
| Color StyleWriter 2500 | M3362 | Serial | | |
| Color StyleWriter 4100 | Serial, LocalTalk | | ||
| Color StyleWriter 4500 | M4076 | Serial, LocalTalk | | |
| Color StyleWriter 6500 | Serial, LocalTalk, Parallel | |
Laser :
| Name | Model Numbers | Connection | Comments | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LaserWriter | M0156Z | Serial, LocalTalk | | |
| LaserWriter Plus | M0198Z | Serial, LocalTalk | | |
| LaserWriter II SC | M6003 / M6003 / M6000G | SCSI | M6000G is for generic "LaserWriter II". | |
| LaserWriter II NT | M6009 / M6009 / M6000G | Serial, LocalTalk | M6000G is for generic "LaserWriter II". | |
| LaserWriter II NTX | M6004 / M6004 / M6000G | Serial, LocalTalk | M6000G is for generic "LaserWriter II". | |
| Personal LaserWriter SC | M2000 / M0096 / M2000 / M0096LL/A | SCSI | M2000 is for generic "Personal LaserWriter". | |
| Personal LaserWriter LS | M2000 | Serial | Removable rear panel (motherboard access). Position of the switch at the bottom left. M2000 is for generic "Personal LaserWriter". | |
| Personal LaserWriter LS/L | M2002 | Serial | Non-removable rear panel. No access to the motherboard. Switch position in the middle on the right. | |
| Personal LaserWriter NT | M2000 / M0097 / M2000 | Serial, LocalTalk | M2000 is for generic "Personal LaserWriter". | |
| LaserWriter II f | M8013 / M8013 / M6000G | Serial, LocalTalk | M6000G is for generic "LaserWriter II". | |
| LaserWriter II g | M8009 / M8009 / M6000G | Serial, LocalTalk, AAUI | M6000G is for generic "LaserWriter II". | |
| Personal LaserWriter NTR | M2000 / M2000 / M2000 | Serial, LocalTalk, Parallel | M2000 is for generic "Personal LaserWriter". The motherboard is M2000 too. | |
| LaserWriter Pro 600 | M5890 | Serial, LocalTalk, Parallel | | |
| LaserWriter Pro 630 | M5890 | Serial, LocalTalk, Parallel, AAUI | | |
| LaserWriter Select 300 | / M2006 / M2100 | Serial | | |
| LaserWriter Select 310 | M2105 | Serial, Parallel | | |
| Personal LaserWriter 300 | M2009 | Serial | | |
| LaserWriter Select 360 | M2134 / M2008 | Serial, LocalTalk, Parallel, AAUI | M2008 is for generic "LaserWriter Select". | |
| LaserWriter Pro 810 | M1870 | Serial, LocalTalk, AAUI | | |
| Personal LaserWriter 320 | M2179 | LocalTalk | | |
| LaserWriter 16/600 PS | M2680 | Parallel, LocalTalk, AAUI | | |
| LaserWriter 4/600 PS | M2179 | LocalTalk | | |
| Color LaserWriter 12/600 PS | M3036 | Ethernet, LocalTalk, Parallel | | |
| LaserWriter 12/640 PS | M4238 | Ethernet, LocalTalk, Parallel | | |
| Color LaserWriter 12/660 PS | Ethernet, LocalTalk, Parallel | | ||
| LaserWriter 8500 | M2450 | Ethernet, LocalTalk, Parallel | |
Plotter :
| Name | Model Numbers | Connection | Comments | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple 410 Color Plotter | A9M0302P / A9M0302 | Serial | |
Thermal :
| Name | Model Numbers | Connection | Comments | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silentype | A2M0032 / A2M2045 | Interface Card or built-in port (Apple III) | Another model numbers from Apple : A3M0001 (Apple III) and A2M0036 (Apple II) | |
| Apple Scribe | A9M0306Z / A9M0306 | Serial | |
If you find any errors or if you have information that does not appear on this page, please contact me.
Thanks to Bryan Bogaert (maccollectbelgium) and Jimmy Grewal (The AAPL Collection) for their help.
Sources of information:
Last update: 2021-05-21 - 19:29:43
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