Best Apple Brand Printers?

[FrankenMac]

Hello fellow Apple fans.

I'm wondering what you guys think were the best Apple brand printers of all time? And how about the best Apple brand printers of later years (i.e. post 1993 or so)?

What are your votes for best StyleWriter and LaserWriter models? Which ones work best for you?

As you probably know, Apple produced printers from about 1985 to 1997. Anybody know why they stopped?

I'm starting to collect old Apple printers and I'd like to target some that might actually be reliable and easy to use.

 

[cluthz]

The ink printers was rebranded cannons as far as i remember.
As for the lasers i dunno.

I've had a StyleWriter and a Style Writher 1200 and a LaserWriter NT.

 

[Cliff3]

I successfully persuaded a couple of bank vice presidents to drop $7000 on a LaserWriter IINT 20+ years ago. It was a pain in the butt to make it work with the PC I was using at the time (IBM PS/2 80386/20 IIRC), but in its day it was state of the art (and the VP's got some kicking presentations out of it).

Why did Apple get out of the printer business? Commoditization of the market, probably. Apple isn't interested in competing in market segments where profits are slim.

 

[FrankenMac]

Thanks for your thoughts, guys. Anybody else have any votes on this matter?

 

[MacTech68]

Hmmm, an interesting question.

For me, the best and most reliable bubble-jets would be the Stylewriter II thru to Stylewriter 2500. These were all Canon engines and usually needed nothing more than a clean and new 'O'-rings. Steer clear of the Stylewriter I, Color Stylewriter Pro, they are painful to fix and a working one would be a rarity.

For portables, there's the Portable Stylewriter and the Stylewriter 2200. These are also Canon engines, but don't drop one. There's a small bushing that can crack and it's near impossible to get a replacement.

Then there's the 4000 & 6000 series Stylewriters. These were HP engines and weren't as reliable, were bulky and had ongoing problems with drivers.

The best of the lot would be the Stylewriter 1500. It will work as far back as System 7.1 on 4MB of RAM (albeit slowly).

As for lasers, too many to mention here. Majority were Canon engines except for the Laserwriter Select 300 series which were Fuji-Xerox and the Laserwiter 810 by DataProducts (IIRC).

As for the most reliable Laserwriter, that's difficult. By now, many need a good overhaul (painful on early models) and many have leaking capacitors on their interface boards which etch tracks and cause a myriad of faults. There certainly have been some good solid work-horses, like the LaserWriter II (the IIg is the best for features). If you're looking to have a working Apple LaserWriter then you'd best have a Laser Engine technician on hand for free advice as they can be fairly complex beasts when tracking down a fault.

Why did they stop? I agree with Cliff3's comment. For Apple, this was true since they had to buy the engine from a competitor.

Have fun in your hunt.
________
Harley-Davidson FLSTNI

 

[mkjj]

We had a couple of LaserWriter 8500's (A3) that did the job well. Big beast though!

 

[Hrududu]

I still use a LaserWriter Select 360 and LaserWriter 12/640 PS here at home. They are both 600dpi but the 12/640 is a MUCH nicer printer. Its quieter, prints faster, faster processor, holds 64MB of RAM vs 16MB. Finally, it also operates much more quietly and has an ethernet connector.