Manuel Mejia Jr
- 2000.06.15
Q. In this era of laser printers, why use a dot matrix
printer?
A. Some weeks back, Chris Lawson made some recommendations for
choosing a good printer for use with a
classic Mac. I found all of the recommendations involved laser
printers of one sort or another. From the list of options, an
obvious one was missing - the venerable Apple ImageWriter II dot
matrix printer.
Of all of the products that Apple has sold, the one that had the
long product run was the ImageWriter II. It was the printer of
choice for many Mac users from its introduction in the fall of 1985
until the advent of the inexpensive inkjet printers like the
StyleWriter I in 1991.
Although the ImageWriter II is no longer being produced,
millions of them were made and are still a common sight in schools.
It is not uncommon to see an iMac equipped with ethernet operating
next to a classic Mac with an ImageWriter II. Some ImageWriter IIs
have been in continuous service for 15 years. These machines were
built to last a very long time.
The one item that needs to be replaced periodically is the
ribbon. Office supply stores like
Office Depot sells two black
ribbons or one four-color ribbon for about US$13. While the
ImageWriter II ribbons do not last as long as a laser printer
cartridge, ribbons are less expensive to obtain. The special
"fanfold" paper that is used by the ImageWriter II is also easy to
find and inexpensive.
The big advantage the ImageWriter II has over any LaserWriter is
the fact that the ImageWriter can print in more than one color.
Early version of draw and paint software such as Canvas and
SuperPaint are able to use the different colors that the
ImageWriter II can print. One can even print color images off a
compact, black and white Mac! With a LaserWriter, you are limited
to black and shades of gray.
While one could argue that the picture quality offered by a
LaserWriter is superior to that of an ImageWriter, most classic Mac
users are not doing print jobs that require high quality output.
That type of work is usually reserved for an inkjet or laser
printer. If a classic Mac user is not in a hurry to get a print job
completed, an ImageWriter II is a good option.
There are several sources for a good ImageWriter II. A number of
Goodwill stores will have them available. You can also order an
ImageWriter II on the Internet. ImageWriter II vendors include Sun
Remarketing in Utah and Herb's Used Macs in New Jersey. The
ImageWriter II that I use came from Herb's, and I have already run
a few thousand pages worth of prints through that machine without
any trouble.
Classic Macs need a classic printer to accompany them. I can
think of no better printer than the ImageWriter II.
Manuel Mejia Jr is familiar with Mac IIs, LCs, and older PowerBooks. He
uses his Mac LC, PowerBook 145B, and PB 100 with System 7.1 on a
regular basis and recently added a Mac Plus running System 6 to his
collection. He's quite familiar with both System 6 and System 7. He
also owns the Pina books on repairing compact Macs from 128k through
the SE. You can read more about Manuel's computers in Manuel Mejia Jr's Four Old Macs.
