The Laser Sacrificer Mac OS
- Compact and affordable: Brother HL-L2370DW Compact Laser Printer.
- For all Laser and Inkjet multifunction printers, the ICA driver is also available for Mac OS X 10.6.8 and later. NOTE: MacOS 10.12 or macOS 10.13 drivers are compatible on macOS 10.14. As of now, there is no plan to release EC drivers for macOS 10.14.
- The BOSS edition offers an All-In-One laser control software package that offers direct print capability, camera ready, and works with Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.
Gemini iBook - A Mac OS 9 Tablet Mac Apple DTS - A Trojan Horse PowerMac Getting Files Off Old Macs Resurrecting a Macintosh Color Classic Formatting Old Mac SCSI Drives Reading PowerBook 2.5' SCSI Drives Apple LaserWriter II - Never Say Die Pismo - We Can Rebuild Him I Just Want To See It Go To a Good Home Mac Collections Around the World VMM.
Apple LaserWriter II – Never Say Die
As a potential destination for disposing of old, unwanted Apple crap – err, I mean as Curator of the Vintage Mac Museum – I am contacted fairly regularly by folks who are looking for good homes for their old equipment. A few months ago one such query came from a fellow with a few old Mac drives, several piles of software on floppy disks, and one never-say-die behemoth called the Apple LaserWriter IIg.
Back in the day Apple sold a variety of peripherals along with computers – printers, scanners, cameras, monitors (they still sell these), etc.. The original LaserWriter was a groundbreaking piece of equipment, launching the desktop publishing revolution in conjunction with the Mac Plus and a new font format called Adobe PostScript.
The LaserWriter begat the LaserWriter II, which was offered in many different flavors: IISC, IINT, IINTX (with special high speed RAM), IIf and IIg. Using Canon print engines and built like tanks, these workhorses helped many businesses and graphic designers earn their livings.
I’d been looking for a LaserWriter of this vintage for some time to help with the Mac Museum’s file transfer and conversion efforts. While most old formats can be converted, a few are rare or restricted enough that the only options available are taking screen snapshots or printing to hardcopy. Since you can’t print from a Mac Plus to anything modern, a vintage LaserWriter would be the next best thing.
The LaserWriter IIg measures 20.2 inches wide, 18.7 inches deep and 8.7 inches tall – not including space for the paper tray which sticks out one end. This is substantially larger than most modern printers. It also weighs 45 pounds, which makes it a joy to get in and out of your car and up to the second floor. Nevertheless I wrangled this puppy from a suburban Massachusetts garage back to the VMM, blew out the dust, hooked it up via LocalTalk phone connectors, and printed out a few pages. Twenty years after it was manufactured the thing still worked, albeit with a few creaks and groans.
Fast forward a few months, and a job comes in to Oakbog involving Microsoft Word v3 files with a combination of English and Ukrainian text. The owner sent along a copy of the Cyrillic font he had used with the original files, so I added this to my old Mac’s Font folder and was able to open and convert the data to modern Word .doc format.
A few days after I emailed things back my client contacted me again. Apparently his newer Mac and printer could not render the old fonts properly, so he asked if I could print out copies of the files containing the Cyrillic text.
Piece of cake, I thought – LaserWriter II to the rescue! I installed the Cyrillic font on my PowerBook 540c, selected the LaserWriter via the Chooser, and started to print out a document. The green light started blinking, a piece of paper got pulled from the tray, then BAM – the red paper jam light turns on. Feh. Well, some challenges are to be expected from twenty year old technology.
I opened the printer and pulled out the page – this was no small feat, as I have the printer installed on the floor underneath a small table and the cover can only open a few inches in this location. Close things up, try again, another jam. Frustrating, as it had worked fine just a few weeks before.
After several rounds of paper clearing, a few whacks to the side of the unit, blowing out dust with a can of compressed air and several “choice words” said to its face, I finally got the unit printing again. I think the compressed air was what did the trick, probably some dust on an internal sensor. Slowly and methodically I printed out about 200 pages of Ukrainian text. The room now had that familiar odor of hot plastic and fused toner we all used to know so well, but the job was complete.
I turned off the printer, had a glass of wine (or three), and mailed the pages back to my client. The LaserWriter may now be fine forever, or it may die again tomorrow – hard to tell with these old machines. One thing’s for sure, they don’t make ’em like they used to. Which is a mixed blessing…
The Laser Sacrificer Mac Os 11
Greetings,
I have a Apple LaserWriter ll if you are interested. It has been a few years since I have used it, but it was still working then.
Thanks
LoisI am in need of working laserWriter II. Please let me know if you have one to sell.
I’m looking for an apple laser writer 4/600 ps. If anyone knows of one, please let me know. Thank you.
Julie, I’ve been looking to see if I can get anything out of this 4/600 or just throw away or save for posterity. don’t really know if it works but I do have one. Wish I could send a pic.
Hi there to all!
I have a LaserWriter IINT in (what was when I last turned it off years ago) excellent condition. If someone has interest in purchasing this wonderful (and formerly quite expensive) piece of Apple Magic.. let me know?
Voiceman615 Voiceman615@Commercialtalent.com
I have an LaserWriter II to give away to anyone who will pay the shipping (I am in Indiana). I inherited it when my office upgraded to newer Mac equipment, but I have never used it. I don’t know what letter of the alphabet this model is (it doesn’t say).
Adam, just picked up a LWII!!! Replaced power supply, AC supply board, fuser and pickup roller!!! She’s as good as new!!! I also retrobrited her!!! She’s putty gray new!!!
Any idea how to connect an old Personal LaserWriter (Serial/LocalTalk) to a modern day MacPro (G5/DualCore)?
ThanksI have a LaserWriter llcx which I had upgraded to xante Accel-A-Writet. I’m remembering that it had better quality printing with the upgrade! Lol I bet it still works!!
WANTED – A working Apple Colour Laserwriter 12/600PS. Please call if you can help on 07774 882346
I have a Apple LaserWriter 12/640 PS prints B&W only that I dearly love. It has served me with very few problems since I purchased it new. Lately it has been jamming and I was told it was the cassette pickup roller. I removed it. The rubber seemed remarkable flexible and I assumed that it was not picking up because of the “paper dust” from the paper. I cleaned the rubber portion with Goof Off and it seemed ready to go. When I tried to replace the roller one of the little plastic fingers that holds it in place broke. I love this printer. Does anyone have a non working 12/640 that I can have the pickup roller. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
i have a IINTX (works) that i would like to find a home for. just pay shipping. i live in SW Virginia. janehamilton@verizon.net
Anyone have a working laserwriter ll they want to get rid of.
thanks
DaveI’m looking for a recipient for my Apple Laserwriter IINT, for which I paid $3,000 in 1988. It is in perfect shape. I live in Newark, DE, and I will donate it (but not pay to ship). It hasn’t been used for 27 years….(but I did replace some major part in it years ago).
Cathy Middleton Raphael (it was bought from Washington College, Chestertown, MD – a Mac school – shortly after I left working there….)
We are looking for 2 working fax machines from 1984-1988 time period for a movie. Do you have any or know where I may find them that are period correct please. Thank you
Post note; they need to be in working order and I need to be able to purchase the period correct paper that works with them also. Thank you
Damn. I had a LW Select 360 (the beige beast). Wonderful fast printer, but I was eventually unable to find toner cassettes for it. I could get refurbished ones for awhile, and, then, none. I was offered a kit, where one drilled a hole in the cartridge and filled it with powder from a flask. I declined… Also, I started having trouble with the paper feed. When I got an Epson color jet printer for a pittance, it went to recycling (and that was after I found another going to the scrap heap & extracted its toner cassette…). Too bad my model was the one with only serial. Didn’t these also come with Ethernet?
I also had an NT before that. It simply died on me one day, after having worked flawlessly for years.
They all met their sad ends as electronics recycling. As for the Epson, event though it had both serial (for Mac) _and_ USB, it, too, went the way of all electronics. It got weird on me, probably because of dried-up ink. I skimped on printing from it, since carts were a wee bit costly, and the briliant idea of having C/M/Y in _one_ cartridge, so if one color ran out, you had to buy a new cart.
My present printer is a Brother b/w laser, USB, shared from my Mini.
Since I havent found a way to print to it from my OS 9.2.2 G3, I make PDFs with Distiller (I mean, I print to file & distill it to a PDF, which I can send to the Mini for print).
Seems to me I was trying to off the Select(s) to some Swedish collector, but he never answered my e-mails…I have a working LaserWriter II NT in excellent condition, used for 10 years in my typesetting business before storing it in a home closet with AC. Comes with all cables and trays. This puppy reliably printed anything I threw at it: layouts, graphics, music scores, envelopes, all at 300 dpi laser resolution. Will accept best offer plus shipping costs to give it a useful second life. Contact steve_deyo at that hotmail place. Cheers!
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A reliable printer is a must for any office or home. Laser printers are a great option when you need to print in large volumes or need high-quality documents, photos, etc. Although the upfront cost may be more than an inkjet printer, it is still a valuable investment for anyone who needs to print things routinely. Take your pick from these best laser printers for Mac.
1. Canon Imageclass MF445dw – Best for Business Use
Here’s an excellent printer designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It balances speedy performance with minimal maintenance. The 5″ color touchscreen delivers an intuitive user experience and can be customized to help simplify many daily tasks.
You can also add an extra paper tray. It supports duplex printing and comes with a three-year warranty. Further, you can save 10% on all ink reorders with Dash Replenishment. Upon activation, your printer measures ink levels and places smart reorders when you are running low.
Features:
- Print up to 40 ppm
- Print up to 8-1/2″ X 14″
- 900-Sheet maximum paper capacity
Price: $239.00
2. Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer – Best for B&W Printing
If you don’t need color printing, check out this compact and efficient monochrome printer. It is conveniently equipped with a flatbed scan glass for quick copying and scanning.
Moreover, it is compatible with AirPrint, Google Cloud Print 2.0, Brother iPrint and Scan, Mopria, and Cortado Workplace. This makes it a smart and ideal fit for professional users.
Features:
- Handles both letter and legal sized paper
- 250 sheet paper capacity
- Wireless and cloud-based print
Price: $169.99
3. HP Color LaserJet Pro M182nw – Best for Color Printing
Enjoy brilliant color printers with this multifunctional printer that offers print, copy, and scan versatility. It can operate at up to 17 pages per minute and has an intuitive control panel and numeric keypad.
You can save time with customizable shortcuts and organize documents 50% faster directly from your mobile device using exclusive office features in the HP Smart app.
Features
- Supports a wide range of paper sizes
- Remote Printing with HP Smart App
- Built-in security essentials
Price: $329.00
4. Epson Expression Premium XP-6100 – Best for Photos
Bring your memories to life with this slim yet powerful printer for Mac that boasts 5-color inks for dazzling photos up to 8″ x 10″. It can print 4″ x 6″ photos in as fast as 15 seconds or documents at speeds of 15.8 ISO ppm (black) and 11.3 ISO ppm (color).
Further, it features hands-free, voice-activated printing for various jobs, plus built-in USB and memory card slots, a 2.4″ color LCD, and dedicated photo/DVD trays.
Features
- Superior photo quality with 5-color inks
- Auto 2-sided printing, built-in USB and memory card slots
- Hands-free, voice-activated printing
- Fast print speeds
Price: $149.00
5. Brother HL-L2300D Laser Printer – Best Budget
If you’re looking for the best budget laser printer for your Mac, here’s a reliable choice for both the home and office. It’s compact and has a capacity of up to 250-sheets.
It connects to your computer via the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface and prints crisp black and white documents up to 27ppm. Further, automatic duplex printing helps save paper and costs.
Features
- Duplex printing
- Toner saver mode
- Print speed of up to 27ppm.
Price: $99.99
6. Xerox Phaser 6510/DN Color Printer – Speedy All in One Option
Check out this compact and dependable printer that supports letter and legal-sized paper. The powerful productivity tools and essential features are designed to minimize interruptions to make running and growing your business easier and more efficient than ever.
The Laser Sacrificer Mac Os Catalina
Further, it has an optional second paper tray that lets you load an extra 550 sheets at one time for extended interruption-free printing. It boasts color-approved solid-color simulations and Xerox color correction technology that produces high-quality prints.
Features
- Monthly duty cycle of 50,000 pages
- Print speeds up to 30 ppm.
- Latest security features
Price: $262.00
7. Pantum M7102DW Laser Printer – Best for Duplex Printing
Get fast and high definition printing up to 33ppm(A4) / 35ppm(Letter) in black and white. It supports multiple media sizes and a media weight of up to 200g. The starter cartridge capacity is 1500 pages.
It’s got an easy one-step wireless installation. And you can connect it with high-speed USB 2.0, network, and WIFI. It also supports mobile device printing through the Pantum app.
Features
- Fast and high definition printing up to 33ppm(A4) / 35ppm(Letter)
- Auto Duplex Printing
- Mobile app support
Print: $145.99
8. Lexmark B3340dw – Full-Spectrum Security
Get your first page in as fast as 6.2 seconds, and power through challenging jobs with a 1 GHz dual-core processor and 256 MB of memory. Connect via Wi-Fi, USB, or Ethernet to give your whole team access.
It gives an impressive speed of up to 40 pages per minute without being too pricey. Further, the security features help keep your information safe—in the document, on the device, over the network, and at all points in between.
Features
- Monochrome Laser
- Duplex printing
- Print Speed: Up to 40 ppm
- Monthly Page Volume: 500 – 5000 pages
Price: $169.98
Pick the Right Laster Printer for You
So, did this help you find the best laser printer for your Mac? Let us know your pick in the comments below. You can also check out our guide to printing from iPhone and iPad.
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