User:Infodriveway/Apple inkjet printers

Apple sold several inkjet printers from 1991 to 1998. Targeted mainly towards consumers, they produced print quality that was better than the dot matrix ImageWriters, and were cheaper than the LaserWriters. All but the final three models contained Canon print engines, and all but two were serial-based printers.

StyleWriter
Apple released their first inkjet printer, the StyleWriter, in 1991.

Two printers were released in 1993. The StyleWriter II was the StyleWriter’s replacement. This model has twice the memory as its predecessor and double the printing speed.

Also from 1993, the Portable StyleWriter was designed to carry alongside and match the stylings of the PowerBook 100 series. Unlike most Apple printers, the Portable StyleWriter came only with a Parallel port, but was sold with an adaptor allowing connection to a Macintosh serial port.

The StyleWriter 1200, released in 1995, was the replacement for the StyleWriter II. This model has faster printing speed than its predecessor.

Color Printer
The Apple Color Printer was introduced in 1992. It is based on the mechanics of the printing press of Canon P691 Color engine. Its maximum resolution is 360 DPI and the printer connected to the computer through the SCSI port. The printer relied on the computer to render all text and images for printing and for this reason it is more economical than models that did computations internally. The main problem of delegating the elaboration of the press to the computer was that normally the communication between computer and printer was slow and therefore the press also turned out slow. The Apple Color Printer did not suffer from this defect since it connected to a computer via a relatively fast SCSI bus. The model was discontinued in 1994 when Apple introduced the Color StyleWriter series of printers.

Color StyleWriter
The Color StyleWriter Pro was manufactured and sold in 1994. It was based on the Canon BJC-600 series of Bubble Jet printers, with which it shares ink cartridge compatibility. Its distinguishing feature among Color StyleWriter printers is its use of separate ink cartridges for each of three colors (cyan, magenta, yellow) plus black. In contrast, other Color StyleWriters used a combined color cartridge plus a black cartridge.

The Color StyleWriter 2400 was manufactured and sold in 1994. Its initial Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price was $399. The Color StyleWriter 2400 is notable for its compatibility with the Apple Pippin console gaming system.

The Color StyleWriter 2200 was manufactured and sold in 1995. The codename for this model was "Calamari." The 2200 was aimed at mobile professionals, as it only weighed 3.1lbs and matched the PowerBook series at the time of the release. This was the second and last printer Apple made in a dark grey/black case. The 2200 was smaller and more rounded, matching the PowerBook 1400 and 5300 series.

The Color StyleWriter 1500 was manufactured and sold in 1996.

The Color StyleWriter 2500 was manufactured and sold in 1996. It was based on a Canon-developed Bubble Jet printer, but was repackaged with a new housing, firmware, and Apple’s proprietary 8-pin mini-DIN serial port. The printer is similar in appearance and functionality to the StyleWriter 2400, but featured faster printing speeds: 5 PPM black, 0.66 color, vs the 2400’s 3 PPM black, 0.3 color. As with the 2400, the 2500 was compatible with the Apple Pippin console gaming system. Apple offered LocalTalk and EtherTalk networking upgrades in the form of external print server devices. Also offered was a "PhotoGrade" kit, which included a special monobloc (heads and ink in one unit) cartridge with lighter photo-oriented inks and coated paper.

The Color StyleWriter 4100, 4500, and 6500 were manufactured and sold in 1997. These three were models that were rebadged DeskJets.