Games - ImageWriter

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	Games - ImageWriter

The ImageWriter was a dot matrix printer designed and manufactured by C.Itoh Electronics and marketed by Apple Computer in the 1980s. Designed to work with the Apple II and Macintosh computers, it could produce images as well as text, up to a resolution of 144 DPI. This permitted it to produce WYSIWYG output from the screen of the computer, which was an important aspect for promoting the concept of the GUI. Quality was adequate rather than startling. The ImageWriter II was released in 1985. It was a cheap and cheerful alternative to the vastly more expensive LaserWriter.

The ImageWriter II could also produce basic colour images using a colour ribbon, a feature that was supported by the original black and white version of QuickDraw that was used to create the screen and print images on the Mac. The ImageWriter II also offered an NLQ (near-letter-quality) ASCII mode, a feature for improved text quality on the Apple II platform.

The ImageWriter II was offered as two models with different carriage widths: the 10-inch size for 8.5-inch-wide tractor-fed paper, and the "Wide Carriage" 15-inch size for wider paper. When the Wide Carriage was introduced in late 1985 (or early 1986), the only Apple software that supported it was MacProject. Although a very few third-party applications also supported it, most applications could print only as if there were 8.5-inch paper in the printer.

Around the turn of the decade a 27-pin (as opposed to the earlier models' 9 pins) model called the ImageWriter LQ was introduced. The print quality was comparable to competing 24-pin dot-matrix printers, but the LQ was unreliable and noisy. Another unreliable product in the ImageWriter line was an external sheet feeder for the ImageWriter II, which didn't sell well.

The ImageWriter II (as well as the LQ) could be networked on an AppleTalk network with the addition of a card. This, as well as guaranteed compatibility with both Apple II and Macintosh computers, made it a popular choice in schools.

Despite the introduction of the inkjet StyleWriter in 1991, the ImageWriter II kept selling. It was made until late 1996, making it the longest running Apple product in history. They are still useful for printing banners.

Many fondly remember ImageWriters as the printers from elementary school. Some refer to it as the printer with the paper you tear scraps off of. Others recall the noise they made. Whatever the case, the ImageWriter is the only printer supported by all Apple computers except the Apple I. New Macs need a serial adaptor to make the old bricklike printers work.

In 1984 the ThunderScan was introduced: an optical scanner that was installed in place of the ImagWriter ribbon cartridge. With support for the Apple II and the Mac, the ThunderScan provided low cost grayscale scanning with moderate resolution and speed.

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