Summary

The Apple ImageWriter, 1984, is a dot matrix printer which comes with a manual.

The Apple ImageWriter I used a coloured or black printer ribbon and dot matrix printer technology (pins striking the ribbon in a pattern for each letter), and were noisy. It could print eight different character widths and graphics. It could accommodate a tractor feed for continuous paper.

The computer and printer combination allowed users to create, edit and print documents. The Imagewriter I was built to go specifically with the Apple II and Macintosh computers. The resolution achieved using dot matrix technology enabled a reasonable but not outstanding result to be achieved when printing bitmaps. The output from the Macintosh was 'What You See Is What You Get', that is, what you see on the screen is what you get printed from the printer. Fonts named after capital cities (e.g. Geneva and New York) were designed to print with maximum clarity.

Dot matrix printers were eventually displaced by low cost inkjet printers.

This was one of the first printers that included "firmware' (machine specific ROM software) called 'QuickDraw', and included the ability to download user designed characters/ font sets to the printer. Firmware is a computer program in a read-only memory (ROM) integrated circuit.

Part of a representative collection of hardware, software, trade literature and promotional material that documents the history of the Apple company, and its contribution to, and impact on the computer industry and society.

Physical Description

Printer plus manual, no cables

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