What printers are you using?

[jojo2k]

As the title says. What printers are you running? You have them networked, or connected directly to certain computers? What kind of print server if any?

For everyone courageous enough to use and work on vintage printers… you deserve an award. But darn if they aren’t fun when they do work.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

HP ENVY Photo 7858 - This is my current network printer. It usually is in my wife’s office as NP until I finish refurbing my 8625 which won’t happen until my office is redone.
HP OFFICEJET pro 8625 - my everyday network printer but is currently out of service needing deep head cleaning and tlc.

Epson 740i in Grape - this is connected locally to a matching Grape imacg3
HP DESKJET 820Cse (for Windows) - currently on a shelf until I refurb/refill its carts and give it some tlc. I picked this up for free off CL because it still has its marketing stickers and I want to run it locally between a couple era correct win boxes I have with a Belkin compact parallel Autoswitch F1U115E (not currently set up). It is the big brother to my first color printer my parents got me when I was starting highschool in the 90s so it brings back the feels when I look at it

The thing is all of this stuff is offline while I finish giving my office a repaint and new wood floor lol. I hope to finish it this week at which point I have to decide if I want to go with my old layout or try something new. Either way I need to also install a power plug, pass through box and wall mount for my old heavy flatscreen because it’s I/o is what I need for all my retro consoles etc … so all that to say all these setups I’m referencing are packed away taking up 3/4 of my entertainment/tv room while I get this done lol.

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Oh yeah I also have a dot matrix mps-802 for my C64. It lives in my closet lol and I don’t think Ive touched it since 2000 maybe so once the dust settles and hopefully life slows down a tiny bit maybe this winter, I can break it out and give her some tlc and a new ribbon and see if she’ll still print with quick brown fox.

 

[iantm]

I've got a Phaser 6280, which I have yet to get working with my classic Macs. Allegedly possible through the LaserWriter 8 driver. I'll either get ethernet working or find a bridge to LocalTalk.

Then there's the opposite end of the spectrum, an ImageWriter II. I don't get tired of the sound and lo-fi output of that tank.

 

[billgoats]

I have an ImageWriter II with AppleTalk card, which is always a delight! With both black, and colour ribbons.

Then there's the StyleWriter 2400, with the Farallon box to get it on the network too. The colour printouts are surprisingly good. The paper feed tries to grab all the sheets every once in a while, but it's mostly.

And recently got an Apple Scribe thermal printer. It's been a bit finicky to work out, but did manage to get it working with an old Mac using regular serial cable and the regular ImageWriter driver. For some reason it needed dip switch 8 down, but the manual says up. It works perfectly without a ribbon on thermal paper.

 

[thecloud]

Like @billgoats , I have an ImageWriter II, but it doesn't have an AppleTalk card. It's connected via serial cable to a networked Mac running Simple Spooler, which lets other machines on the network see and print to it. The whole old-school dot matrix printer experience sparks joy for me again.

Also have a Brother HL-5170DN with AppleTalk capability, so of course it's registered on the network as "What's Happening Brother".