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Will this printer work with modern and old macs?

Hopfenholz

Well-known member
Hi everyone 

I need a new colour laser printer. My IT guy is recommending the following - will this work with system 6/7 Macs on the same network running the LaserWriter driver? Not easy to tell 

Brother MFC-L8690CDW

 

NJRoadfan

Well-known member
Supports PostScript, but lacks AppleTalk support (support was dropped in new printers awhile back). No it will not work out of the box.

 

trag

Well-known member
Please keep us posted.   If you find a current model printer that supports AppleTalk (over Ethernet) many of us would like to hear about it.

Printer companies used to list the protocols supported (TCP/IP, SPX/IPX, AppleTalk, etc.) as one of the categories in their specifications, but now days they just say, "Works with Windows 10, Mac OS 10.9, etc., which is fairly useless.

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
Some more notes from a couple people on this topic and what works with system 7 here:

Which printer should I get? - Peripherals - 68kMLA Forums

To the best of my knowledge, nothing brand new still supports AppleTalk, you're looking at printers roughly a decade old to get AppleTalk, and it was about a decade out of use then.

If your workplace is buying this printer for you, they will probably not want to buy a 10-15 year old printer, but if they have an HP LaserJet or other similar market midrange/workgroup-aimed network laser from the early-mid 2000s, there's a moderate chance it'll work. Datasheets on those, as mentioned, usually specify what protocols they speak, because they often spoke more than one and it was a printer-is-doing-the-thinking protocols, versus what started happening in the second half of the 2000s where  the least expensive laser printers moved more toward host-based printing where the computer does the thinking.

 

Hopfenholz

Well-known member
Thanks to everyone for their contributions on this. I got the Brother, and will have to figure out how to print from classic Macs, for now I will stick with PDF > Sneakernet usb stick into the printer

 

MrFahrenheit

Well-known member
Thanks to everyone for their contributions on this. I got the Brother, and will have to figure out how to print from classic Macs, for now I will stick with PDF > Sneakernet usb stick into the printer
On the forum post above mentioned by Cory there’s a link to an item on Amazon that supports AppleTalk and plugs into the USB port of a printer. You might be able to give that a shot. 

 
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