ImageWriter II and color in OS X?

[johnklos]

Howdy, 68kmla people!

I am frankly fed up with the prices of printers and cartridges, so I broke out an ImageWriter II I found in the trash several years back, connected it to my Tonka iMac running 10.4, installed the ImageWriter drivers from http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/macosximagewriter, and started printing. Considering the age, the fact that the printer looked like it had been dropped, and the dirt and dust inside, I was pleasantly surprised to see it print decently on the first try. Ribbons are about $3 each NEW... Take that, Epson and HP!

What I'd like to know is if anyone knows of any way to get color printing via OS X. When I was a kid I had a Sinclair QL which had an m68008 processor (which is the same from a programming viewpoint as the m68000 in the Macs), and my family had an ImageWriter II. So I wrote my own software (in m68k assembly) to take color images (I played a lot with fractal generation on my Sinclair) and print them in proper color on the ImageWriter II. I think it'd be pretty neat to see that cheesy-yet-nostalgic color output again.

Ideas or suggestions anyone? Did PowerPrint ever support the ImageWriter II?

 

[highlandcattle]

Where do you get the ribbons. That is a great Idea! BTW How do you connect the printer? With a USB adaptor or through a network?

 

[trag]

I don't know of any way in OSX. In Classic there's MacPalette II an extension which supports full color printing on the IWII.

Some discussion of it here:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13451

 

[olePigeon]

That's why I got a Color LaserJet 5. At $3 per toner online, and under $30 for a new developer, transfer, and any other consumable (that last for 30k to 100k prints), it's an extremely cheap way to print color. You just have to deal with the 3 pages per minute, which can't be much slower than your ImageWriter.

 

[johnklos]

Ribbons can be found easily on eBay or Amazon. Color ones are $5 - $6 USD.

That Color Laserwriter sounds pretty affordable, but I'm really digging the good old-fashioned dot matrix sound. I wonder what the neighbors think.

Now to find a box of tractor feed paper...

 

[Concorde1993]

Now to find a box of tractor feed paper...

Tractor feed paper is easy to find. Any office supplies store like Staples, etc. will carry it. Colour ribbons are another story, unfortunately.

connected it to my Tonka iMac running 10.4

I've been contemplating hooking up one of my IW IIs to my Graphite G3. How did you accomplish that with your iMac?

 

[jongleur]

I've been contemplating hooking up one of my IW IIs to my Graphite G3. How did you accomplish that with your iMac?

I've hooked my IW-I to my iMac using a Keyspan Serial-USB adapter

 

[Concorde1993]

Keyspan Serial-USB adapter

Sounds intriguing. Can they be purchased at a computer/electronics store, or is this an "online-only" item?

 

[jongleur]

I think Keyspan is no more, but they are available on eBay

Tripp-Lite seem to "own" the Keyspan range these days at more than silly prices (didn't pay that much when I bought mine new)

$139.99 http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtSeriesID=849&txtModelID=3915

$29.95 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apple-Mac-USA28X-Keyspan-USB-Twin-RS-432-Serial-Adapter-/150623524866?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2311dc9802

Looks like Keyspan serial/usb adapters are now in the same realm as Griffin iMates. If you see one for nix, grab it. Someone here will want/need it.

 

[coius]

Or... you can use a standard DB-9 Serial Adapter with a prolific chipset, and hook it up with an adapter to DB-25, and that DB-25 serial cable to RS-422 (the small round S-Video type) and hook it up thought that. I am going to try to interface my ImageWriter with that and see how it works. It would be rather interesting if it did indeed work.

 

[johnklos]

I used a gPort to connect. I have Keyspan adapters, but this has less clutter.

Does anyone know of any software which does what Port Xtender (http://www.metamage.com/products/port-xtender/) does? I'd love to leave my Tonka in OS X and run MacPalette II in Classic and let Classic talk directly to the printer, but Port Xtender costs $100 (!)