LaserWriter

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LaserWriter
Laserwriter.jpg
Apple LaserWriter
IntroducedMarch 1, 1985 (1985-03-01)
DiscontinuedFebruary 1, 1988 (1988-02-01)
CostUS$6,995(equivalent to $19,820 in 2023)
Type Laser
Processor Motorola 68000
Frequency12 MHz
Memory1.5 MB
Slots1
ROM512 KB
Ports Serial, LocalTalk, AppleTalk
Power consumption760 watts
ColorMonochrome
DPI300
Speed8 pages per minute
Language PostScript, Diablo 630
Weight77 lb (35 kg)
Dimensions(H × W × D) 11.5×18.5×16.2 in (29×47×41 cm)

The LaserWriter is a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter sold by Apple, Inc. from 1985 to 1988. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market. In combination with WYSIWYG publishing software like PageMaker, that operated on top of the graphical user interface of Macintosh computers, the LaserWriter was a key component at the beginning of the desktop publishing revolution. [1] [2]

Contents

History

Development of laser printing

Laser printing traces its history to efforts by Gary Starkweather at Xerox in 1969, which resulted in a commercial system called the Xerox 9700. IBM followed this with the IBM 3800 system in 1976. Both machines were large, room-filling devices handling the combined output of many users. [3] During the mid-1970s, Canon started working on similar machines, and partnered with Hewlett-Packard to produce 1980's HP 2680, which filled only part of a room. [4] Other copier companies also started development of similar systems.

HP introduced their first desktop model with a Ricoh engine for $12,800 in 1983. Sales of the non-networked product were unsurprisingly poor. [4] In 1983, Canon introduced the LBP-CX, a desktop laser printer engine using a laser diode and featuring an output resolution of 300 dpi. [5] In 1984, HP released the first commercially available system based on the LBP-CX, the HP LaserJet. [3]

Apple's development

Steve Jobs of Apple Computer had seen the LBP-CX while negotiating for supplies of 3.5" floppy disk drives for the upcoming Apple Macintosh computer. Meanwhile, John Warnock had left Xerox to found Adobe Systems to commercialize PostScript and AppleTalk in a laser printer they intended to market. Jobs was aware of Warnock's efforts, and upon his return to California he began convincing Warnock to allow Apple to license PostScript for a new printer that Apple would sell. Negotiations between Apple and Adobe over the use of PostScript began in 1983 and an agreement was reached in December 1983, one month before Macintosh was announced. [6] Jobs eventually arranged for Apple to buy $2.5 million in Adobe stock.

At about the same time, Jonathan Seybold (John W. Seybold's son) introduced Paul Brainerd to Apple, where he learned of Apple's laser printer efforts and saw the potential for a new program using the Mac's GUI to produce PostScript output for the new printer. Arranging his own funding through a venture capital firm, Brainerd formed Aldus and began development of what would become PageMaker. The venture capital coined the term "desktop publishing" during this time. [7]

Release

The LaserWriter was announced at Apple's annual shareholder meeting on January 23, 1985, [8] the same day Aldus announced PageMaker. [9] Shipments began in March 1985 [10] at the retail price of US$6,995, significantly more than the HP model. However, the LaserWriter featured AppleTalk support that allowed the printer to be shared among as many as sixteen Macs, meaning that its per-user price could fall to under $450, far less expensive than HP's less-advanced model.

The combination of the LaserWriter, PostScript, PageMaker and the Mac's GUI and built-in AppleTalk networking would ultimately transform the landscape of computer desktop publishing. [6] At the time, Apple planned to release a suite of AppleTalk products as part of the Macintosh Office, with the LaserWriter being only the first component. [11]

While competing printers and their associated control languages offered some of the capabilities of PostScript, they were limited in their ability to reproduce free-form layouts (as a desktop publishing application might produce), use outline fonts, or offer the level of detail and control over the page layout. HP's own LaserJet was driven by a simple page description language, known as Printer Command Language, or PCL. The version for the LaserJet, PCL4, was adapted from earlier inkjet printers with the addition of downloadable bitmapped fonts. [4] It lacked the power and flexibility of PostScript until several upgrades provided some level of parity. [12] It was some time before similar products became available on other platforms, by which time the Mac had ridden the desktop publishing market to success.

Description

Hardware

The LaserWriter used the same Canon CX printing engine as the HP LaserJet, and as a consequence early LaserWriters and LaserJets shared the same toner cartridges and paper trays. [13] PostScript is a complete programming language that has to be run in a suitable interpreter and then sent to a software rasterizer program, all inside the printer. To support this, the LaserWriter featured a Motorola 68000 CPU running at 12  MHz, 512 KB of workspace RAM, and a 1 MB frame buffer. [14]

At introduction, the LaserWriter had the most processing power in Apple's product line—more than the 8 MHz Macintosh. As a result, the LaserWriter was also one of Apple's most expensive offerings. For implementation purposes, the LaserWriter employed a small number of medium-scale-integration Monolithic Memories PALs, and no custom LSI, whereas the LaserJet employed a large number of small-scale-integration Texas Instruments 74-Series gates, and one custom LSI. The LaserWriter was, thereby, in the same form factor (for its RIP), able to provide much greater function, and, indeed, much greater performance, all within the very same LBP-CX form factor, although the external packaging was, for marketing purposes, somewhat different.

Networking

Since the cost of a LaserWriter was several times that of a dot-matrix impact printer, some means to share the printer with several Macs was desired. LANs were complex and expensive, so Apple developed its own networking scheme, LocalTalk. Based on the AppleTalk protocol stack, LocalTalk connected the LaserWriter to the Mac over an RS-422 serial port. At 230.4 kbit/s LocalTalk was slower than the Centronics PC parallel interface, but allowed several computers to share a single LaserWriter. PostScript enabled the LaserWriter to print complex pages containing high-resolution bitmap graphics, outline fonts, and vector illustrations. The LaserWriter could print more complex layouts than the HP LaserJet and other non-Postscript printers. Paired with the program Aldus PageMaker, the LaserWriter gave the layout editor an exact replica of the printed page. The LaserWriter offered a generally faithful proofing tool for preparing documents for quantity publication, and could print smaller quantities directly. The Mac platform quickly gained the favor of the emerging desktop-publishing industry, a market in which the Mac is still important. [15]

Design

The LaserWriter was the first major printer designed by Apple to use the new Snow White design language created by Frog Design. It also continued a departure from the beige color that characterized the Apple and Macintosh products to that time by using the same brighter, creamy off-white color first introduced with the Apple IIc and Apple Scribe Printer 8 months earlier. In that regard it and its successors stood out among all of Apple's Macintosh product offerings until 1987, when Apple adopted a unifying warm gray color they called Platinum across its entire product line, which was to last for over a decade.

The LaserWriter was also the first peripheral to use the LocalTalk connector and Apple's unified round AppleTalk Connector Family, which allowed any variety of mechanical networking systems to be plugged into the ports on the computers or printers. A common solution was the 3rd party PhoneNET which used conventional telephone cables for networking.

Legacy

Apple's RIP was of its own design, and was implemented using few ICs, including PALs for most combinatorial logic; with the subsystem timing DRAM refreshing, and rasterization functions being implemented in very few medium-scale-integration PALs. Apple's competitors (i.e., QMS, NEC, and others) generally used a variation of one of Adobe's RIPs with their large quantity of small-scale-integration (i.e., Texas Instruments' 7400 series) ICs.

In the same time-frame as Apple's LaserWriter, Adobe was licensing the very same version of PostScript to Apple's potential competitors (Apple's PostScript licensing terms were non-exclusive); however, all non-Apple licensees of PostScript generally employed one of Adobe's PostScript "reference models" (Atlas, Redstone, etc.) and even Linotype's first image setter which featured PostScript employed such a "reference model" (but with customization for the Linotronic's different video interface, plus the necessary implementation of "banding" and a hard drive frame buffer and font storage mechanism). Indeed, the PostScript language itself was concurrently enhanced and extended to support these high-resolution "banding" devices (as contrasted to the lower resolution "framing" devices, such as the LaserWriter, in which the entire "frame" could be contained within the available RAM).

In most cases, such RAM was fixed in size and was soldered to the logic board. In late PostScript Level 1, and in early PostScript Level 2, the RAM size was made variable and was generally extensible, through plug-in DIMMs, beyond the 2.0 to 2.5 MB minimum (0.5 to 1.0 MB for instructions, depending upon PostScript version, and 1.5 MB minimum for the "frame buffer", for the lowest resolution devices, 300 dpi), as more than 300 dpi of course required more RAM, and some LaserWriters were able to change between 300 dpi and 600 dpi, depending upon how much RAM was installed. 600 dpi, for example, required 6 MB of RAM, but 8 MB of RAM was more commonly found.

At this point, Apple's LaserWriters were employing generic non-parity RAM, whereas HP's LaserJets, especially the ones which offered a plug-in PostScript interpreter card, required special parity-type PS/2 RAM modules with a "presence detect" function according to IBM specs.

Other LaserWriter models

Building on the success of the original LaserWriter, Apple developed many further models. Later LaserWriters offered faster printing, higher resolutions, Ethernet connectivity, and eventually color output in the Color LaserWriter. To compete, many other laser printer manufacturers licensed Adobe PostScript for inclusion into their own models. Eventually the standardization on Ethernet for connectivity and the ubiquity of PostScript undermined the unique position of Apple's printers: Macintosh computers functioned equally well with any Postscript printer. After the LaserWriter 8500, Apple discontinued the LaserWriter product line in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to Apple.

LaserWriter II

Apple LaserWriter II Apple Laserwriter II.jpg
Apple LaserWriter II

In 1988, to address the need for both an affordable printer and a professional printer, the LaserWriter II was designed to allow for complete replacement of the computer circuit board that operates the printer. Across all the different models, the print engine was the same.

Three years later in 1991, two updated versions of the LaserWriter II were produced.

To deliver higher performance, Apple eventually switched from the 68000 series to the Am29000 series of processors to drive later models, starting with the Personal LaserWriter NTR in 1992. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PostScript</span> File format and programming language

PostScript is a page description language and dynamically typed, stack-based programming language. It is most commonly used in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm, but as a Turing complete programming language, it can be used for many other purposes as well. PostScript was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Brotz, Ed Taft and Bill Paxton from 1982 to 1984. The most recent version, PostScript 3, was released in 1997.

TrueType is an outline font standard developed by Apple in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. It has become the most common format for fonts on the classic Mac OS, macOS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser printing</span> Electrostatic digital printing process

Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively charged cylinder called a "drum" to define a differentially charged image. The drum then selectively collects electrically charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated to permanently fuse the text, imagery, or both, to the paper. As with digital photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process. Laser printing differs from traditional xerography as implemented in analog photocopiers in that in the latter, the image is formed by reflecting light off an existing document onto the exposed drum.

Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online content. Desktop publishing software can generate page layouts and produce text and image content comparable to the simpler forms of traditional typography and printing. This technology allows individuals, businesses, and other organizations to self-publish a wide variety of content, from menus to magazines to books, without the expense of commercial printing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macintosh Plus</span> Third model of Apples Macintosh computer line

The Macintosh Plus computer is the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2,599. As an evolutionary improvement over the 512K, it shipped with 1 MB of RAM standard, expandable to 4 MB, and an external SCSI peripheral bus, among smaller improvements. Originally, the computer's case was the same beige color as the original Macintosh, Pantone 453; however, in 1987, the case color was changed to the long-lived, warm gray "Platinum" color. It is the earliest Macintosh model able to run System Software 5, System 6, and System 7, up to System 7.5.5, but not System 7.5.2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldus Corporation</span> Desktop publishing software company

Aldus Corporation was an American software company best known for its pioneering desktop publishing software. PageMaker, the company's most well-known product, ushered in the modern era of desktop computers such as the Macintosh seeing widespread use in the publishing industry. Paul Brainerd, the company's co-founder, coined the term desktop publishing to describe this paradigm. The company also originated the Tag Image File Format (TIFF) file format, widely used in the digital graphics profession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe PageMaker</span> Desktop publishing program

Adobe PageMaker is a desktop publishing computer program introduced in 1985 by the Aldus Corporation on the Apple Macintosh. The combination of the Macintosh's graphical user interface, PageMaker publishing software, and the Apple LaserWriter laser printer marked the beginning of the desktop publishing revolution. Ported to PCs running Windows 1.0 in 1987, PageMaker helped to popularize both the Macintosh platform and the Windows environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ImageWriter</span> Product line of dot matrix printers formerly manufactured by Apple

The ImageWriter is a product line of dot matrix printers formerly manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc., and designed then to be compatible with their entire line of computers. There were three different models introduced over time, which were popular mostly among Apple II and Macintosh owners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">System 7</span> Seventh major release of the classic Mac OS

System 7 is the seventh major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. It was launched on May 13, 1991, to succeed System 6 with virtual memory, personal file sharing, QuickTime, TrueType fonts, the Force Quit dialog, and an improved user interface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HP LaserJet</span> Brand of laser printers

LaserJet as a brand name identifies the line of laser printers marketed by the American computer company Hewlett-Packard (HP). The HP LaserJet was the world's first commercially successful laser printer. Canon supplies both mechanisms and cartridges for most HP laser printers; some larger A3 models use Samsung print engines.

StyleWriter is a line of inkjet serial printers by Apple, targeted mainly towards consumers. They produced print quality that was better than the dot matrix ImageWriters, and were cheaper than the LaserWriters. All but a few models contained Canon print engines, while the last few were re-badged HP Deskjet printers. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he discontinued most of the company's accessory product lines, including the StyleWriter and LaserWriter.

Timeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing (DTP) program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom and published by Timeworks, Inc., in the United States.

Adobe Type Manager (ATM) was the name of a family of computer programs created and marketed by Adobe Systems for use with their PostScript Type 1 fonts. The last release was Adobe ATM Light 4.1.2, per Adobe's FTP.

Printer Command Language, more commonly referred to as PCL, is a page description language (PDL) developed by Hewlett-Packard as a printer protocol and has become a de facto industry standard. Originally developed for early inkjet printers in 1984, PCL has been released in varying levels for thermal, matrix, and page printers. HP-GL/2 and PJL are supported by later versions of PCL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macintosh Quadra 605</span> Personal computer by Apple Computer

The Macintosh Quadra 605 is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from October 1993 to July 1996. The model names reflect a decision made at Apple in 1993 to follow an emerging industry trend of naming product families for their target customers – Quadra for business, LC for education, and Performa for home. Accordingly, the Performa 475 and 476 was sold in department stores and electronics stores such as Circuit City, whereas the Quadra was purchased through an authorized Apple reseller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HP LaserJet 4</span>

The HP LaserJet 4 is a group of monochrome laser printers produced in the early to mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett-Packard (HP). The 4 series has various models, including the standard LaserJet 4 for business use, the 4L for personal use and the 4P for small businesses. Additional models included the 4Si model, created as a heavy-duty business printer, and the 4V model, a B-size printer for desktop publishing and graphic artists. There are also PostScript variants of these machines with the '4M' designation, where M stands for, but is not limited to, usage with an Apple Macintosh. Hewlett-Packard also released an upgraded version of the LaserJet 4/4M known as the 4 Plus ('4+')/4M Plus ('4M+').

The NeXT Laser Printer [NeXT PN N2000] was a 400 DPI PostScript laser printer, sold by NeXT from late 1988 to 1993 for the NeXTstation and NeXTcube workstations and manufactured by Canon Inc. It included an adjustable paper tray, which enabled it to print on several paper sizes including A4, letter-size, and those of legal and envelope varieties. It was very similar to other printers based on the Canon SX engine, such as the Apple LaserWriter II series and HP LaserJet II/III, although those other printers only printed at 300x300 dpi. Some parts are interchangeable with the LaserJet II/III.

The Macintosh Office was an effort by Apple Computer to design an office-wide computing environment consisting of Macintosh computers, a local area networking system, a file server, and a networked laser printer. Apple announced Macintosh Office in January 1985 with a poorly received sixty-second Super Bowl commercial dubbed Lemmings. In the end, the file server would never ship and the Office project would be cancelled. However, the AppleTalk networking system and LaserWriter printer would be hugely successful in launching the desktop publishing revolution.

MacPublisher was the first Desktop Publishing program for the Apple Macintosh, introduced in 1984, the same year that Apple introduced the Macintosh. DTP competitors Ready, Set, Go! and Aldus PageMaker were introduced in 1985 when Apple delivered the 512K Macintosh.

References

  1. ↑ H. A. Tucker: Desktop Publishing. Archived January 27, 2017, at the Wayback Machine In: Maurice M. de Ruiter: Advances in Computer Graphics III. Springer, 1988, ISBN   3-540-18788-X, P. 296.
  2. ↑ Michael B. Spring: Electronic printing and publishing: the document processing revolution. Archived January 27, 2017, at the Wayback Machine CRC Press, 1991, ISBN   0-8247-8544-4, Page 46.
  3. 1 2 Benji Edwards: Apple's Five Most Important Printers. Archived April 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine macworld.com, December 10, 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 Jim Hall, "HP LaserJet – The Early History" Archived June 8, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "Canon LBP-CX Engine". fixyourownprinter.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
  6. 1 2 Pamela Pfiffner: Inside the Publishing Revolution. The Adobe Story. Adobe Press, 2003. ISBN   0-321-11564-3. Chapter Steve Jobs and the LaserWriter. Pages 33-46. A PDF of the chapter is available at "Inside the Publishing Revolution". CreativePro.com. December 3, 2002. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
  7. ↑ David Wilma, "Brainerd, Paul (b. 1947)" Archived February 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , HistoryLink, February 22, 2006
  8. ↑ Jim Bartimo, Michael McCarthy: "Is Apple's LaserWriter on Target?" Archived December 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine , InfoWorld, Volume 7 Issue 6 (February 11, 1985), pp. 15-18.
  9. ↑ Aldus Announces Desktop Publishing System ... BusinessWire, January 23, 1985.
  10. ↑ "Macintosh Timeline". Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
  11. ↑ Owen W. Linzmayer (2004). Apple Confidential 2.0. ISBN   978-1-59327-010-0. Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2009. Chapter Why 1984 Wasn't like 1984. Pages 143-146.
  12. ↑ "HP's History Of Printer Command Language (PCL)" Archived February 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , HP
  13. ↑ "Printerworks.com: Apple LaserWriter and LaserWriter Plus Printers". Archived from the original on August 1, 2013. Retrieved January 18, 2014.
  14. ↑ "LaserWriter: Technical Specifications" Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Apple
  15. ↑ Apple Company News & Product Updates Archived April 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine . Businessweek. Retrieved on July 21, 2013.
  16. ↑ LaserWriter IISC: Technical Specifications Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine . Support.apple.com (April 15, 2013). Retrieved on July 21, 2013.
  17. ↑ LaserWriter IINT: Technical Specifications Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine . Support.apple.com (April 15, 2013). Retrieved on July 21, 2013.
  18. ↑ LaserWriter IINTX: Technical Specifications Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine . Support.apple.com (April 15, 2013). Retrieved on July 21, 2013.
  19. ↑ LaserWriter IIf: Technical Specifications Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine . Support.apple.com (April 15, 2013). Retrieved on July 21, 2013.
  20. ↑ LaserWriter IIg: Technical Specifications Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine . Support.apple.com (April 15, 2013). Retrieved on July 21, 2013.
  21. ↑ Child, Jeffrey (May 1992). "RISC chips continue conquest of embedded realm". Computer Design. pp. 103–104, 106, 108, 110. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
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