What printer to use with System 7 and how to set it up?


The answer seems obvious - get an old printer. Find the drivers
on the Mac Garden, install and start printing.

Well, you can do that, but the chances of finding a working
ImageWriter II & others are getting slim. And then the trouble of
finding working ribbons. Not to mention the competition by
collectors hunting for trophies. Ugh.

The other choice is to use a Postscript-compatible printer.
PostScript is a programming language for printing. Good thing is
your Mac comes with a generic Postscript driver. That spares you
the hassle of locating a printer-specific driver. In many cases,
there are no drivers for System 7 anyway. System 7 Today's
co-admin Bolkonskij uses a Kyocera FS-1370DN from 2012 for
printing with his Power Mac 8600 / 200.


How to setup a Postscript-printer on Mac OS 7?

*Connect printer and your computer with an Ethernet cable, e.g.
via an Ethernet switch. (that depends on your home setup). Make
sure Postscript is activated on your printer. It is not by
default with some printers.

*Download and install the Laser Writer 8.6. drivers from our
drivers section.

*Start your printer and Mac. When in System 7, open the
"Chooser". By default it is in the Apple menu.

*You should see a "Laser Writer" icon. Click it. Even without an
Apple Laser Writer, we'll be using its driver. Now click on the
"Create" button to create a new printer.

*You'll be asked for a printer specific PPD. Just use the
"Generic PPD". That's the generic driver we talked about before.

*Save your changes. Now when you open the chooser, you should see
your printer shown as Postscript-compatible printer.


It might take a short while (up to 30 seconds in my case) before
your Mac recognizes the printer. Choose it and from now on your
applications like Apple Works, WriteNow, Photoshop and others
should recognize the printer.

Happy printing on your System 7 Macintosh!
.