9 pin or 24 pin printers on OSX?

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ruralguy

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Good morning. Are there any of the old 9 pin or 24 pin impact printers (I see a bunch on Ebay) that will run on an iMac 333 with OS 10.2? I print nothing but black. Am using an Epson C82, which goes through color cartridges at a fast rate. Much expense, which I would like to stop. Thanks Hank
 
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You might be able to if you get a parallel to USB adaptor and can find drivers for it.
 
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B

Badger

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As Schweb mentions there are adapter cables that can do this but you also need the right drivers. On a long term basis you might be more satisfied by getting one of the low cost Lazer printers that are available now. I switched from an Epson 740 to a Samsung 1710 about 2 years ago. It paid for itself in about 15 months.
 
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Good point Badger. I've had the HP LaserJet 6L for about 7 years now. Best investment I've ever made!
 
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You could
- Pick up an ImageWriter (indestructible Apple dot matrix printer) on eBay
- Purchase a Keyspan serial adaptor
- and use the CUPS drivers for that printer

If you're printing carbon-copy forms, this might be a practical choice.

If you just want low-cost-per-page printing, though, a LaserJet will give you much higher quality and speed.
 
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I think if you get this adapter scweb mentioned, you can use gimp print to make it work.
 
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ruralguy

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thanks

Thanks everyone. Just returned home and read the replies. I had totally forgotten about the parallel to USB cable business. Think I will try to find a used laser printer. I appreciate your feedback/advice.

Hank
 
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PowerMac G4 Cube 450mhz 832mb
I say get the adapter, then download gimp print and the printer should work fine.
 
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ruralguy

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Bought a Brother HL-1440

Thanks for information and direction. I read reviews and compared prices on lasers named in your replies. Looked at prices of older Apple pin printers. Then, I found a long, pretty good review of the less-expensive Brother HL-1440. Bought a new one off Amazon for about $100 including shipping. Upgraded from 10.2 to 10.2.1 (per info at Brother site) and downloaded Brother's OS X driver. Hooked it up, ran a test sheet, then turned on the iMac. I set the Brother as default and it worked perfectly. Have just printed a 38 page document. Toner cartridge is supposed to go 3500 copies, with replacement cost about $35. Wish I had done this a long time ago! Also, wish I had gone to Mac a long time ago! Again, thanks. Hank
 

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