Need advice on how to network eMac with old Stylewriter.

Greets.

My father-in-law has an eMac as well as an old Apple IIe (IIRC).

He has an Epson printer but he doesn't like it's print quality. He has an old Stylewriter printer and he really likes the output quality.

He wants to be able to send print jobs from his eMac to the Stylewriter.

So, the question is:

How would one do this?

What equipment is necessary? (Interface adapters? Special cables?)

What special OS fiddling-around is necessary to get them to talk to each other?

Would he be able to directly hook up the Stylewriter to his eMac?

Sorry, if this is newbieish. I'm a pc guy and don't have much experience with Macs so here I am to find some answers and advice from the experts.

He's currently running OSX 10.28 but also has OS9.xx for "classic" mode as I understand it.

His Espon is usb but the Stylewriter ... I have no idea. I'm assuming (from a pc perspective) it's a parallel port but I can't be sure of anything.

Thanks very much.

The Stylewriter uses a serial cable. So I think you need a USB to Serial Converter. See the picture below. Once you have this, you maybe able to get in to work in OS 9. If it works in OS 9, then you might be able to print to it in OS X. I am not sure how to configure this printer. (outdated link removed)

I know you can purchase the USB to Serial Converter off the net. Use Google to search for USB to Serial Converter.

Thanks for your time.

USB to Serial - that shouldn't be a problem to get. Shouldn't be more than 20 bucks or so.

Now, the OS config stuff is what i'm wondering about.

If you hook up the Stylewriter with the USB to serial cable/interface you should be able to reboot the eMac and then get it to recognize the Stylewriter in OS 9 right?

Is there a compatibility mode or something to that nature with the Stylewriter and the Mac OS that I have to be aware of?

I know that with PCs you have to make sure that your device (printer in this case) has to have compatible drivers associated with your OS whether 95/98se/Me or NT/2k/XP generally speaking. Sometimes you can get away with using a 2k driver for an XP setup like I did with my Visioneer scanner.

So, if a manufacturer decides not to support a product by not writing drivers anymore then you are SOL.

Since the Stylewriter is an Apple product how do I find out that it can be supported in OS9xx or OSX without actually having to buy the cable and taking my chances?

I'll be doing more research but in the meantime thanks again.

Most of the printer should be install by default from Apple. I am not sure where they are located in the system folder. Since I removed them from my system some time ago.

Look here for info using the Stylewriter with OS 9.1. I couldn't find anything that showed it compatible with OS X.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106114.

Good Luck!