LaserWriter 8500

The LaserWriter 8500 was a large format monochrome laser printer from the LaserWriter series that was released by Apple Computer for the workgroup market in May 1997. It was the last printer to be marketed under the Apple brand.

Description
The 8500 could print at a resolution of 600-dpi from a P880 print engine that could output 20 pages-per-minute, or 8 pages-per-minute in double-sided mode, which requires a duplexing attachment. It can handle up to 13 x 20-inch paper and up to 500 sheets in its paper cassette. An optional sheet feeder attachment can expand maximum capacity by another 500 pages. It utilized FinePrint and PhotoGrade to adjust individual dot sizes to simulate smoother edges and grays produced by higher resolution printers.

The 60/30 MHz AMD processor could rasterize images from PostScript Level 3 or  5 printer data. The data could be transmitted through a LocalTalk network to its serial port, or a direct PC connection to its. It also supports faster EtherTalk, (IPX),,  (NDS), or  (SNMP) networking over  or a proprietary AAUI Ethernet port. A SCSI port could be used to attach an external drive to store additional fonts.

Included fonts

 * Albertus MT
 * Antique Olive***
 * Apple Chancery* ***
 * Arial* ***
 * Avant Garde***
 * Bodoni***
 * Bookman***
 * Carta
 * Clarendon***
 * Chicago* ***
 * Cooper Black
 * Copperplate 32
 * Copperplate 33
 * Coronet***
 * Courier***
 * Delphian*
 * Geneva* ***
 * Gill Sans***
 * Goudy
 * Helvetica***
 * Helvetica Condensed
 * Helvetica Narrow***
 * Hoefler Text Black* ***
 * Joanna MT***
 * Letter Gothic***
 * Lubalin Graph
 * Marigold
 * Mona Lisa
 * Monaco* ***
 * New Century Schoolbook***
 * New York* ***
 * Optima
 * Oxford
 * Palatino
 * Stempel Garamond***
 * Symbol
 * Tekton
 * Times***
 * Times New Roman*
 * Univers***
 * Univers Condensed***
 * Wingdongs**
 * Zapf Chancery***
 * Zapf Dingbats
 * *  In TrueType format only. 
 * **  In TrueType and PostScript Type 1 formats. 
 * ***  Also available with Central European character set. 

Discontinuation
The 8500 was discontinued in 1999 as Apple exited the printer market.

Legacy support
Apple phased out support for printing over the old AppleTalk-based EtherTalk protocol in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Printing over is possible, but this requires configuring an  address over EtherTalk by a Mac running Apple Printer Utility in classic Mac OS or the Classic environment.

Articles

 * Apple’s five most important printers by Benj Edwards at PC Macworld (2009-12-09)