The Apple Silentype was Apple's first printer

Computer printer

In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...

, announced in 1979 and released in March, 1980 US$599 , shortly after the Apple II Plus

Apple II

The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...

. The Silentype's firmware

Firmware

In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...

 was written by Andy Hertzfeld

Andy Hertzfeld

Andy Hertzfeld is a computer scientist who was a member of the original Apple Macintosh development team during the 1980s. After buying an Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for Apple Computer from August 1979 until March 1984, where he was a designer for the Macintosh system software...

, who later worked on the Apple Macintosh. The Silentype is a thermal printer

Thermal printer

A thermal printer produces a printed image by selectively heating coated thermochromic paper, or thermal paper as it is commonly known, when the paper passes over the thermal print head. The coating turns black in the areas where it is heated, producing an image...

, which uses a special paper and provides 80 column output. It was also compatible with the Apple III

Apple III

The Apple III is a business-oriented personal computer produced and released by Apple Computer that was intended as the successor to the Apple II series, but largely considered a failure in the market. Development work on the Apple III started in late 1978 under the guidance of Dr. Wendell Sander...

. The Silentype printer needs its own specially designed interface card

Expansion card

The expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus.One edge of the expansion card holds the contacts that fit exactly into the slot...

, or an Apple III with the built in Silentype port

Computer port (hardware)

In computer hardware, a port serves as an interface between the computer and other computers or peripheral devices. Physically, a port is a specialized outlet on a piece of equipment to which a plug or cable connects...

 . It is mechanically identical to Trendcom's Model 200, except for the Apple logo in the lower left corner of the front cover, but the internal digital board was completely redesigned by Apple, removing the relatively expensive microprocessor and memory chips, relying on software in the Apple II instead. It was succeeded by the Apple Dot Matrix Printer

Apple Dot Matrix Printer

The Apple Dot Matrix Printer is a printer manufactured by C. Itoh and sold under Apple label in 1982 for the Apple II series, Lisa, and the Apple III...

, released in October 1982 for US$699.
The Silentype was inexpensive compared to other printers of the day (most of which cost over $1,000), although the printing looked very much like that produced by a dot-matrix printer. The Trendcom Model 100 printed 40 characters per line on paper that was about 4½ inches wide. The Model 200 could print 80 columns per line on paper 8½ inches wide. Compared to the first printer offered by Radio Shack

Radio shack

Radio shack is a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.-History:In the early days of radio, equipment was experimental and home-built. The first radio transmitters used a noisy spark to generate radio waves and were often housed in a garage or shed. When radio was first...

 for their TRS-80

TRS-80

TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...

 computer (which was also a thermal printer but used a silver thermal paper), the Trendcom printers were superior.

The Silentype's many dramatic advantages over other printers at the time, including silent operation, very small size, print speed and reliability, were especially well suited for its use in the nascent point of sale and hospitality industries. The Silentype was the first printer to be used in any restaurant as a point of sale remote requisition printer to speed service. In 1980 Gene Mosher adapted and utilized a Silentype printer to work with an Apple II computer to take customer orders, then to print transaction details for food preparation employees in his restaurant, The Old Canal Cafe, in Syracuse, New York, dramatically improving the speed of service. The broadening use of printers in the hospitality industry subsequently played a key role in the advancement of efficiency throughout the hospitality industry worldwide. The typical point of sale hospitality printer in use today, thirty years later, is a thermal printer that still mimics the way the Silentype was used when it was introduced in 1980.

External links

• MyOldMac.net – Apple Silentype printer information