StyleWriter 2 working with Mac OS Catalina

John Galt wrote:

FYI I'm working on a potential Raspberry Pi solution and will keep you apprised. Emphasis on potential 😄

I am pleased to report the Raspberry Pi works as a print server. The only device I don't have to test is a StyleWriter, but the CUPS interface includes three different variants of the color StyleWriter. One of them might work.

https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/imagewriter-ii-pi-print-server-for-modern-retro-printing.4332/ has instructions that I would have difficulty improving upon, but when I have the time and inclination I may post a User Tip for the three or four other people on Earth who might be interested.

The only thing you don't have is a Raspberry Pi 😄

Let me know if you want to pursue that option.

You will find many of the links on that page are dead. Although I can still log in and modify that page, as you can see it hasn't been updated in about ten years. That is not intended as criticism because site maintenance is a monumental task for anyone, let alone those who do it on their own time with zero compensation and a commensurate amount of gratitude.

The Ghostscript code on that page is woefully out of date, but the good news is that Ghostscript itself is alive and well. So is Foomatic for that matter, so I hear, although I lack recent experience with it.

Workarounds. Given Apple's... passionate (to put it mildly) approach to operating system security — which includes printer drivers — there are no easy ones. I don't believe anything less than a full on frontal assault can tackle that project. To even get to Step 1, I strongly encourage you to get in touch with Josh Moyer, who graciously took over maintenance of that particular source code. He is also the official maintainer of that Open Printing web page, but it remains as moribund as it was when I took custody of it. Again, no criticism intended and I am very grateful for his willingness to take it on.

Josh's interest has mostly been limited to the ImageWriter series, and I know he remains active in its development. The StyleWriter series isn't that much different. That's the good news. If anyone can even fathom a guess as to how to get the StyleWriter working it would be him.

How to contact Josh... We can't really use this site for that purpose, but I happen to know he created this Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/appledotmatrixprinters/permalink/838208817517876/

That does nothing for me, because I have no FB page. Nor for that matter have I any interest in social media of any kind. Besides ASC of course.

Matt Broughton was my predecessor for some of the ImageWriter work. To my knowledge he's long gone.

I remain interested in the project, but I lack both the time and expertise to bring it up to date with recent macOS versions. So, I encourage you to keep in touch, through this website since I participate here fairly regularly, and if I have any better ideas I will certainly pass them along.

Thank you for taking an interest. These projects can be fun.

... you wrote that second section about how to do it on Mac OS 10.15

Even that December update has broken links.

JMoyer at least posted this comment about a month ago:

https://bugs.ghostscript.com/buglist.cgi?bug_status=__open__&component=Apple%20ImageWriter%20Devices&product=Ghostscript

So I have reason to believe he is still active. Last time we spoke he was in need of work that actually pays, so niche projects like this go by the wayside. I have some myself that I had plenty of time for a few years ago as I waited for the global insanity to pass. Now that I'm busy they have also gone by the wayside. Not to worry, insanity isn't going away.

Two years of inactivity isn't significant for a printer that's only 40 years old. They just keep working though.

This site has an updated Ghostscript installer package:

https://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/

Otherwise you can build gs yourself from the published source code:

https://www.ghostscript.com/releases/gsdnld.html

It's not particularly difficult.

Maybe even package it:

Packaging Mac software for distribution | Apple Developer Documentation

Just one piece of the puzzle though.

Nobody knows how to help, that much is clear.

I'm probably going to have to do it myself. In the meantime see if you can find a way to locate and contact that Josh Moyer guy. He's young, brilliant, and passionate, that much is certain. So, I would approach him on the basis of your shared passion for these old printers. Whether he has the time, motivation, and knowledge to be able to contribute to a solution fir macOS is a big unknown.

I found a website, here: http://jmoyer.nodomain.net/ You may be able to contact Josh through Linkedin (another service I have no interest in using).

More information may be here: http://press.jmoyer.nodomain.net/gdevadmp/

Please let me know how things go. If I can be of any help at all, I will.

No worries about the email / phone numbers; I didn't redact them and have no idea if they remain valid anyway. We just can't use this site for that purpose (which makes things difficult, but Apple is passionate about privacy).

Great news, thanks. Josh has done the heavy lifting with Ghostscript as it applies to certain Apple printers but the StyleWriter may be missing. Since I don't have one it limits my ability to even find out, and Josh doesn't have a Mac.

Between the three of us surely we can make something work...?

Ghostscript seems to a monumental task and I'm very grateful for his interest. Still, implementing a solution for recent macOS versions is going to require that I find out just how a printer driver gets installed on a Mac. A cursory examination of their programming documentation is coming up empty, no surprise because their interest goes as far as AirPrint and that's it.

At some point, given a month of Sundays with bad weather I intend to take a look at it.

Found this macOS "printer package creator": https://github.com/jmuehlenberg/multiprinterpkg It could be a start.

Another interesting find: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/imagewriter-ii-pi-print-server-for-modern-retro-printing.4332/

Yes we would need a Raspberry Pi but I'd be willing to cope with that. The Rπ is great.

Josh explained while the ImageWriter uses Ghostscript, the StyleWriter is different — it’s handled as a CUPS “filter driver” (with foomatic/stylus), not through Ghostscript.

I vaguely recall that conversation with him. For the time being I may explore the Raspberry Pi solution. At first glance it's not clear to me how it incorporates the necessary printer drivers, unless apt install printer-driver-all installs everything known to exist?

Also, at first glance it's not at all clear how to install the Keyspan driver on the Pi. The page he referenced doesn't appear to be relevant at all. Getting the hardware to work is a prerequisite before even thinking about anything else.

I'll call for help. There are perhaps two or three site participants who may be interested.

Unfortunately I don't have a StyleWriter. But how hard could it be? 🤪

They're fairly bulletproof machines. As I recall I spent over $1000 for my ImageWriters back then. That's probably $3000 today.