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Hi, I'm wondering if someone can tell me whether it would be possible to use a ColorStyleWriter2500 with an old Mac LC II?

Besides the age difference between the devices(I'm assuming the printer is significantly newer than the LC II, in reality my Mac experience is greatly limited; I've spent most of my life on PCs and am much more knowledgable with them), there are other logistical problems at hand that concern me.

One has slipped my mind at the moment (I've been working on this for a day or 2 and it's not all fresh in my mind anymore), but the one that I do remember deals with the driver for the printer: I have managed to find the driver for the printer (which is apparently hard to find), but the only way I can download it off the internet is on my PC (which I'm using now), so even IF I was able to Transfer it to my Mac, it's a 2.5M file (and that's in a Stuff'd format, no less), which makes it too big to fit on a floppy. If I was dealing with a PC, I'd just use PKZIP to put it in a Multi-Disk spanned Zip file, but for a MAC, ??

Anyway, my Mac LC II has System 7.5, ~8M of RAM, and sadly only about 6M of HD spc left on my 80M HD.

Any assistance you could offer regarding this matter would be sincerely appreciated :) .

Thanks,

Kirk G.

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Short answer: yes — the Color StyleWriter 2500 will work with an LC-series 68k Mac. The 2500 is a serial Apple StyleWriter with optional LocalTalk/EtherTalk, and the LC II platform and classic System 7 family are within the printer’s supported range. (support.apple.com)

What to verify before you start: the printer installer requires a Macintosh running System 7.1 or later and only modest RAM (the installer itself checks for disk space and memory during setup). If the machine is very low on free disk space, make some room first — the installer needs temporary workspace while it unpacks. (manualzilla.com)

Driver and transfer workflow (practical, low-risk steps) — build on ’s advice about using an archiver that preserves Mac metadata: many archived Apple drivers from that era are packaged as MacBinary / self-mounting disk images split into multiple .bin/.smi pieces. Move those pieces intact to the Mac (do not decode or re-wrap them on a Windows machine), then run StuffIt Expander on the LC to produce the disk image and use Disk Copy to mount it; run the printer’s Installer from the mounted image. That preserves resource forks and the installer’s structure. (savagetaylor.com)

Ways to get the files onto the LC II when the download is on a PC: create Mac-formatted media (HFS floppy or HFS CD-R) with a tool that writes HFS, use a SCSI removable disk (Zip) if available, or transfer over a serial link with a terminal program that supports binary transfers. Once the installer is mounted, put the driver files where classic Mac printing expects them (System Folder → Extensions → Printer Descriptions / Printer Drivers) and select the StyleWriter in the Chooser. If space is tight, move nonessential fonts/extensions off the boot disk or install temporarily to an external SCSI volume. (whitefiles.org)

If anything fails, note the exact Installer error (noting low disk, missing extension, or “not a Macintosh disk”) — those messages point to either an incomplete transfer or a resource-fork loss during file moves. Following the steps above will avoid the common pitfalls for vintage Mac driver installs.

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Member Avatar for John A

Hi, I'm wondering if someone can tell me whether it would be possible to use a ColorStyleWriter2500 with an old Mac LC II?

Yes that's possible as far as I know.

If I was dealing with a PC, I'd just use PKZIP to put it in a Multi-Disk spanned Zip file, but for a MAC, ??

Stuffit has a multi-span disk compression option, too. Only problem is that then you'll need Stuffit compressor, not just Stuffit Expander. And you'll have to make sure that you make the archive compatible with the version you have on your old Mac.

Also, transferring PC files to an old Mac like that requires the use of Apple Disk Transfer (I think that's what it's called) to be able to read PC-formatted floppy disks. (You can find it in the Apple menu.)

I think you should try to clean up your hard drive a little bit; 6 MB is not a lot of space to work with, the system needs spare room for swapping data.

And stop putting everything in blue.

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Yes that's possible as far as I know.

Stuffit has a multi-span disk compression option, too. Only problem is that then you'll need Stuffit compressor, not just Stuffit Expander. And you'll have to make sure that you make the archive compatible with the version you have on your old Mac.

Also, transferring PC files to an old Mac like that requires the use of Apple Disk Transfer (I think that's what it's called) to be able to read PC-formatted floppy disks. (You can find it in the Apple menu.)

I think you should try to clean up your hard drive a little bit; 6 MB is not a lot of space to work with, the system needs spare room for swapping data.

And stop putting everything in blue.

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Sorry about the blue!! My humblest apologies, sir! :sad:

Also, I found a version of the driver on apple's web site() that's broken down into 4 bin files- I'm going to try and see if that works.

Thanks for putting up with me,

Kirk

Member Avatar for John A

Sorry about the blue!! My humblest apologies, sir!

Don't sweat it. That's actually quite normal for forum newbies, so we'll cut you lots of slack.

Also, I found a version of the driver on apple's web site() that's broken down into 4 bin files- I'm going to try and see if that works.

It should. Have fun! :)

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