Apple Silentype

The Silentype's firmware was written by Andy Hertzfeld, who later worked on the Apple Macintosh.

The Silentype is a thermal printer, which uses a special paper and provides 80-column output.

[2][3] 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.

[citation needed] 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, forty years later, is a thermal printer that still mimics the way the Silentype was used when it was introduced in 1980.