Apple Monitors/Displays

Apple Inc. currently sells only LCD computer displays; a wide variety of CRT computer displays have been sold in the past. more...

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CRT displays

In the very beginning (throughout the 1970s), Apple did not manufacture or sell displays of any kind, instead recommending users plug-into their television sets or (then) expensive third party monochrome monitors. Apple's history with CRT displays only began in 1980, starting with the Monitor /// that was introduced along side the Apple III business computer. It was a 12" monochrome (green) screen that could display 80x24 text characters and any type of graphics, however suffered from a very slow phosphor refresh that resulted in a "ghosting" video effect. So it could be shared with Apple II computers, a plastic stand was made available to accommodate the larger footprint of the monitor.

Roughly 4 years later came the introduction of the Monitor //, which as the name implies, was more suited in look and style for the Apple II line and at the same time added improvements in features and visual quality. In 1984 a miniature 9" screen, called the Monitor IIc, was introduced for the Apple IIc computer to help complement its compact size. This monitor was also the first to use the brand new design style for Apple's products called Snow White, as well as being the first monitor not released in a beige color, but rather a bright, creamy off-white. By early 1985 came the first color CRT's, starting with the Monitor 100, a digital RGB display for the Apple III and Apple IIe (with appropriate card), followed shortly by the 14" ColorMonitor IIe (later renamed to AppleColor Composite Monitor IIe) and ColorMonitor IIc (later renamed to AppleColor Composite Monitor IIc), composite video displays for those respective models.

In 1986 came the introduction of the AppleColor RGB, a 12" analog RGB display designed specifically for the Apple IIGS computer. It supported a resolution of 640x400 interlaced (640x200 non-interlaced) and could be used by the Macintosh II, in a limited fashion, with the Apple High Resolution Display Video Card. Also introduced that year was the Apple Monochrome Monitor, which cosmetically was identical to the former screen but was a black and white composite display suitable in external appearance for the Apple IIGS, Apple IIc or Apple IIc Plus.

The second generation of displays were built into the Apple Macintosh line of computers. Back then the Macintosh had a high resolution 9-inch monochrome monitor that could display 512x342 pixels. All future models of the Classic style Macintosh later featured this exact display. New external Apple Displays were introduced in 1987 with the Macintosh II. The Macintosh II had a PC-style expandable case which required an external monitor, it was also able to run up to six external displays simultaneously using multiple video cards. The desktop spanned multiple monitors and windows could be dragged from monitor to monitor, or even straddle two or more. The Color 12", 16" and 21" displays were introduced with resolutions of 512x384, 832x624 and 1152x870. Also monochrome displays were introduced mainly for the publishing industry, like the Macintosh Two Page Monochrome Monitor which was able to display pages next to each other with identical resolution to the 21" color one. Also the Macintosh Portrait Display was introduced which had a vertical aligment of the screen and was able to display one page. A 12" monochrome version was also introduced at the low end.

Read more at Wikipedia.org