Printer Software About Your Printer Software The Epson software includes the printer driver software and EPSON Status Monitor 3. The printer driver is software that allows your computer to control the printer. You need to install the printer driver so your Windows software applications can take full advantage of the printer's capabilities. EPSON Status Monitor 3 program allows you to monitor the status of your printer, alerts you when errors occur, and provides you with troubleshooting tips. EPSON Status Monitor 3 is automatically installed when you install the printer driver. If you want to install EPSON Status Monitor 3 later, see "Installing EPSON Status Monitor 3" on page 21 for instructions. Note: Some functions may not be available depending on your printer model. Before proceeding, make sure you have installed the printer driver on your computer described in the Start Here. Make sure the software setting is set to ESC/P or ESC/P 2 depending on your printer model. The printer driver software and EPSON Status Monitor 3 can only function in ESC/P or ESC/P 2 mode. Printer Software 1 Using the Printer Driver with Windows Me and 98 You can access the printer driver from your Windows applications or from the Start menu. When you access the printer driver from a Windows application, any settings you make apply only to the application you are using. See "Accessing the printer driver from Windows applications" on page 2 for more information. When you access the printer driver from the Start menu, the printer driver settings you make apply to all your applications. See "Accessing the printer driver from the Start menu" on page 4 for more information. See "Changing the printer driver settings" on page 5 to check and change printer driver settings. Note: While many Windows applications override the settings made with the printer driver, some do not, so you must verify that the printer driver settings match your requirements. Accessing the printer driver from Windows applications Follow these steps to access the printer driver from a Windows application: 2 Printer Software 1. Select Print Setup or Print from the File menu of your application software. In the Print or Print Setup dialog box displayed, make sure that your printer is selected in the Name drop-down list. Printer Software 3 2. Click Printer, Setup, Properties, or Options. (The button you click depends on your application and you may need to click a combination of these buttons.) The Properties window appears, and you see the Paper, Graphics, and Device Options menus. These menus contain the printer driver settings. 3. To view a menu, click the corresponding tab at the top of the window. See "Changing the printer driver settings" on page 5 for information on how to change the settings. Accessing the printer driver from the Start menu Follow these steps to access the printer driver from the Start menu: 1. Click the Start button, and then point to Settings. 2. Click Printers. 4 Printer Software 3. Right-click your printer icon, and click Properties. The screen displays the Properties window, which contains the Paper, Graphics, Device Options, and Utility menus. These menus display the printer driver settings. 4. To view a menu, click the corresponding tab at the top of the window. See "Changing the printer driver settings" on page 5 for information on how to change the settings. Changing the printer driver settings Your printer driver has seven menus: Paper, Graphics, Device Options, General, Details, Utility, and Sharing. For an overview of the available settings, see "Printer Driver Settings Overview" on page 12. You can also view online help by right-clicking items in the driver and selecting What's this? Printer Software 5 When you finish making printer driver settings, click OK to apply the settings, or click Restore Defaults to return the settings to their default values. Once you have checked your printer driver settings and made any necessary changes, you are ready to print. Using the Printer Driver with Windows Vista, XP, 2000, and Windows NT 4.0 You can access the printer driver from your Windows applications or from the Start menu. When you access the printer driver from a Windows application, any settings you make apply only to the application you are using. See "Accessing the printer driver from Windows applications" on page 7 for more information. When you access the printer driver from the Start menu, the printer driver settings you make apply to all your applications. See "Accessing the printer driver from the Start menu" on page 9 for more information. See "Changing the printer driver settings" on page 11 to check and change printer driver settings. Note: While many Windows applications override the settings made with the printer driver, some do not, so you must verify that the printer driver settings match your requirements. 6 Printer Software Accessing the printer driver from Windows applications Follow these steps to access the printer driver from a Windows application: Note: The examples in the following section are from the Windows 2000 operating system. They may vary in appearance from what actually appears on your screen; however, the instructions are the same. 1. Select Print Setup or Print from the File menu of your application software. In the Print or Print Setup dialog box displayed, make sure that your printer is selected in the Name drop-down list. Printer Software 7 2. Click Printer, Setup, Properties, or Options. (The button you click depends on your application and you may need to click a combination of these buttons.) The Document Properties window appears, and you see the Layout and Paper/Quality menus (Windows XP and 2000) or Layout, Paper/Quality, User Defined Paper and Extension Settings menus (Windows Vista). These menus contain the printer driver settings. 8 Printer Software 3. To view a menu, click the corresponding tab at the top of the window. See "Changing the printer driver settings" on page 11 to change the settings. Accessing the printer driver from the Start menu Follow these steps to access the printer driver from the Start menu: Note: The screen shots used in this procedure are from the Windows 2000 operating system. They may vary in appearance from what actually appears on your screen; however, the instructions are the same. 1. For Windows Vista: Click Start, click Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click Printers. For Windows 2000, XP, NT4.0: Click Start, point to Settings, and then select Printers. Printer Software 9 2. Right-click your printer icon, and click Printing Preferences (in Windows Vista, XP or 2000) or Document Defaults (in Windows NT 4.0). The screen displays the Document Properties window, which contains the Layout and Paper/Quality menus (Windows XP, 2000 and NT4.0) or Layout, Paper/Quality, User Defined Paper and Extension Settings menus (Windows Vista). These menus display the printer driver settings. 10 Printer Software When you click Properties in the menu displayed by right-clicking the printer icon, the Properties window appears, which includes menus used to make the printer driver settings. 3. To view a menu, click the corresponding tab at the top of the window. See "Printer Driver Settings Overview" on page 12 for information on how to change the settings. Changing the printer driver settings Your printer driver has two menus from which you can change the printer driver settings; Layout and Paper/Quality. You can also change settings on the Utility menu in the printer software. For an overview of the available settings, see "Printer Driver Settings Overview" on page 12. For Windows XP/2000, you can also view online help by right-clicking items in the driver and selecting What's this? Printer Software 11 If you are using Windows Vista, click the Help button on the Printer Driver screen. When you finish making your printer driver settings, click OK to apply the settings, or click Cancel to cancel your changes. Once you have checked your printer driver settings and changed them if necessary, you are ready to print. Printer Driver Settings Overview The following tables show the Windows printer driver settings. Note that not every setting is available in all versions of Windows. For more details, see Help for the printer driver. 12 Printer Software Printer settings Note: Depends on the type of printer, some functions may not be displayed. Settings Paper Size Explanations Select the size of the paper you want to use. If you do not see your paper size, use the scroll bar to scroll through the list. If your paper size is not included in the list, see "Definition of Custom Paper Size" on page 15 for instructions. Select Portrait or Landscape. Select the paper source you want to use. Select the printing resolution you want. The higher the resolution you select, the more detailed your printout will be; however, increasing the resolution slows printing. You can leave this option set to Fine, which is the default setting, or select another dithering pattern depending on the kind of printout you want. Move the slider to make your printout lighter or darker. Select a print quality option from the Print quality list. If you set Hi-speed to On, you will enter bidirectional printing mode and printing speed will increase. Setting Hi-speed to Off will return the printer to unidirectional printing mode. Printing speed will decrease, but printing precision will improve. Printing with the default settings uses the settings stored in the printer. Click this button to set the brightness and contrast, input the RGB gamma, or make other settings. The Halftone Color Adjustment dialog box appears. For details, click the Help button in this dialog box. Select the type of halftoning to use when printing graphics. To let the printer determine the best halftone quality, use Auto Select. Orientation Paper Source Resolution/ Graphics Resolution Dithering Intensity Print Quality Halftone Setup.../Halftone Color Adjustment... Halftoning Printer Software 13 Settings Printer Font Setting Explanations Select a character table group to use. You can select one of three character table groups, Standard, Expanded, and None (Bit Image printing). When Standard or Expanded is selected, the printer uses the device fonts. Expanded includes more fonts than Standard. When None is selected, the printer uses bit map images instead of the device fonts. For details on the fonts which are included in each table, see your printer's documentation. Print Text as Graphics* Select Off when the printer uses the device fonts and select On when the printer does not use the device fonts. Select whether to use EMF spooling. Metafile Spooling* Paper Order* Select whether to print from front to back or back to front. Select the number of pages that you want to print onto a single page. When you select more than one in the Number of copies box, this check box appears and you can select whether to collate the pages of the copies. Select Enable or Disable for the metafile Spooling. Pages Per Sheet* Copy Count* Advanced Printing Features* Print Optimizations* Select Disable when the printer does not use the device fonts and select Enable when the printer uses the device fonts. Select whether to use color printing. To use color printing, you have to install the optional color upgrade kit. If Standard is selected, the normal printable area for Epson impact printers is used. If Maximum is selected, the printer's maximum printable area is used. Color Printable Area 14 Printer Software Settings Top Margin Priority** Explanations Select which setting for the print-start position is to be used; driver setting or printer setting. For more details, see Help for the printer driver. Ordinarily, there is no need to change this setting. If you change the printer's Packet Mode settings, change this setting to match. If the printer and printer driver settings are different, you may not be able to print correctly. For more details, see Help for the printer driver. If your paper is not included in the Paper Size drop-down list, you can add the size to the list. For more details, see Help for the printer driver. This setting allows you to offset the image on the page. That is, you can adjust the position of the printed image. If the offset you specify moves a portion of the image out of the printer's printable area, that portion will not be printed. Packet Mode** User Defined Paper** Offset** * For details, see Windows help. ** For Windows Vista and XP Professional x64 Edition. Definition of Custom Paper Size If your paper is not included in the Paper Size drop-down list, you can add the size to the list. For Windows Me and 98: Click Custom or User Defined Size and enter the paper size in the dialog box that appears. For Windows XP, 2000, and Windows NT 4.0 (except Professional x64 Edition): 1. For Windows 2000 or Win ...