Epson Stylus Color 900 Basic User Guide

EPSON Ink Jet Papers

Use EPSON’s paper and inks to get the same photo quality results that have earned your printer all of its awards! EPSON’s papers are specially coated to work with EPSON’s quick drying inks. You’ll notice that when prints come out of your printer, you can immediately handle them. There is no drying time, no smearing or smudging, and your image is clean and smooth. Here are just a few of EPSON’s papers:

360 dpi Ink Jet Paper

Bright white coated paper for quick printing at lower resolutions with brilliant results. Perfect for letters, charts, clip art, and color drafts.

Photo Quality Glossy Film

Durable, bright white film sheets with the highest-gloss finish. Perfect for printing professional quality, high-resolution photographs of all your digital images.

Photo Paper and Panoramic Photo Paper

Photo lab quality, heavier weight glossy paper available in a variety of sizes. Perfect for color photo keepsakes of snapshots, framed art, banners, and panoramics.

Iron-On Cool Peel Transfer Paper

Transfer your designs and photographs onto t-shirts or other cloth items. Perfect for ironing onto team t-shirts, canvas bags, crafts, and gifts.

See the inside back cover for a list of EPSON papers and ordering information.

WELCOME! 1

About Your Software 1 About Your Documentation 2

Warnings, Cautions, Notes, and Tips 3 Windows System Requirements 4 Macintosh System Requirements 5 ENERGY STAR Compliance 6 Year 2000 Ready 6 Printer Parts 6 Important Safety Instructions 7

Ink Cartridge Safety Instructions 8

VIEWING YOUR ELECTRONIC PRINTER MANUAL 9

Opening Your Electronic Manual 9

Navigating an Electronic Manual 11

PRINTING FROM START TO FINISH 12

Printing with Windows 13 Printing with a Macintosh 17 Using Custom Project Types 20 Using the Advanced Dialog Box 23 Using Special Papers 26

EPSON Photo Paper 26

Envelopes 28 Selecting the Correct Media Type 29

USING YOUR PRINTER WITH DOS 30

Selecting a Printer Driver 30 Control Panel Default Settings 31

Changing the Default Settings 34 Maintaining the Printer 36

Aligning the Print Head with the DOS Utility 36

Aligning the Print Head Using the Control Panel Buttons 37

CONFIGURING FOR A NETWORK 38

Windows 95 and Windows 98 Users 38

Setting Up the Host System 38

Setting Up Client Systems 39 Windows NT 4.0 Users 40

Setting Up Your Printer as a Shared Printer 40

Accessing the Printer Through a Network 41 Macintosh Users 43

Selecting the Printer in the Chooser 43

USING PRINTER SOFTWARE DISKETTES 44

Ordering Printer Software Diskettes 44 Installing Printer Software from Diskettes 45

Installing Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0 Software 45

Installing Windows 3.1 Software 46

Installing Macintosh Software 47

MAINTAINING YOUR PRINTER 48

Cleaning the Print Head 48

Using the Head Cleaning Utility 49

Using the Control Panel 50

Examining the Nozzle Check Pattern 51

Replacing an Ink Cartridge 51

Removing and Installing Ink Cartridges 52

Replacing an Outdated Ink Cartridge 54 Aligning the Print Head 56 Cleaning the Printer 57 Transporting the Printer 58

PROBLEM SOLVING 59

Diagnosing Printer Problems 59

Checking the Control Panel Lights 59

Running a Printer Check 61 Problems and Solutions 62

Problems Setting Up the Printer or Installing Its Software 62

Problems Getting Good Print Quality 64

Uninstalling Printer Software 67 Where To Get Help 69

INDEX 71

iii

Welcome!

Your EPSON Stylus® COLOR 900 Professional Series printer is the ideal output device for business graphics, digital photographs, and more. You can print anything from reports and resumes to photos and greeting cards with fabulous results.

The printer comes with these features:

■ Resolutions up to 1440 by 720 dpi, even on plain paper

■ Smallest ink droplets available (3 picoliters) for finest detail and smoothest

gradations

■ EPSON’s unique variable micro droplet technology for superior image quality

■ Four-color printing for photo quality color and sharp black text on plain paper or

a variety of special media

■ Great results on any paper size, including letter, legal, envelope, card, and

panoramic paper

■ High durability

About Your Software

The printer software CD-ROM includes all the software you need for printing:

■ Your printer driver runs your printer and lets you control how your documents

look. You can’t use your printer without it.

■ The EPSON Guided Printing Exercise gives you a quick lesson in printing and

Polaroid® PhotoMAX™ Pro includes a variety of easy photo editing options.

■ Your electronic EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual gives you complete

information about your printer.

If you haven’t yet installed your printer software from your CD-ROM, see the Start Here card for instructions.

If you need to rerun the installation program, insert the CD-ROM and do the following:

■ Windows

type

■ Windows 3.1: In the Program Manager, select Run. Then type D:\EPSON (where

95, Windows 98, or Windows NT®: Click

D:\EPSON

(where D is your CD-ROM drive letter). Then click OK.

Start

, select

Run

, and

D is your CD-ROM drive letter) and click OK.

■ Macintosh

: Double-click the EPSON Printer Driver Installer icon.

About Your Documentation

To set up your printer and install its software, see the Start Here card. This book contains instructions on:

■ viewing your electronic manuals

■ printing with Windows or Macintosh

■ using your printer with DOS

■ configuring your printer for use on a network

■ installing printer software from diskettes, if necessary

■ maintaining the printer

■ troubleshooting basic problems

For more details about printing with, maintaining, or troubleshooting your printer, see your electronic EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual. For instructions on viewing it, see page 9.

Warnings, Cautions, Notes, and Tips

Please follow these guidelines:

Warnings must be followed carefully to avoid bodily injury.

Cautions must be observed to avoid damage to your equipment.

Notes contain important information about your printer.

Tips contain additional hints for better printing.

Windows System Requirements

To use your printer and its software with a PC, your system should have:

■ An IBM

compatible PC with at least a 386/25 (for Windows 3.1x), 486/25 MHz (for Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0), or 486/66 MHz (for Windows 98) processor

■ DOS, Microsoft

■ At least 16MB of RAM (32MB for Windows 95 or 98 or 64MB for

Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0

Windows NT 4.0 recommended)

■ At least 50MB of free hard disk space (100MB recommended)

■ VGA, Super VGA, or better display adapter and monitor

■ Double-speed (2x) CD-ROM drive (quad [4x] or faster recommended) for

installing the printer software

■ For parallel connection, a high-speed, bidirectional, IEEE-1284 compliant

parallel cable (6 to 10 feet long); the cable must have a D-SUB, 25-pin, male connector for your computer and a 36-pin, Centronics® compatible connector for the printer.

For USB connection to a computer running Windows 98 with a Windows 98 compliant USB port, a shielded USB “AB” interface cable, from Series A (computer) to Series B (printer), up to 6.5 ft. (2.0 meters) long.

Using an improperly shielded USB cable—especially a cable more than 6.5 ft. (2.0 meters) long—may cause the printer to malfunction.

Macintosh System Requirements

To use your printer and its software with a Macintosh, your system should have:

■ One of the following Macintosh models:

LC475, LC575, LC630 Quadra series Centris series PowerBook® series (190, 520, 540, 550, or later) PowerBook Duo 280, 2300c/100 Performa® 475, 575, 588, 630, 5210 or later Power Macintosh® series iMac™ series (for USB connection only)

■ For serial connection: System 7.5.1 or later (7.6 or later recommended)

For USB connection: iMac with System 8.1 or later

■ At least 16MB of available RAM (32MB recommended)

■ At least 50MB of free hard disk space (100MB recommended)

■ RGB display or better

■ Double-speed (2x) CD-ROM drive (quad [4x] or faster recommended) for

installing the printer software

■ For serial connection, an ImageWriter

II serial cable or equivalent (8-pin mini

DIN male/male, Belkin brand recommended; EPSON part number: F2V024-06)

For USB connection to an iMac computer, a shielded USB “AB” interface cable, from Series A (computer) to Series B (printer), up to 6.5 ft. (2.0 meters) long.

Using an improperly shielded USB cable—especially a cable more than 6.5 ft. (2.0 meters) long—may cause the printer to malfunction.

NERGY STAR

Compliance

As an E

NERGY STAR

this product meets the E efficiency. The EPA E

Partner, EPSON has determined that

NERGY STAR

guidelines for energy

office equipment program is a voluntary partnership with the computer and office equipment industry to promote the introduction of energy-efficient personal computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, and copiers in an effort to reduce air pollution caused by power generation.

Year 2000 Ready

Your EPSON printer is Year 2000 Ready. However, be sure the other parts of your computer system are also ready for the year 2000.

Printer Parts

paper support

sheet feeder

left edge guide

right edge guide

printer cover

output tray

thickness lever

output tray extensions

ink cartridge clamps

control panel

Important Safety Instructions

Before using your printer, read the following safety instructions to make sure you use the printer safely and effectively:

■ Turn off and unplug the printer before cleaning. Clean with a damp cloth only.

Do not spill liquid on the printer.

Always turn the printer off using the switch off the power strip, or unplug the printer until the power light is off.

■ Do not place the printer on an unstable surface or near a radiator or heating vent

P power button. Don’t

or direct sunlight.

■ Do not block or cover the openings in the printer’s case or insert objects through

the slots.

■ Use only the type of power source indicated on the printer’s label.

■ Connect all equipment to properly grounded power outlets. Avoid using outlets

on the same circuit as photocopiers or air control systems that regularly switch on and off.

■ Place the printer near a wall outlet where the plug can be easily unplugged.

Placez l’imprimante près d’une prise de contacte où la fiche peut être débranchée facilement.

■ Do not let the power cord become damaged or frayed.

■ If you use an extension cord with the printer, make sure the total ampere rating of

the devices plugged into the extension cord does not exceed the cord’s ampere rating. Also, make sure the total ampere rating of all devices plugged into the wall outlet does not exceed the wall outlet’s ampere rating.

■ Except as specifically explained in this manual, do not attempt to service the

printer yourself.

■ Unplug the printer and refer servicing to qualified service personnel under the

following conditions:

If the power cord or plug is damaged; if liquid has entered the printer; if the printer has been dropped or the case damaged; if the printer does not operate normally or exhibits a distinct change in performance. Adjust only those controls that are covered by the operating instructions.

Ink Cartridge Safety Instructions

■ Do not put your hand inside the printer or touch the cartridge during printing.

■ Under normal circumstances, ink will not come out of the cartridge. If it does get

on your skin, wash it off with soap and water. If it gets in your eyes, flush them immediately with water.

■ Keep ink cartridges out of the reach of children.

■ Do not dismantle the ink cartridges or try to refill them. This could result in

damage to the print head.

■ Once you install an ink cartridge, do not open the clamp or remove the cartridge

except to replace it with a new one. The cartridge may become unusable otherwise.

■ Install the ink cartridge immediately after you remove it from its foil package.

Leaving the cartridge unpacked for a long time before use may result in reduced print quality.

■ Do not use an ink cartridge beyond the date printed on the cartridge package. For

best results, use up the ink cartridges within six months of installing them.

■ Do not shake an ink cartridge; this can cause leakage.

■ Always turn the printer off using the

button, the

Ppower light flashes briefly then goes out. Do not unplug the printer

or turn off the power to the printer until the

■ Before transporting the printer, make sure the print head is capped in the far right

Ppower button. When you press this

Ppower light is off.

position and the ink cartridges are in place.

Viewing Your Electronic Printer Manual

Here are some quick guidelines for viewing your electronic printer manual using Adobe Acrobat® Reader.

Opening Your Electronic Manual

How you open your electronic EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual depends on your operating system and whether the manual is on your hard disk or CD-ROM drive.

If you already copied the EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual to your hard disk and installed Acrobat Reader when you installed your printer software, do the following to view the manual:

■ Windows 95, 98, and NT: Click Start, point to Programs, EPSON, and click

View EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual. The manual opens in Acrobat Reader

automatically.

■ Windows 3.1: Open File Manager and double-click the 900DOC.PDF file. If the

file doesn’t open, start Acrobat Reader, open the File menu, click Open and select the 900DOC.PDF file.

■ Macintosh: Locate the 900DOC.PDF icon and double-click it. The manual opens

in Acrobat Reader automatically.

If you haven’t copied the manual to your hard disk, insert the printer software CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive. Then follow the instructions below for your operating system:

■ Windows 95, 98, and NT: Click

is your CD-ROM drive letter). At the Main Menu, select

Documentation

, then view and copy the manual by selecting the options on the

Start

, select

, and type

Run

D:\EPSON

View Electronic

(where D

next screen. When you view the manual, Acrobat Reader is installed automatically, if you don’t have it.

■ Windows 3.1: To copy the electronic EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual from

your CD-ROM to your hard disk, use the Windows File Manager. Open the

D:\MANUALS directory (where D is your CD-ROM drive letter) and locate the 900DOC.PDF file. Copy the file to a directory on your hard disk.

If you don’t have Acrobat Reader, you must install it from the CD-ROM to view your electronic printer manual. Open the Program Manager File menu and select

Run. Then type D:\ACROBAT\16BIT\ACRO16.EXE (where D is your CD-ROM

drive letter).

■ Macintosh: Insert the printer software CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive. To

copy the electronic EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual from your CD-ROM to your hard disk, simply drag-and-drop the 900DOC.PDF icon to the location of your choice.

If you don’t have Acrobat Reader, you must install it from the CD-ROM to view your electronic printer manual. Double-click the Acrobat Reader 3.01 Installer icon to install Acrobat Reader.

Navigating an Electronic Manual

When you open an electronic manual, you’ll see this toolbar:

Bookmarks and Page First Page

Last Page

There are several ways to navigate through electronic manuals:

■ click on hot topics, which are usually underlined or displayed in a different color.

To find out if a topic is hot, move your cursor over it. If the cursor turns into a pointing hand, the topic is hot—you can jump to it by clicking once.

■ if the manual has bookmarks, use the bookmark section on the left side of the

screen to move quickly to the topic of your choice. Click the show bookmarks icon on the toolbar to see the bookmark section.

■ use the arrow buttons in the toolbar or the vertical scroll bar on the right side of

the document to move through a manual. (The box to the left of the scroll bar displays the current page number.)

If you need more information, open Acrobat Reader’s Help menu and select the online guide.

Printing from Start to Finish

Here’s what you need to do to print a basic document—such as a memo, newsletter, or photograph—from loading the paper to selecting print settings to controlling print jobs. Follow the step-by-step instructions for your operating system in these sections:

■ “Printing with Windows” below

■ “Printing with a Macintosh” on page 17

For instructions on using special papers such as EPSON Photo Paper or envelopes, see page 26.

For instructions on customizing your settings to fine-tune your printouts, see “Using Custom Project Types” on page 20 and “Using the Advanced Dialog Box” on page 23.

Your printer software CD-ROM includes a Guided Printing Exercise with step-by-step printing instructions. To install the exercise, see the Start Here card. To run the exercise, click the EPSON Guided Printing Exercise icon on your desktop. Or click Start, select Programs, Polaroid PhotoMAX by ArcSoft, then click

EPSON Guided Printing Exercise.

Printing with Windows

1. Make sure your printer and computer are turned on.

2. Load a stack of plain paper with the printable side up and place it against the right

edge guide. Then slide the left edge guide against the paper’s left edge, making sure the stack is lower than the arrow on the guide. If you are using letterhead or preprinted paper, be sure the top of the paper feeds into the printer first.

load paper only up to this arrow

slide paper against the right edge guide

3. Open a Windows application program and select a document to print.

4. Open the File menu and click Print. You see the Print dialog box for your

application (the Print dialog box for your application may look slightly different):

Make sure your printer is selected here

If you see a Properties button, click it

If you see Setup, Printer, or Options, click that button instead; then click Properties in the next screen

5. Make sure EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 is selected.

6. If your application’s Print dialog box contains a Properties button, click

Properties

and go to step 7.

If you see a Setup, Printer, or Options button, click it. Then click Properties on the next screen.

In Windows 3.1, you won’t see a Properties button; just click Setup, Printer, or Options until you see the window in step 7.

7. Now you see the printer settings dialog box. If necessary, click the Main tab to

display the settings shown below:

Media Type setting

Automatic mode setting

Ink setting

Quality/Speed slider

Automatic mode setting

Media T ype setting

Windows 95, 98, or NT

Quality/Speed slider

Ink setting

Windows 3.1

8. Check the following settings:

■ Make sure the Media Type is set to

Plain paper

. (If you load a different type of paper, select the corresponding Media Type for it, as described on page 29. For instructions on loading special paper, see page 26.)

■ Make sure Ink is set to

■ Set the Mode option to Automatic. This is the easiest way to get good

if you want to print in color.

Color

printing results for all kinds of documents, on all types of paper.

■ Move the Quality/Speed slider to the Quality setting. This selects high quality

printing for your media. (The slider is not available for some media types. You can use a higher resolution on some papers on the Advanced [More Settings in Windows 3.1] dialog box; see page 23 for instructions.)

9. Click the Paper tab at the top of the dialog box if you need to change the paper size, number of copies, or page orientation.

Paper Size setting

Copies, Orientation, and Printable Area settings. Rotate by 180° is not available with Windows 3.1

10. Click the

Layout

tab (not available with Windows 3.1) if you want to reduce or enlarge your printed image, print multiple pages on one sheet of paper, or add a watermark.

Reduce/Enlarge, Print Layout, and Watermark settings

11. Click OK until you see the Print dialog box again.

12. Click OK to start printing. After a moment, the Progress Meter (Despooler in Windows 3.1) appears and shows the progress of your print job. You can cancel , pause , or restart your print job as necessary.

Windows 95, 98, NT Windows 3.1

For more information on printing, see the electronic EPSON Stylus COLOR 900 Manual. See page 9 for instructions on viewing the manual.

Printing with a Macintosh

1. Make sure your printer and Macintosh are turned on.

2. Load a stack of plain paper with the printable side up and place it against the right edge guide. Then slide the left edge guide against the paper’s left edge, making sure the stack is lower than the arrow on the guide. If you are using letterhead or preprinted paper, be sure the top of the paper feeds into the printer first.

load paper only up to this arrow

slide paper against the right edge guide

3. Open a Macintosh application program and select a document to print.

4. Open the File menu and choose Page Setup (Document Setup in some applications). You see a Page Setup dialog box like this:

Paper Size setting

5. Choose your paper size, page orientation, and printable area settings. Then click OK.

6. Now open the File menu and choose dialog box:

. You see the main printer settings

Media Type setting

Automatic mode setting

Ink setting

Quality/Speed slider

7. Check the following settings:

■ Make sure the Media Type is set to Plain Paper. (If you load a different type

of paper, select a corresponding Media Type for it, as described on page 29. For instructions on loading special paper, see page 26.)

■ Make sure Ink is set to Color if you want to print in color.

■ Set the Mode option to Automatic. This is the easiest way to get good

printing results for all kinds of documents, on all types of paper.

■ Move the Quality/Speed slider to the Quality setting. This selects high quality

printing for your media. (The slider is not available for some media types. You can use a higher resolution on some papers on the Advanced dialog box; see page 23 for instructions.)

8. Click the Layout icon if you want to reduce or enlarge your printed image, print multiple pages on one sheet of paper, or add a watermark.

9. Click the Background Printing icon if you want to prioritize or schedule your print job for printing.

10. Click the Preview icon, then click the Preview button that appears, if you want to preview how your layout and other settings will look.

Click the Preview icon

The Print button changes to the Preview button

+ 58 hidden pages

Epson Stylus Color 900 Basic User Guide

Contents

Welcome!

About Your Software

About Your Documentation

Warnings, Cautions, Notes, and Tips

Windows System Requirements

Macintosh System Requirements

Year 2000 Ready

Printer Parts

Important Safety Instructions

Ink Cartridge Safety Instructions

Viewing Your Electronic Printer Manual

Opening Your Electronic Manual

Navigating an Electronic Manual

Printing with Windows

Printing with a Macintosh