Epson Stylus Color 900 User Guide

DOS User's Guide

Installing the Printer Driver for DOS Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Changing the Print Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Using the default settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Changing the default settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Troubleshooting and Maintenan ce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Running a printer operation check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Problems and solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Ink cartridge problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0

Cleaning the print heads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Aligning the print head. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Cleaning the printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Transporting the printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Character Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

International character sets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Characters available with ESC ( ^ com ma nd. . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4009815
xxx-00

Copyright © 1998 by SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION,
Nagano, Japan

Installing the Printer Driver for DOS Programs

Most DOS software programs include a driver for EPSON
ESC/P 2™ print ers, an d req uire you to s el ect the prin ter name f rom
a list to install the printer driver. To take advantage of your printer's
advanced built-in scalable fonts and graphics handling, you must
select an appropriate driver.

If your printer is not included in the list, contact your software
manufacturer to obtain updated software.

If the manufacturer does not have an updated print er driver for your
printer, selec t an alt ernativ e print er name f rom those belo w, starti ng
from the top.

When printing black only:

LQ-870/1170
LQ-570 (+)/1070(+)
SQ-870/1070
LQ-850
LQ-500

When printing black and color:

EPSON S t ylus PR O
EPSON S t ylus COLOR 500
EPSON S t ylus COLOR II
LQ-860
LQ-2550

Note:

The drivers for the printers listed above do not provide all EPSON STYLUS
COLOR 900 features, such as 720-dpi printing, 1440 -dpi printing and
MicroWeave.

DOS software varies greatly. See the printing section o f your software
manual for information on access ing the printer driv e r settings.

3

Changing the Print Settings

You can change many print settings such as print direction and
loading position. Becau se these sett ings take ef fect each time you turn
on the printer, they are also called default se ttings.

The factory default settings are designed to meet the needs of most
users, so you may not need t o change them. The table bel ow list s the
features you can select in the default-set ting mode.

Settings Options

Font Courier, Roman, Sans Serif, Prestige, Script,

Pitch 10 cpi, 12 cpi , 15 cpi, 17.1 cpi, 20 cpi,

Print direction Auto, Bi-D, Uni-D
Loading position 8.5 mm, 3 mm, Others
I/F mode Auto, Parallel, Serial, USB, Optional
Auto I/F wait time 10 seconds, 30 seconds
Network I/F mode Off, On
Parallel I/F transfer rate Fast, Norm al
Software ESC/P 2, IBM X24E
Auto CR (IBM mode only) Off, On
AGM (IBM mode only) Off, On
Auto line feed Off, On
0 slash 0, 0 with slash
Character table

Roman T, Sans Serif H, Draft

Proportion al

Standard model:

PC861, PC863, PC865, BRASCII, Abicomp,
Roman 8, ISO Latin 1, PC858, ISO 8859-15

All ot her m odels:

PC850, PC852, PC853, PC855, PC857, PC866,
PC869, MAZOWIA, Code MJK, ISO 8859-7,
ISO Latin 1T, Bulgaria, PC774, Estonia,
ISO 8859-2, PC866 LAT, PC866 UKR, PCAPTEC,
PC708, PC720, PCAR864, PC860, PC861,
PC863, PC865, BRASCII, Abicomp, Roman 8,
ISO Latin 1, PC858, ISO 8859-15

Ital ic, PC43 7, PC850, PC860,

Italic, PC437, PC437Greek,

4

For more details, see the next section, “Using the default settings”.
To change a setting, see “Changi n g the default settings” on page 8.

Note:

Most software controls the character table and auto line feed. If your
software controls these features, you may never need to set them with the
control panel.

Using the default settings

Print direction

Your printer has three direction settings: Auto, Bi-D, and Uni-D.
Auto ca u se s th e pr in t e r to switch au to matica ll y bet ween
bidirectional (for text data) and unidirectional (for graphics data).
Bi-D cause s the print h eads to pr int in both direct ions. T his provid es
the fastest printing. Uni-D causes the print heads to print in one
direction only. This provides maximum alignment for both graphics
and character printing.

Note:

Most software controls this setting. If your software does, you may never
need to set it with the control panel.

Font

Use this setting to select the default font.

Pitch

With this setting, you can specify the default character pitch (font
size).

5

I/F (interface) mode

You may need to change the I/F mode so that your print e r and
computer ca n commu ni ca te pro p erly . If yo u se le ct Au to, th e p rin te r
automatically selects the interface that is receiving data, and uses that
interface until the end of the print job. This setting allows you to share
the printer among multiple computers without changing the
interface mode.

Check your computer documentation if you are not sure of th e type
of interface your computer requires.

Auto I/F (interface) wait time

If you select Auto as the I/F mode opti on, you can set the inte rface
timeout to 10 se conds or 30 s econds. The p rinter does not accep t data
from another interface unless it receives no data from the current
interface for the period set in Auto I/F wait time.

Software

Use this setting to specify the type of control codes you want to use
to control the printer . If you select ESC/P 2, the printer emulates an
EPSON ESC/P 2 printer. If you s elect IBM X24E, the pr inter operates
as an IBM Proprinter™ X24E. If possi b l e , sel ect EPSON ESC/P 2 in
your application program s. This will allow you to use the most
advanced font and graphics handling available.

Auto CR

This feature is available when you select IBM X24E emulation as the
Software set ting. When Auto C R is on, the auto car riage return option
performs a carriage-return line-fee d (CR LF) operation whenever the
print position exceeds the right margin. If this is o ff, the printer does
not print characters beyond the right margin, and does not perform
a linewrap until it receives a CR command.

AGM (Alternate Graphics Mode)

This feature is available when you select IBM X24E emulation as the
Software setting. When AGM is on, the printer can use high­resolution 24-pin graphi cs commands. The default is off.

6

Character table

Character tables contain the character s and symbols us ed in different
languages. The printer prints text based on the selected character
table. For the available character tables, see “C h aracter Tables” on
page 28.

Auto line feed

When the Auto line feed feature is on, each carriage return (CR) code
is accompanied by a line feed (LF) code. If your printed text is
unexpectedly double-spaced, set t his feature to
on top of each other, set it to On.

Off

. If text lines print

Network I/F mode

If your printer is connected to a single computer, leave this feature
off. If yo u want to shar e the prin ter with another computer, turn thi s
feature on. When this feature is on, data may be present in the
printer’ s buffer even thoug h the print er is not p rinting. Always make
sure the printer does not receive data before turning off the printer.

Loading position

If you want to prin t more lin es on a p age, set th is feat u re to 3 mm. I f
you set the top margin with your software, that setting is ad ded to
the default - se tting value .

0 slash

If you want to use the zero character which has a slash, set this feature
to 0 with slash. Th e slash allows you to easily distinguish between
an uppercase letter “O” and a zero.

Parallel I/F transfer rate

This setting specifies the interface tr ansfer rate. F or most printi ng,
leave this setting set to

Normal

.

Fast

. If you encounter problems, set it to

7

Changing the default settings

To change t he printer’s default sett ings, use the c ontrol panel b uttons;
the control panel lights show your selections.

1. Make sure the pri nter i s turned off and A4 or Letter size paper is
loaded in the sheet feeder.

cleaning button and turn on the printer to

2. Hold down the
enter the defa u lt-setting mode.

The printer loads a sheet of paper and prints a brief summary
and instructions. It instructs you to select the language that you
want messages printed in (English, French, German, Italian,
Spanish, or Portuguese).

3. Press the
indicate the language of your choice, as shown below.

R

cleaning button until the control panel lights

R

Language

English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese

o

= On, n = Off

S

n

n

n

o

o

o

B

n

o

o

n

n

o

A

o

n

o

n

o

n

4. Press the Eload/ejec t butto n to p rint the cu rrent default sett ings
and the next instructions in the language yo u selected. The
printed instruction s include submenu tab les that list all of the
settings you can change and show you how the control panel
lights appear for each selection. Use the instruction sheets to
change the se ttings from the control panel.

8

5. After making your changes, exit the default - se tting mode by
turning off the printer.

Note:

You may exit the defaul t-s et ting mode any time by turning off the printer.
Any changes you have made remain in effect until you change the m again.

If you want t o check the cur re nt default settings, enter the default­setting mode again and print the current settings. Current settings
are indicated with arrows .

Selecting fonts

Your printer has eight built-in character fonts including two EPSON
fonts: EPSON Roma n T and EPSON Sans Se rif H. (Roman T is si milar
to the Times™ font; Sans Serif H is similar to Helvetica™.)

To select a font, enter the default-setting mode. See “Changing the
default settings” on page 8.

Note:

The font selections you make with your software override your printer’s
control panel selections. For best results, use your software to select fonts.

The following table shows the available fonts.

Fonts Sample

EPSON Courier
EPSON Roman T
EPSON Sans Serif H
EPSON Roman
EPSON Sans Serif
EPSON Prestige
EPSON Script
Draft

9

Note:

❏ Roman T and Sans Serif H fonts are available in proportionally spaced

fonts on l y .

❏ Some of the character tables might not be able to print with EPSON

Roman T and EPSON Sans Serif H fonts. In these cases, selected
character tables are prin te d with EP SON R om an.

Scalable fonts

The size of the Roman, Sans Serif, Roman T, and Sans Serif H fonts
can be selec te d from 8 to 32 points in 2- p oint increment s through
your software or by sending an ESC/P 2™ command. See the
document ation that came wi th your softwar e f or information on
sele ct i ng th e size of sca l a b le fo n t s.

EPSON
Roman

EPSON
Roman T

scalable sample

EPSON
Sans Se ri f

EPSON
Sans Serif H

10

Troubleshooting and Maintenance

This section describes what you can do if you are having problems
printing. See also “Maintenance” and “Troubleshooting” in your

Setup & Daily Use

Running a printer operation check

Perfor ming a printe r o p e ra tio n check can he lp you de t e rm in e
whether the problem comes from the printer or the computer.

To print a printer operation check page, follow these steps.

1. Make sure both the printer and computer are turned off.

2. Unlock the wire clips on both sides of the interface connector,
and remove the gr ound connec tor if nece ssary. Then disconn ect
the cable fr om the printer’s i nterface connector.

manual.

3. Make sure that A4 or Letter size paper is loaded in the sheet
feeder.

11

4. Hold down the Eload/eject button

P

and press the

power button

(➀ in the ill ustration below)

(➁ in the illustration below)

turn on the printer. Then release both buttons.

The printer prints an operation ch eck page including the v ersion
of your printer’s ROM, th e ink counte r code, the cu rrent code
page, and a nozzle check pattern.

❏

If the operation check page results appear as shown in step 4, the
printer itself is all right and the problem probably lies in the
printer software settings, application settings, the interface cable
(be sure to use a shielded cable), or the computer itself.

to

12

The above sampl e is in blac k and whi te, but the ac tual test pri nts in color
(CMYK).