NEC Silentwriter 1765 User Guide

NEC

S I L E N T W R I T 1700

s e r i e s

User’s Guide 1760 and 1765

September 1996

808-875035-001A

PROPRIETARY NOTICE AND LIABILITY DISCLAIMER

The information disclosed in this document, including all designs and related materials, is the valuable property of NEC Corporation (NEC) and/or its licensors. NEC and/or its licensors, as appropriate, reserve all patent, copyright and other proprietary, rights to this document, including all design, manufacturing, reproduction, use, and sales rights thereto, except to the extent said rights are expressly granted to others.

The NEC product(s) discussed in this document are warranted in accordance with the terms of the Warranty Statement accompanying each product. However, actual performance of each such product is dependent upon factors such as system configuration, customer data, and operator control. Since implementation by customers of each product may vary, the suitability of specific product configurations and applications must be determined by the customer and is not warranted by NEC.

To allow for design and specification improvements, the information in this document is subject to change at any time, without notice. Reproduction of this document or portions thereof without prior written approval of NEC is prohibited.

Silentwriter and Print Navigator are registered trademarks, and SEE, HEAR AND FEEL THE DIFFERENCE is a trademark of NEC Technologies, Inc.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows-NT, and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

All other product, service, brand, or trade names used in this publication are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or organizations. NEC disclaims any responsibility for specifying which marks are owned by which companies or organizations.

First Printing—September 1996

Document Number: 808-875035-001A

NEC Technologies, Inc.

1414 Massachusetts Avenue

Boxborough, MA 01719

NEC Corporation

7-1 Shiba 5-Chome, Minato-Ku

Tokyo 108-01, Japan

ii User’s Guide

This user’s guide includes the information you need to operate and maintain your NEC® Silentwriter® 1760 or 1765 printer. The chapters in this guide are described below.

Chapter 1, “Silentwriter Features”

Describes all the Silentwriter printing capabilities you can take advantage of, including base model and network configurations, printer options, and standard settings.

Chapter 2, “Using Silentwriter Software”

Describes how to use Silentwriter software on your computer to select printer settings and monitor printer status.

Chapter 3, “Using the Operator Panel”

Describes how to use the operator panel to change printer settings and perform other tasks.

Chapter 4, “Printing Tasks”

Tells how to perform printer tasks, including loading paper, changing toner cartridges, and using printer options.

Chapter 5, “Working with Fonts”

Explains basic concepts and tells how to use Silentwriter tools to manage fonts on your printer and computer system.

Chapter 6, “Printer Memory”

Describes how to get the best performance from your printer by managing printer memory.

U S I N G T H I S G U I D E

Chapter 7, “Maintaining Your Printer”

Gives instructions for performing routine maintenance tasks that will keep your printer operating efficiently.

Chapter 8, “Troubleshooting”

Shows how to diagnose and respond to operating difficulties.

Chapter 9, “Technical Support”

Tells how to contact NEC for service, support, supplies, and documentation for your printer.

Appendices A through E

Include detailed information about printer and media specifications, safety precautions, and the Silentwriter limited warranty.

Glossary

Defines printer-related terms.

If you have not yet set up your printer, begin with the Easy Printer Setup Guide. It covers assembly, installing printer options, and installing printer software.

If you have the 1765 network printer, you also need the 1765 Network Printer Configuration

Guide, which provides supplemental information for network users.

iii

iv User’s Guide

USING THIS GUIDE		III
CHAPTER 1	SILENTWRITER FEATURES
Overview 1-1
How Your Printer Works			1-2
Computer Software			1-2
Printer Memory and Fonts				1-2
Energy and Cost Saving Features					1-2
The 1700 Series	1-3
Silentwriter 1760		1-3
Silentwriter 1765		1-3
Printer Options		1-4
500-Sheet Feeder (Model 1703)					1-4
Envelope Feeder (Model 1706)					1-4
Duplex Unit (Model 1701)				1-4
Offset Tray (Model 1702)				1-4
Extra RAM		1-4

Hard Disk Drive Kit (Model 1725) 1-4

1765 Network Upgrade Kit (Model 1707) 1-4

Changing Printer Settings 1-5

Using the Print Dialog Box of Your Software

Application. 1-5
Using Silentwriter Printer Software	1-5
Using the Printer Operator Panel	1-5

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Standard Printer Settings			1-5
Paper Handling		1-6
Media Sizes		1-6
Paper Size Detection				1-6
Number of Copies				1-6
Paper Sources			1-7
Orientation		1-7
Paper Destination				1-7
Job Separation			1-7
Duplex Printing			1-8
Print Quality	1-9
Toner Density			1-9
Toner Saving		1-9
Resolution		1-9
Sharp Edge Technology (SET) 1-9
Printer Operations			1-10
Emulation		1-10
Interface	1-10
Power Saving			1-10
Jam Recovery			1-11
Auto Continue			1-11
Printer Memory		1-11
Page Protection			1-12
Set Wait Time			1-12
Resource Saving			1-13

PCL Printer Driver Settings in Windows							1-14
Graphics 1-14
Graphics Quality				1-14
Graphics Mode				1-14
Gray Scale 1-14
Fonts	1-15
TrueType Downloading Options							1-15
Font Installer			1-15
Print Monitor		1-16
PostScript Printer Driver Settings in Windows 1-16
Fonts	1-16
Send TrueType Fonts As						1-16
Use Printer Fonts for all TrueType Fonts 1-16
Use Substitution Table						1-17
Default Substitution					1-17
Options	1-17
PostScript Options					1-17
Components			1-17
Print Monitor Settings						1-18
Output	1-18
File Destination				1-18
PostScript Headers					1-18
Creating and Using a PostScript
Header File			1-19
Compression			1-20
Format		1-20
Multiple Images			1-20
Multiple Images				1-20
Application Paper Size						1-21
Layout		1-21

Page Image		1-21
Image Rotation 1-21
Use Bitmap Smoothing				1-21
Variations			1-21
Settings in the Print Navigator and
the Operator Panel 1-22
Font Source		1-22
Font ID Number			1-22
Typeface		1-22
Lines Per Page			1-22
Point Size		1-22
Pitch	1-22
Symbol Set		1-22
CHAPTER 2 USING SILENTWRITER SOFTWARE
Overview	2-1
Printer Drivers for Windows 3.1x				2-2
When to Use the PCL or PostScript Driver						2-2
Accessing the Printer Driver					2-2
Changing Settings in the Printer Driver						2-3
Restoring Default Settings					2-3
Using Online Help 2-3
Setting Another Printer Driver as Default						2-3
Printer Drivers for Windows 95				2-4
When to Use the PCL or PostScript Driver						2-4
Accessing the Printer Driver					2-4
Changing Settings in the Printer Driver						2-5
Restoring Default Settings					2-5
Using the Printer Driver Online Help 2-5
Setting Another Printer Driver as Default						2-5

vi User’s Guide

The Silentwriter Print Monitor for Windows					2-6
Activating the Print Monitor				2-6
Using the Print Monitor			2-6
Deactivating the Print Monitor				2-7
Changing Print Monitor Settings 2-7
The Silentwriter Uninstaller		2-7
Software for MS-DOS	2-8
Commands for Running Silentwriter
DOS Software	2-8
The Print Navigator 2-8
Using Print Navigator Online Help					2-9
Changing Settings		2-9
Restoring Default Settings			2-9
Resetting the Printer		2-9
Working with Printer Profiles				2-9
Viewing the Current Printer Settings					2-10
Using the Form Feed		2-10
Printing Test Pages		2-10
Connecting to a New Output Port					2-10
The DOS Print Monitor		2-11
Loading and Unloading the
DOS Print Monitor 2-11
Using the Non-Active File List				2-11
DOS Print Monitor Message Screen					2-11

DOS Print Monitor Main Menu Screen 2-11

CHAPTER 3 USING THE OPERATOR PANEL

Overview 3-1
Operator Panel Features			3-2
Indicator Lights		3-2
The Status Display			3-2
Operator Panel Buttons 3-2
Operator Panel Tasks		3-4
Putting the Printer Online or Offline						3-4
Stopping a Job		3-4
Clearing the Print Buffer					3-4
Resetting the Printer				3-4
Restoring Settings to Factory Defaults						3-4
Printing a Demo Page				3-4
Printing Information Pages					3-5
Auto Start Page				3-5
Define Start Page				3-5
Font List	3-5
Menu Tree		3-5
Test Page	3-5
Using Hardware Settings					3-5
Format Hard Disk				3-5
Fuser Alarm		3-5
Changing Printer Settings Using the Operator Panel 3-6
Entering Menu Mode				3-6
Navigating Through the Operator Panel
Menu Tree	3-6

An Example of Changing a Printer Setting 3-7

vii

CHAPTER 4 PRINTING TASKS
Overview 4-1
Selecting Media	4-2
Paper Properties			4-2
What to Avoid		4-2
Purchasing Paper			4-2
Choosing a Feeder	4-3
The 250-Sheet and 500-Sheet Paper Cassettes 4-3
The Multipurpose Feeder					4-3
The Envelope Feeder				4-3
Sending a Print Job		4-4
Printing from Windows					4-4
Printing from DOS			4-4
Printing from a DOS Application								4-4
Printing an ASCII Text File from
the DOS Command Line						4-4
Stopping a Print Job		4-5
From the Operator Panel						4-5
From Windows 3.1x					4-5
From Windows 95				4-5
From the Print Navigator in MS-DOS 4-5
Using Paper Cassettes			4-6
Loading a 250-Sheet Paper Cassette							4-6
Adjusting the 250-Sheet Paper Cassette								4-7
Lengthening the Paper Cassette							4-7
Shortening the Paper Cassette							4-7
Loading the 500-Sheet Paper Cassette								4-8
Adjusting the 500-Sheet Paper Cassette								4-9

Using the Multipurpose Feeder 4-10
Loading Paper in the
Multipurpose Feeder					4-10
Loading Envelopes into the
Multipurpose Feeder					4-12
Loading Transparencies and
Adhesive Labels				4-14
Loading Postcards				4-15
Loading Special Media					4-16
Closing the Multipurpose Feeder						4-16
Printing Double-Sided Using the Duplex Unit							4-17
Using the Envelope Feeder					4-18
Sorting Jobs Using the Offset Tray 4-20
Special Printouts		4-21
Printing a Demo Page					4-21
Printing a Test Page				4-21
Printing a Font List				4-21
Printing the Operator Panel Menu Tree							4-21
CHAPTER 5 WORKING WITH FONTS
Overview 5-1
Using Fonts to Format Your Document						5-2
Basic Concepts			5-2
Typeface			5-2
Font	5-2
Symbol Set			5-2
Spacing		5-2
Pitch	5-2
Point Size			5-2
Style	5-2

viii User’s Guide

Font Types 5-3
Bitmapped Fonts		5-3
Outline Fonts	5-3
TrueType Screen Fonts			5-3
Formatting Your Document			5-4
Software Application Commands					5-4
Printer Driver Settings from
Your Computer		5-4
Operator Panel Menu Selections					5-4
Programming Printer Commands					5-4
Managing Fonts on Your Computer and Printer						5-5
Font Locations 5-5
Printer Resident Fonts			5-5
System Fonts	5-5
Soft Fonts in Printer RAM				5-5
Hard Disk Drive Fonts			5-5
Fonts on Diskette		5-5
Silentwriter Software for Font Management						5-6
Printing and Using Font Lists				5-6
The PCL Font List		5-6
The PostScript Font List			5-6
Printing a Font List		5-7
Installing TrueType Screen Fonts Using
the Silentwriter Installer			5-7
Installing Additional Fonts Using the
NEC Font Manager		5-8
Installing the NEC Font Manager
and Fonts	5-8
Learning to Use the NEC Font Manager						5-8

Setting TrueType Processing Options Using the

PCL Printer Driver		5-9
Download as TrueType			5-9
Download as Bit Image			5-9
Print as Graphics		5-9
Use Printer TrueType Fonts				5-9
Setting TrueType Processing Options Using the
PostScript Printer Driver			5-10
Send to Printer as Adobe Type 1 5-10
Send to Printer as Bitmap Type 3					5-10
Use Printer Fonts for all TrueType Fonts						5-10
Use Substitution Table			5-10
Using the Font Installer in the PCL
Printer Driver	5-11
Accessing the Font Installer				5-11
Installing Fonts		5-11
Setting Downloading Options				5-12
Downloading Fonts as Permanent					5-12
Copying or Moving Fonts to a New
Printer Port 5-13
Deleting Fonts		5-13
Editing Font Names and Attributes					5-13
Setting Default Font Attributes in MS-DOS						5-14
Font Source	5-14
Font ID Number		5-14
Typeface 5-14
Lines Per Page		5-14
Point Size	5-14
Pitch 5-14
Symbol Set	5-14

Storing Fonts on the Optional Hard

Disk Drive 5-15

Downloading Fonts to the Hard

Disk Drive 5-15

CHAPTER 6		PRINTER MEMORY
Overview 6-1
Print Buffer		6-2
Page Protection			6-2
Set Wait Time			6-2
Print Overrun Error				6-2
Memory Overflow Error					6-2
RAM	6-3
Adding RAM			6-3
Downloading Soft Fonts to Printer RAM 6-3
Resource Saving			6-3
ROM	6-4
Optional Hard Disk Drive				6-4
	Downloading Fonts to the
	Hard Disk Drive				6-4

CHAPTER 7 MAINTAINING YOUR PRINTER

Overview 7-1
Precautions 7-1
The Toner Cartridge 7-2
Handling the Toner Cartridge	7-2
Storing the Toner Cartridge 7-2
Recycling the Toner Cartridge	7-2
Toner Cartridge Maintenance Tasks	7-3
Removing the Toner Cartridge	7-3
Redistributing the Toner 7-4

Cleaning the Fuser Unit Area					7-5
Installing a New Toner Cartridge 7-6
Replacing the Fuser Cartridge and Transfer Roller							7-8
Replacing the Fuser Cartridge					7-8
Resetting the Fuser Alarm				7-8
Replacing the Transfer Roller					7-10
Cleaning the Printer Exterior 7-11
Moving the Printer		7-11
CHAPTER 8	TROUBLESHOOTING
Overview 8-1
Print Quality Maintenance				8-1
Simple Troubleshooting				8-1
Clearing Paper Jams			8-2
Locating and Clearing a General Paper Jam							8-2
Check and Clear the Multipurpose
Feeder		8-3
Check and Clear the Paper Exits						8-3
Check and Clear Inside the Front Cover							8-4
Check and Clear Inside the Back Cover							8-5
Check and Clear the Paper Cassettes 8-6
Check and Clear the Fuser Unit						8-7
Clearing a Jam at the Duplex Unit						8-8
Printer Messages 8-9
Status Messages			8-9
Alert Messages			8-9
Print Quality	8-13
Print Is Too Light			8-13
Print Is Too Dark			8-13
Page Is Blank		8-13
Page Is Black		8-13

x User’s Guide

Vertical Streaks		8-14
Repetitive Marks			8-14
Solid White Vertical Lines					8-14
Blank Spots	8-14
Toner Spots	8-15
Toner Smears	8-15
Paper Is Damaged			8-15
Print Is Blurred		8-15
Frequently Asked Questions				8-16
CHAPTER 9 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Overview 9-1
Assistance Nearby			9-1
Help From Within Your Company						9-1
Help From Your Dealer					9-1
NEC Technical Support			9-2
How to Contact NEC				9-2
Contacting NEC Technical Support
by Telephone				9-2
Contacting NEC Customer Service
by Telephone				9-2
Sending Internet Electronic Mail						9-2
Sending a Fax			9-2
Using FastFacts—NEC’s
Information Retrieval System						9-2
Reaching the NEC Bulletin Board System							9-2
Reaching NEC on CompuServe 9-3
Reaching NEC on America Online						9-3
Reaching NEC on the World Wide Web							9-3
Writing NEC			9-3

NEC Warranty and Service	9-3
NEC Service Contracts	9-3

Ordering Supplies, Printer Options, and Spare Parts 9-4

Third-Party Network Adaptors 9-4

Documentation 9-5
Silentwriter 1760/65	9-5
Related Publications	9-5

Support from Your Software Vendor 9-6

APPENDIX A PRINTER SPECIFICATIONS

APPENDIX B MEDIA SPECIFICATIONS

APPENDIX C SAFETY INFORMATION

APPENDIX D WARRANTY INFORMATION

APPENDIX E FCC STATEMENT

GLOSSARY

INDEX

xii User’s Guide

S I L E N T W R I T E R F E A T U R E S 1

Overview

Welcome to NEC’s Silentwriter 1700 Series. You’ll quickly discover that the Silentwriter 1700 Series printer is your smartest office equipment investment ever. It is ideal for desktop publishing and general business printing and can be upgraded with hardware and software enhancements to meet your business needs.

The first part of this chapter describes the different features available within the 1700 Series, including

•How your printer works

•Energy and cost saving features

•Silentwriter 1700 Series standard features

•Model 1760 configuration

•Model 1765 configuration

•Printer options

The second part of this chapter describes printer settings that expand the capabilities of your printer. These settings can be changed using the printer operator panel and/or the printer drivers on your computer. They include

•Standard printer settings

•Windows® PCL® printer driver settings

•Windows PostScript® printer driver settings

•Print Navigator® settings for MS-DOS®

This chapter defines what each setting does and tells where it can be set—in the operator panel, in a printer driver, or in both.

Chapter 2, “Using Silentwriter Software,” explains how to use printer driver software to change printer settings.

Chapter 3, “Using the Operator Panel,” explains how to use the operator panel to change printer settings.

1–1

How Your Printer Works

Whenever you send a job to the printer, an image of the page to be printed is temporarily written to the rotating surface of an electrophotographic (EP) drum. This image acts like a magnet that attracts toner to the drum. (The toner and the drum are both located inside the toner cartridge.) At the same time, the paper (or transparency film or envelope) passes through the printer and is electrostatically charged as it reaches the drum. The toner that was previously attracted to the drum as an image is transferred to the charged paper.

The paper then goes to the fuser unit. There, it passes between two rollers where a combination of heat (up to 392° F) and pressure bonds the toner to the paper. The paper is then delivered to the output tray.

Computer Software

Your Silentwriter 1760/65 printer comes with software that allows you to control your printer from your computer. This software is described in Chapter 2. It includes

•The PCL printer driver NEC Silentwriter 1700 for Windows® 3.1x and Windows® 95

•The PostScript printer driver NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 for Windows 3.1x and Windows 95

•Print Navigator for MS-DOS

If you have the Silentwriter 1765, you also received administrator and client software for configuring and monitoring the printer on NetWare®, TCP/IP, and AppleTalk® networks. Network utilities also support Microsoft® LAN Manager®, LAN Server®, and OS/2® Warp Server®. The network software is described in the

1765 Network Printer Configuration Guide.

Printer Memory and Fonts

Two other important factors in the way a printer operates are memory and fonts. The different types of printer memory are described in Chapter 6. Fonts and font management are described in Chapter 5.

Energy and Cost Saving Features

Your Silentwriter 1700 Series printer has several features designed to protect the environment and save you money. These include

Power Saving: This feature enables the printer to reduce its power consumption from 575 to 45 watts when not in use (see page 1-10).

Toner Saving: This feature allows you to reduce the amount of toner used when printing draft versions of documents (see page 1-9).

Toner Cartridge Recycling: NEC’s toner cartridge recycling program makes it easy for you to return empty toner cartridges for recycling (see page 7-2).

The Silentwriter 1760 and 1765 printers meet the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Computers program for printers. The purpose of this

program is to promote the manufacturing and marketing of energy-efficient office automation equipment, thereby potentially reducing combustionrelated pollution. (The Energy Star emblem does not represent EPA endorsement of any product or service.)

1–2 User’s Guide

The 1700 Series

The Silentwriter 1700 Series includes the 1760 and 1765 printers. These outstanding printers share the following features

•Print speed of up to 17 pages per minute

•600 dot-per-inch (dpi) resolution for text and images

•Emulation of two popular printer languages: Adobe’s PostScript Level 2 (PS2) page description language (PDL) and Hewlett-Packard’s PCL 5e printer control language (PCL)

•Automatic Emulation Switching (AES), which assesses incoming jobs and switches to the appropriate printer language

•A memory booster chip with Memory Enhancement Technology for efficient use of printer memory and improved printing of complex images

•70 resident outline fonts (35 Intellifont® for PCL

emulation and 35 Type 1 for PostScript emulation), and 10 TrueType® typefaces for PCL and PostScript emulations

•Screen fonts that match the printer’s resident fonts for WYSIWYG formatting in Windows

•NEC Font Manager software and 96 downloadable fonts on diskette

•Printer operator panel that displays printer status and offers menu selections at the touch of a button

•250-sheet feeder with 250-sheet paper cassette

•250-sheet output tray with full stack sensor

•Multipurpose feeder that holds 100 sheets of paper, 30 transparencies or labels, or 10 envelopes

•NEC printer software for Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, and MS-DOS that includes printer

drivers, Silentwriter Print Monitor, screen fonts, and Online Help

•Clean and efficient printer operation centered around one easily replaceable part—the toner cartridge

The differences between the 1760 and the 1765 are described below.

Silentwriter 1760

This versatile printer includes the following standard features

•Standard 4 megabytes (MB) of random access memory (RAM) (expandable to 52 MB)

•Connects to one computer for local printing through the bidirectional parallel port

•Job overlap allows a job in one emulation to process while a job in the other emulation prints out

•Can be upgraded to the 1765 network printer

Silentwriter 1765

In addition to the standard features of the 1760, the 1765 includes the following features for business and network optimization

•Standard 6 MB of RAM (expandable to 54 MB)

•A local area network (LAN) card that supports three industry-standard network interfaces—Ethernet® 10Base2, Ethernet 10BaseT, and LocalTalk® Mini-DIN-8

•The Automatic Interface Monitor (AIM). This technology allows the printer to continuously monitor and switch between interface ports for incoming print jobs and other operational information

•A 500-sheet feeder and cassette to accommodate heavy work loads

•Silentwriter software for NetWare, TCP/IP, AppleTalk, and other networks

Features Silentwriter 1

The 1700 Series

1–3

Printer Options

You can add the following printer options to both the 1760 and the 1765 to customize your printer for your business.

500-Sheet Feeder (Model 1703)

You can add up to two 500-sheet feeders to the Silentwriter to handle heavy work loads. Each feeder includes the 500-sheet paper cassette.

Envelope Feeder (Model 1706)

Automatically feeds up to 75 envelopes.

Duplex Unit (Model 1701)

You install this unit in the printer to enable doublesided printing.

Offset Tray (Model 1702)

This tray can hold up to 500 sheets of output paper, and enables job separation. The full stack sensor alerts you when the tray is full.

Extra RAM

The Silentwriter 1760/65 has two industry-standard, 72-pin SIMM slots. You can add up to 48 additional MB of RAM to your printer. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 MB SIMMs are available.

note: Upgrading a 1760 to a 1765 printer requires adding 2 MB of RAM for a minimum of 6 MB of RAM. Also, for PostScript printing, a minimum of

6 MB of RAM is recommended.

Hard Disk Drive Kit (Model 1725)

A hard disk drive provides extra storage memory for downloading PostScript fonts. The NEC hard disk drive (HDD) kit allows you to install a compatible hard disk drive to your Silentwriter 1760/65. A one-gigabyte, 2.5” hard disk drive is included in the kit.

1765 Network Upgrade Kit (Model 1707)

With this kit, you can upgrade your 1760 for use as a network printer. It includes

•The LAN card with three industry-standard network interfaces

–Ethernet 10Base2

–Ethernet 10BaseT

–LocalTalk Mini-DIN-8

•Automatic Interface Monitor (AIM), that continuously monitors all interface ports for incoming print jobs to allow automatic processing and printing.

•The 1765 Network Printer Configuration Guide

•Silentwriter network software for NetWare, TCP/IP, AppleTalk, and other networks

note: To use the 1765 Network Upgrade Kit, you must also purchase and install at least 2MB of additional RAM.

Chapter 2 in the Easy Printer Setup Guide provides instructions for installing and removing all printer options except the network upgrade kit, which is described in the 1765 Network Printer Configuration Guide.

See Chapter 9, “Technical Support,” for information on ordering printer options.

1–4 User’s Guide

Changing Printer Settings

Silentwriter printer settings give you even more ways to customize your printer. There is often more than one place to change the same printer setting. These include

•The Print dialog box in your software application

•The Silentwriter printer software

•The operator panel on your printer

Using the Print Dialog Box of Your Software Application.

Settings made in your software application usually override settings that are made elsewhere. In fact, we recommend that settings for individual print jobs be changed within the software application, if possible.

Using Silentwriter Printer Software

Your Silentwriter printer software includes the PCL printer driver NEC Silentwriter 1700 (for Windows 3.1x and Windows 95), the PostScript printer driver NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 (for Windows 3.1x and Windows 95), and the Print Navigator for MS-DOS.

You use this software to change settings that are not available within your software application, settings that effect the operation of the printer, or global settings that apply to most print jobs you will send to the printer. You can often use the printer drivers in place of the printer operator panel to control printer settings.

Chapter 2 provides instructions for controlling printer settings using your printer driver software.

note: The 1765 printer also comes with a Mac™OS PostScript printer description (PPD) file for Macintosh® users. This is described in the 1765 Network Printer Configuration Guide.

Using the Printer Operator Panel

You can use the printer operator panel to change settings that are not available elsewhere. This includes emulation and interface settings, Resource Saving, Jam Recovery, and PCL job setup options. In addition, the printer operator panel allows you to print out font lists and test pages.

Chapter 3 provides instructions for controlling printer settings using the printer operator panel.

Standard Printer Settings

This section describes the main printer settings that are available in Silentwriter printer software and the operator panel. The settings fall into the following categories

•Page handling

•Print quality

•Printer operations

•Printer memory

In addition to the settings described in this section, each printer driver and the operator panel have special settings that are unique to it. These settings are described later in this chapter.

Features Silentwriter 1

Changing Printer Settings

1–5

Paper Handling

Paper handling settings allow you to set the source and destination of printed paper, specify paper size, and select duplex printing and other options.

Media Sizes

Standard sizes for your Silentwriter 1700 Series printer are shown below along with their print areas (the region that can actually be printed on each size). You select a paper size in conjunction with a paper source (described on page 1-7). Only Letter, Legal, and A4 paper sizes can be used for duplex printing or in the 500-sheet cassette.

Table 1-1: Paper Sizes and Print Areas

Paper Size Detection

In Cassettes 1, 2, and 3, the printer can detect which paper size you are using based on how the cassette is adjusted. Therefore, it is important to adjust the cassette properly for the paper size you are using.

Number of Copies

You can set the number of copies to be printed from 1 up to 999. The default setting is 1 copy.

note: The number of copies you specify in your software application may override the number of copies you specify in your printer driver or the operator panel.

	Paper Dimension		PCL Print Area		PostScript Print Area

	Inches	Millimeters	Inches	Millimeters	Inches	Millimeters

Paper

Letter	8.5 x 11	216 x 279	8.17 x 10.67	207.4 x 270.9	8.16 x 10.67	207.26 x 271.02
Legal	8.5 x 14	216 x 356	8.17 x 13.67	207.4 x 347.1	8.16 x 13.67	207.26 x 347.22
A4	8.3 x 11.7	210 x 297	7.9 x 11.4	201.51 x 288.46	7.89 x 11.36	200.41 x 288.54
B5 (JIS)	7.3 x 10.3	182 x 257	7 x 10	173.5 x 248.5	6.88 x 10.44	174.75 x 265.18
Executive	7.25 x 10.5	184 x 267	6.92 x 10.17	175.7 x 258.2	6.88 x 10.17	174.75 x 258.32

Envelopes

Monarch	3.87 x 7.5	98.5 x 191	3.54 x 7.17	89.9 x 182	3.52 x 7.17	89.41 x 182.12
Com 10	4.1 x 9.5	105 x 241	3.79 x 9.17	96.3 x 232.8	3.79 x 9.17	96.27 x 232.92
DL	4.33 x 8.66	110 x 220	4 x 8.3	101.52 x 211.5	3.95 x 8.33	100.33 x 211.58
C5	6.38 x 9.01	162 x 229	6.04 x 8.7	153.5 x 220.47	6.03 x 8.68	153.16 x 220.47
B5 Env (ISO)	6.9 x 9.9	176 x 250	6.6 x 9.6	167.5 x 241.5	6.88 x 10.44	174.75 x 265.18

1–6 User’s Guide

Paper Sources

You can select from the paper sources listed below. Cassette 1 is the default source when it is the only cassette. Autoswitching is the default when an optional cassette/feeder is installed. Optional feeders (Cassette 2, Cassette 3, and the Envelope Feeder) are not available for selection if they are not installed on your printer.

Autoswitching: The printer automatically detects and uses the paper cassette that has the appropriate size paper for the print job. Then, if the first cassette runs out of paper, the printer uses the next cassette that has the same size paper if one is available. (The printer will not switch to the multipurpose feeder as a paper source.)

Multipurpose Feeder: All standard-size media can be automatically or manually fed from this feeder. However, the multipurpose feeder cannot be the paper source when using the duplex unit to print double-sided.

Cassette 1: This is the standard 250-sheet feeder with cassette. It is adjustable for A4, Letter, Legal, Executive, and B5 (JIS) sizes.

Cassette 2: This optional 500-sheet feeder/cassette is adjustable for A4, Letter, and Legal sizes.

Cassette 3: This optional 500-sheet feeder/cassette is adjustable for A4, Letter, and Legal sizes.

Envelope Feeder: This optional feeder holds up to 75 envelopes. It is adjustable for Monarch, Com 10, DL, and C5 sizes.

Caution! Do not remove Cassette 1 when paper is feeding from Cassettes 2 or 3—this will cause a paper jam.

Orientation

Orientation describes the position of images on a page with respect to the long and short edges of the paper. The default setting is Portrait.

Portrait: The page is taller than wide as you view the text upright.

Landscape: The page is wider than tall as you view the text upright.

Orientation Options

Portrait Landscape

Paper Destination

Each paper destination has a full stack sensor and the printer will send a message when the tray is full. You can select from the following options.

Output Tray: Print job is delivered face down to the standard output tray, which holds up to 250 sheets of paper. This is the default setting.

Offset Tray: Print job is delivered face down to the optional offset tray, which holds up to 500 sheets of paper. In addition, when you select the offset tray, the job separation feature is automatically activated.

Job Separation

Job Separation is activated when the offset tray is installed and selected for output. When Job Separation is active, print jobs are shifted (offset) by 2.8 cm for easier sorting.

Standard Printer Settings

1–7

Features Silentwriter 1

Duplex Printing

You must have the optional duplex unit installed to use this feature.

note: Only cassettes 1, 2, or 3 can be used for duplex printing (not the multipurpose feeder). Paper size should be Letter, Legal, or A4. Paper weight should be between 20 and 24 lbs.

Duplex options are Off, Long-Edge, and Short-Edge. Long edge and short edge describe the binding of the document. Be sure to select the correct binding option in conjunction with the Orientation setting, as illustrated below.

Long-edge binding, portrait orientation: This is for conventional book layout. Every page is oriented right side up so pages are turned from right to left.

Short-edge binding, landscape orientation: This setup is a variation of conventional book layout. It is wider and every page is oriented right side up so pages are turned from right to left.

Long-edge binding, landscape orientation: This is often used for calendars, presentations, or accounting ledgers. Every other page is printed upside down so that pages can be flipped through bottom over top.

Short-edge binding, portrait orientation: This layout is like a clipboard or steno pad. Every other page is printed upside down so that pages can be flipped through bottom over top.

Duplex Binding Options

Short-Edge Binding

Long-Edge Binding

Landscape Orientation

Portrait Orientation

Long-Edge Binding

Short-Edge Binding

Landscape Orientation

Portrait Orientation

1–8 User’s Guide

Print Quality

You can use print quality settings to improve the appearance of your printed document or control toner consumption.

Toner Density

This setting allows you to adjust the density of toner printed on the page to make it lighter or darker (darker pages consume more toner). You may need to adjust toner density to account for variation when you install a new toner cartridge.

Settings are Low, Medium (the default), and High.

Toner density adjustments affect the amount of toner placed at points along the edge of images or lines. When the Sharp Edge Technology is On, adjusting the toner density may place too much or too little toner at the transition points along gradually sloping lines. You should test the Sharp Edge Technology setting every time you change the toner density setting.

Toner Saving

This feature can be set to On or Off (the default). When Toner Saving is On, the printer uses less toner to print the page image, which extends the life of the toner cartridge. Toner Saving On is appropriate for printing draft versions.

Resolution		1
Print resolution is measured by the number of dots per		Silentwriter
inch (dpi) in an image. The higher the number is, the		Silentwriter
inch (dpi) in an image. The higher the number is, the
finer the resolution.
Resolution on your Silentwriter 1700 Series printer can
be set to 600 dpi (the default) or 300 dpi.		Features
For the best resolution, use graphics and fonts designed		Features
For the best resolution, use graphics and fonts designed
for 600 dpi printers and set Resolution to 600 dpi. 600
dpi is also the better choice if your document contains
images or very small fonts. This setting, however,
requires more printer RAM and may take longer to
print.
Use the 300 dpi setting for backward compatibility with
older documents. 300 dpi can also be used for faster
older documents. 300 dpi can also be used for faster
printing if your document contains only text (especially
ASCII text).
Fonts designed for 300 dpi printers can be printed at 600
dpi or 300 dpi. However, you can increase the quality of
300 dpi text and graphics by setting Resolution to 300
dpi and setting Sharp Edge Technology to On.
Caution!	When you change the printer resolution,

typefaces, macros, and other data that has been downloaded to the printer RAM are lost.

Sharp Edge Technology (SET)

This feature can be set to On (the default) or Off. SET refines the print quality of characters and line art by smoothing the fine gradations along the edge of the printed image. Experimenting with SET and the different Toner Density settings may produce better results on your printer.

Standard Printer Settings

1–9

Printer Operations

These settings allow you to control the way the printer operates.

Emulation

Emulation settings allow you to specify the printer language the Silentwriter uses. Emulation can only be set using the operator panel menu tree. Options are

Automatic Emulation Switching (AES): AES allows the Silentwriter to assess incoming print jobs and automatically switch to the appropriate printing language—either PostScript Level 2 emulation or PCL 5e emulation. AES is the default.

PostScript 2: When this is set, the printer can only receive and interpret print jobs using PostScript Level 2 and earlier versions of the page description language.

PCL 5e: When this is set, the printer can only receive and interpret print jobs using PCL 5e and earlier versions of the printer command language.

Hex Dump: You use this setting to check the integrity of the parallel port connection and verify that only intended commands are sent. It prints out an ASCII text file that can be used for debugging. Hex Dump supports PCL, Printer Job Language (PJL) , and PostScript characters. All characters received will be printed. Hex Dump does not work with Ethernet, LocalTalk, or the Silentwriter network software.

note: When emulation is not set to AES, the printer will switch emulation only when it encounters specific PJL commands embedded in incoming print jobs.

Interface

Interface settings allow you to select the interface port for the printer. Interface options can only be set using the operator panel menu tree. They include

Parallel: For receiving local print jobs at the parallel port. This is the default setting for the 1760 printer.

Network: For receiving network print jobs at the LocalTalk or Ethernet network ports.

Automatic Interface Monitoring (AIM): This setting allows the printer to monitor all ports for incoming print jobs. This is the default setting for the 1765 network printer. (This option is not available in the operator panel if the LAN card is not installed in the printer.)

Power Saving

Power Saving allows you to adjust energy savings according to your pattern of use. With Power Saving On, if the printer is idle for a specified time, the fuser unit pauses and power consumption is decreased from 575 watts to 45 watts (the next job requires a brief warmup time).

The default setting is Off, which means that the printer never reduces power consumption.

Idle Time: You turn Power Saving to On by selecting an Idle Time. Idle Time can be set to Always On (i.e., printer begins Power Saving immediately after each print job), or to begin Power Saving after 15, 30, or 60 minutes.

Power Saving can be set using the printer operator panel menu tree or the Print Navigator in MS-DOS.

1–10 User’s Guide

Jam Recovery

Jam Recovery is a feature that allows the printer to continue printing a job after it has jammed. Jam Recovery can be set to On (the default) or Off. When the setting is On, the printer will automatically attempt to reprint lost pages after a jam is cleared.

Caution! Do not turn off the printer power before clearing a paper jam, because this will disable Jam Recovery.

Jam Recovery can only be set in the operator panel menu tree.

Auto Continue

This setting determines how the printer responds if it senses a paper size discrepancy, a print overrun, or a memory overflow error. Options are

On: No printer message appears on the operator panel, and printing continues from the first available paper source containing paper of any size. This is the default setting on the 1765 printer.

Off: A printer message appears on the operator panel status display and printing stops until you correct the problem. This is the default setting on the 1760 printer.

note: When a Silentwriter 1765 is connected to a network, Auto Continue should be set to On to avoid backups in the print queue.

Printer Memory

The memory settings described in this section allow you to control how printer memory is used. You can also use these settings to avoid or resolve the following memory errors

Print Overrun Error: This is a print error that occurs when a page is so complex that the printer cannot process the image data fast enough to keep up with the print engine as it moves the paper. You can resolve print overruns by reducing the complexity of the page or setting Page Protection to On and resending the page or the entire print job. If you frequently encounter print overruns even when Page Protection is On, you may want to add more RAM to your printer.

Memory Overflow Error: This is a print error that occurs when a page is too large to be processed by available printer memory. You can resolve memory overflows by removing macros, soft fonts, or complex graphics from the print job, or by adding more RAM.

When these errors occur, an alert message is displayed on the printer operator panel and on your computer Print Monitor, if it is enabled. If Auto Continue is set to On, the computer will then continue printing. If Auto Continue is Off, the printer will stop printing until you resolve the problem.

Features Silentwriter 1

Standard Printer Settings

1–11

Page Protection

You use Page Protection to avoid print overruns that occur with very complicated pages. This feature determines how much memory the printer dedicates to the print buffer. Options are

On: The printer reserves enough memory so it can process an entire page before it prints it out. This setting slows down the printer but reduces the chance of a printer overrun error. The printer does not begin to process the next page until the current one is completed.

Auto: The printer analyzes each page to determine whether it should activate Page Protection. This mode usually speeds printing but increases the chance of a printer overrun error. This is the default setting.

Set Wait Time

This setting defines the time that the printer waits between blocks of data coming from the computer before it processes what is in the print buffer. Options are

15 seconds, 30 seconds, 90 seconds, 120 seconds, 300 seconds, and Indefinite.

The Wait Time default is 30 seconds in the printer operator panel menu tree and 120 seconds in the PCL and PostScript printer drivers. For most text applications this is adequate. If you plan on generating very complex pages, you may want to select a longer wait time.

An example of this is when the wait time is set to 120 seconds and the computer starts sending data to the printer, but must stop to compile more data. If the computer takes more than 120 seconds to compile the data, the printer assumes that there is no more data for the job and processes what is in its memory. In such a case, a longer wait time would allow for completion of the job. The Indefinite setting is available for the rare cases when 300 seconds is not long enough for your needs.

PostScript jobs take longer to send to the printer. In rare cases, you may want to set the wait time to Indefinite, but be sure to change the wait time back before sending the next print job.

You can also use this setting to avoid errors on the 1765 network printer, which can receive data from multiple ports. If information from other print jobs appears in the middle of your print job, it may be coming from other ports, and you should increase the wait time value.

note: Caution must be exercised when selecting an Indefinite wait time. If the job is not terminated with the proper end of job command, the last page of data may not be printed and will remain in the printer’s memory. Then you must print the page out by pressing the Feed button on the printer operator panel.

1–12 User’s Guide

Resource Saving

Resource Saving allocates RAM memory to the PCL 5e and PostScript Level 2 emulations to save downloaded resources, such as fonts or logos, when you switch from one emulation to another. All permanent soft fonts, macros, and user-defined patterns are then stored for a printer emulation until it is enabled. Without Resource Saving, downloaded resources are lost when the printer switches emulations.

Resource Saving is only available when 7 MB or more of RAM are installed. Then, the printer allocates a default amount of memory to both PCL and PostScript. The default amount allocated depends on how much RAM is installed. You can print a Test page to see how much RAM is installed and how much memory is allocated to each emulation.

Resource Saving settings can only be adjusted in the operator panel menu tree. Resource Saving options are

Auto: This is the default setting. The printer automatically allocates a certain portion of memory to each printer emulation when 7 MB of RAM are installed. How much memory is reserved for each emulation depends on how much RAM is installed.

For PCL, if you have the minimum 7 MB of RAM, 400 KB of memory is allocated to Resource Saving. For each additional MB of RAM you add, an additional 100 KB of memory is allocated to Resource Saving. This memory is reserved and cannot be used for other processing requirements.

For PostScript, if you have the minimum 7 MB of RAM, 400 KB of memory is allocated to Resource Saving. For each additional MB of RAM you add, an additional 400 KB of memory is allocated to Resource Saving. This memory can be used by the printer for other processing requirements until it is needed for storage.

On: If you set Resource Saving to On, the following menu items become available in the operator panel menu tree. You use them to specify the amount of memory dedicated to PCL and PostScript emulation.

For PCL, if Resource Saving is set to On, this setting becomes available. You use it to specify the amount of RAM memory allocated to PCL5e to save downloaded resources in that emulation. Memory can be set in increments of 100 KB. The minimum and default is 400 KB.

For PostScript, if Resource Saving is set to On, this setting becomes available. You use it to specify the amount of RAM memory allocated to PostScript to save downloaded resources. Memory can be set in increments of 100 KB. The minimum and default is 400 KB.

Off: No memory is allocated and downloaded resources are lost when emulations change.

Caution! Regardless of Resource Saving settings, all downloaded resources are lost when you change the Printer Resolution setting.

Features Silentwriter 1

Standard Printer Settings

1–13

PCL Printer Driver Settings

in Windows

In addition to the standard printer settings described in the previous section, the NEC Silentwriter 1700 PCL printer driver for Windows provides additional settings for customizing graphics, downloading TrueType fonts, and the Silentwriter Print Monitor. See Chapter 2 for instructions on how to access and use this driver in Windows.

Graphics

Graphics Quality

You use this setting to specify the resolution for graphic images in your document. This setting is based on the current Resolution setting and is for graphic images only (text is not affected by this setting).

High: All graphics print at the same value as the current printer Resolution setting (either 300 dpi or 600 dpi). This is the default.

Medium: All graphics print at one half the current printer Resolution setting.

Low: All graphics print at one fourth the current printer Resolution setting.

For example, if you set Resolution to 600 dpi, and Graphics Quality to Medium, the text in your document will print at 600 dpi, while the graphic images print at 300 dpi. If you set Resolution to 300 dpi, and Graphics Quality to Low, the text in your document will print at 300 dpi, while the graphic images print at 75 dpi.

The High setting takes longer to process. You can choose Low for draft versions and switch to High for the final output.

Graphics Mode

This setting determines how graphic images are sent to the printer. All graphics can print as raster images and most can print as HP-GL/2 images.

Your choice depends on how the graphics in your document are composed. If they are vector graphics, your document may print faster if you choose HP-GL/2. If they are already bitmapped, choose Raster.

HP-GL/2: Images are sent as a combination of HP-GL/2 and raster images. This is the default setting.

Raster: All images are sent as raster images.

note: If you print your document with the HP-GL/2 setting and your images do not print correctly, try again with the Raster setting.

Gray Scale

You use this setting to select the best dot pattern for the graphics in your document. The default Gray Scale setting is Photo Images.

Photo Images: The printer uses a clustered dot pattern designed to give images a smooth, photographic appearance. It is also a good choice for images that were originally in color. This provides 60 levels of Gray at 300 dpi and 128 levels of gray at 600 dpi.

Line Art Images: This setting produces gray tones using 32 different 8 pixel-by-8 pixel dispersed dot patterns. Use this setting for images with fine lines and detail. It delivers sharp lines and more contrast between shaded areas.

Scanned Images: Graphics are printed with a dot pattern that will enhance the quality of images produced with a scanner. This provides 60 levels of Gray at 300 dpi and 128 levels of gray at 600 dpi.

1–14 User’s Guide

Fonts

TrueType Downloading Options

These settings determine how and where TrueType text within your document is processed. In Window 3.1x, these are located on the Graphics property sheet of the printer driver. In Windows 95 they are on the Fonts property sheet of the printer driver.

Download as TrueType: Text is downloaded to the printer as outline fonts and it is processed in the printer. This is the default setting. It is a good choice if graphic images in the job contain a large quantity or variety of TrueType fonts. With this setting, text is placed on top of graphic images when they appear in the same area.

Download as Bit Image: Text is scaled on the host computer and then downloaded to the printer as bitmaps. This can speed printing of multiple copies, since the printer only processes the first copy and then reissues it. This setting is also a good choice if your images contain fonts that are not resident in the Silentwriter. With this setting, text is placed on top of graphic images when they appear in the same area. This setting is only available when Graphics Quality is set to High.

Print as Graphics: When this is selected, the print job is processed on the host computer and then downloaded to the printer. Choose this setting to send the text as graphics. This speeds up printing if your document contains many graphics but not a lot of TrueType text within them. This setting has the effect of printing the graphic image over the text image, showing only the exposed portion of characters. This setting is only available when Graphics Quality is set to High, and Graphics Mode is set to Raster.

Use Printer TrueType Fonts: If this box is checked (the default), the printer uses its own resident TrueType fonts when they match the fonts in the document.

This method takes less time to process, and if you formatted your document using the Silentwriter TrueType fonts, you will have WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) output. Fonts used in the document that are not resident in the printer are downloaded as TrueType, bit image, or graphic, depending on the selection above.

Font Installer

You use the Font Installer in the NEC Silentwriter 1700 PCL printer driver to install and download soft fonts to your printer RAM. In Windows 3.1x, the Font Installer is located on the Fonts property sheet of the printer driver. In Windows 95, display the Font Installer by pressing the Font Installer button on the Fonts property sheet of the printer driver. For instructions on using the Font Installer, see Chapter 5.

Features Silentwriter 1

PCL Printer Driver Settings in Windows

1–15

Print Monitor

You can use these settings in combination to set preferences for the Silentwriter Print Monitor.

Monitor On: If you check this, the Print Monitor appears when an error occurs and then remains on the desktop until you close it.

Monitor Off: If you check this, the Print Monitor does not appear.

note: To disable the Print Monitor program (WSWPD.EXE) entirely you must remove the Print Monitor from the Run command in the WIN.INI file.

Monitor Always on Top: If you check this, the Print Monitor appears when an error occurs and then remains as the top (active) window or icon until you close it.

Beep On Printer Error: The Print Monitor beeps when an error occurs that requires operator attention.

note: Changes to Print Monitor settings take effect the next time you open the Print Monitor.

PostScript Printer Driver Settings

in Windows

In addition to the standard printer settings, the NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 printer driver for Windows provides additional settings described below. See Chapter 2 for instructions on how to access and use this driver in Windows 3.1x and Windows 95.

Fonts

You use the Fonts property sheet in the Windows PostScript printer driver to specify how TrueType fonts in your document will be processed by the printer.

Send TrueType Fonts As

Adobe® (Type 1): TrueType fonts used in your document are downloaded to the printer as Type 1 outline fonts.

Bitmap (Type 3): Bitmapped characters are downloaded to the printer and processed there.

Type 42 (TrueType): TrueType fonts used in your document are downloaded to the printer as Type 42 TrueType fonts for WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is- What-You-Get) formatting. This provides better formatting, but may take longer to print.

Use Printer Fonts for all TrueType Fonts

Instead of downloading fonts with the print job, the printer substitutes its closest matching ROM-resident fonts. Fonts downloaded to RAM or the optional hard disk drive are not used. This speeds printing, but the document may not print out exactly as it appears on the screen.

1–16 User’s Guide

Use Substitution Table

The Fonts property sheet provides a substitution utility that allows you to specify which fonts in the printer should be substituted for the TrueType fonts in your document. Using resident printer fonts speeds printing. Select the Use Substitution Table checkbox and edit the substitution table this way.

For each font in the System Font list on the left, select a printer font in the Use Device Font list on the right.

note: Substituted printer fonts use the character spacing of the original system font. If the character spacing of the substituted font is very different from that of the original, printed letters may overlap or be too widely spaced. Be sure to pick a font that has spacing similar to the original font.

To download a system font with a job, select it in the System Font list and select <Download as Soft Font> at the top of the Use Device Font list.

Default Substitution

Click this button to return to the recommended defaults when using the font substitution table.

For a complete discussion of working with fonts, see Chapter 5.

Options

The settings in this section are located on the Options property sheet of the PostScript printer driver.

PostScript Options

Print PostScript Error Information: If you select this, the printer driver creates a summary of any PostScript errors that it detected in your document and prints it out after the print job.

Enable PostScript Passthrough: Some applications generate their own PostScript for formatting a document. If you select this, the printer driver does not perform any PostScript operations, and instead, passes the application-generated PostScript code through to the printer.

Components

Use this area to specify which options are installed on the printer. The printer driver uses this information to enable those features and adjust available paper sizes. Select the items that are installed from this list.

2nd Cassette 3rd Cassette Offset Tray Envelope Feeder Duplex Unit

Features Silentwriter 1

PostScript Printer Driver Settings in Windows

1–17

Print Monitor Settings

You can use these settings in combination to set preferences for the Print Monitor.

Monitor On: If you check this, the Print Monitor appears when an error occurs and then remains on the desktop until you close it.

Monitor Off: If you check this, the Print Monitor does not appear.

note: To disable the Print Monitor program (WSWPD.EXE) entirely you must remove the Print Monitor from the Run command in the WIN.INI file.

Monitor Always on Top: If you check this, the Print Monitor appears when an error occurs and then remains as the top (active) window or icon until you close it.

Beep On Printer Error: The Print Monitor beeps when an error occurs that requires operator attention.

note: Changes to Print Monitor settings take effect the next time you open the Print Monitor.

Output

The settings in this section are located on the Output property sheet of the PostScript printer driver.

File Destination

To Printer: The print job is sent to the printer to be printed out on paper.

Encapsulated PostScript: The printer driver saves the print job to a file where it is encapsulated as PostScript code. You can then give this file to a service bureau for typesetting. If you select this option, enter a file name in the text field provided.

PostScript Headers

The Windows printer driver must send PostScript instructions to the printer to prepare it to print PostScript jobs. These settings allow you to specify when and where to send the PostScript header that contains that information.

Send to Printer: This is the default. The PostScript header is sent to the printer at the specified times.

Send to File: Select this to send the PostScript header to a file that you name in the field provided. Then press the Send Header Now button.

Send Header With Each Job: Select this to send the PostScript header each time a document is printed. This may increase printing time, but is recommended when printing to a shared network, or when printing to an encapsulated PostScript file on disk that will be printed out later at a different location.

Send Header Now: Press this to send the PostScript header immediately.

If the Send to Printer button is selected, the PostScript instructions are downloaded to the printer, which then issues a page with the message, “Windows PostScript Header Downloaded.”

note: If you are working on a local printer, you can save printing time if you send the header once each time you turn on the printer, and then deselect the Send Header With Each Job button in the printer driver.

If the Send to File button is selected, the PostScript header is saved to a file. You must enter the file name in the field provided before pressing the Send Header Now button.

1–18 User’s Guide

Creating and Using a PostScript Header File

You can create a PostScript Header file and then use it to send PostScript instructions to the printer each time you turn the computer on. Or you can include it in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file (if you do this, you must turn on the printer before you turn on your computer.)

Creating a PostScript Header file

1.Select the appropriate settings in each property sheet of the PostScript printer driver.

2.In the Output tab, select Send to File and type a file name and location in the field provided.

3.Press the Send Header Now button.

Sending a PostScript Header File to the Printer

Once you have created a PostScript Header file, you can send it to the printer once when the printer is turned on, instead of each time a job is printed. Follow these steps to send the header to the printer.

1.In the Main program group in Windows, doubleclick the MS-DOS icon to launch it.

2.Copy the header file to the port. For example, type copy c:\windows\psprint.txt lpt1

(where psprint is the name of the header file).

3.When the header is sent, the printer issues a page with the message, “Windows PostScript Header Downloaded.”

4.On the Output tab of the printer driver, deselect the

Send Header with Each Job button and click Apply or OK. This saves printing time.

Adding a PostScript Header File to the AUTOEXEC.BAT File

If your printer is local, you can add an MS-DOS copy command to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of your system that will automatically send the PostScript header when you start your computer. For example, type

copy \b <filename> lpt:

(where filename is the name of your PostScript header file).

To work, the printer must be turned on and initialized before you turn on your computer. Otherwise you must send a PostScript header using one of the methods discussed above.

Features Silentwriter 1

PostScript Printer Driver Settings in Windows

1–19

Compression

Use LZW Compression: Select this to compress the data in your print job. This can increase print speed—especially on networks.

Compress Bitmaps: Select this to compress the graphic images in your print job before they are sent to the printer. This decreases the amount of time it takes for the computer to process the job and become available for use; however, the job may take longer to print.

Format

ASCII: The print job is output as PostScript commands in editable ASCII text format. This is the default.

Binary: The print job is output as PostScript binary code.

Multiple Images

Use the settings in this property sheet to reduce the page size and print as many as 8 pages of your document on one sheet of paper. This is often used to conserve paper when printing drafts, or to storyboard presentations. When you select a multiple image setting (greater than 1-up), the other settings on the property sheet become available for further customizing your printouts.

note: When you select multiple-images

(2- to 8-up), the Portrait and Landscape orientations on the Paper property sheet change to match the logical orientation of the reduced pages. The corrected orientation and page subdivisions are shown in the paper image on the Paper property sheet.

Multiple Images

Select one of these options to specify the number of page images on one sheet of paper.

1-Up (the default), 2-Up, 4-Up, 6-Up, 8-Up

note: If you wish to print several copies of a multiple-image document, you will get better results if you send the job repeatedly, instead of entering a value greater than 1 in the Copies setting in the printer driver or application. Otherwise, if you specify more than one copy, and if the number of page images in the document is not evenly divisible by the number of page images assigned to each sheet of paper (i.e., 2, 4, 6, or 8), then subsequent copies will begin printing on the remaining portion of paper that the previous copy finished printing on.

1–20 User’s Guide

Application Paper Size

When you print multiple images, the printer driver must provide information about the logical page area in combination with the size of the paper being printed.

Physical Paper Size: Select this to specify a logical page area with the same dimensions as the paper being printed. This is the default.

Choose this setting in combination with the Scale Images setting to print multiple-image printouts, where each page image is reduced, but contains the full content of the original (so that more fit on a sheet of paper). This is often used for printing drafts.

Paper Subdivision: Select this to specify that the logical page area is the size of the paper being printed, divided by the number of multiple images selected. For example, if you select Legal paper size (14” x 8.5”), 2-Up, and Paper Subdivision, the logical page area is 8.5” x 7.”

You can use this setting to print brochures. Using the example above, you can print two pages of a 7” x 8.5” brochure on one sheet of Legal paper. (Be sure to choose the appropriate orientation on the Paper property sheet to obtain the desired layout.)

Layout

Scale Images: If you select this, the full page image appears in the reduced area.

Clip Images: If you select this, the page image is cropped to fit in the reduced area, and some content is lost.

Separator Lines: If you select this, separator lines are drawn between the multiple page images.

Page Image

Use the settings on this property sheet to manipulate the appearance of the page image without changing the document within the application. The changes you apply are reflected in the page image at the top left of the property sheet.

Image Rotation

Choose one of these settings to rotate the page image by 90, 180, or 270 degrees. 0° is the default.

Use Bitmap Smoothing

Bitmap smoothing evens out the transitions between different gray levels in bitmapped images only. Select this setting when bitmaps in your print job have a lower resolution than the printer. The overall appearance will be better, but it may take longer to print.

Variations

Use this setting to produce different effects on the printed page.

Negative Image: Select this to reverse the gray scale for the document. Then, white prints as black, black prints as white, dark gray prints as light gray, and light gray prints as dark gray.

Mirror Image: Select this to print an image that is reflected, or flipped, on the vertical axis.

Scaling: Use this option to reduce or enlarge the page image of your document. Enter a percentage value from 0-999. A value greater than 100 enlarges the page image, a value smaller than 100 reduces it.

note: This scaling setting may combine with scaling options in your application or in the Multi Image property sheet and produce unexpected results.

PostScript Printer Driver Settings in Windows

1–21

Features Silentwriter 1

Settings in the Print Navigator and the

Operator Panel

In addition to the standard printer settings, the formatting settings described on this page are available in the Print Navigator in MS-DOS and in the printer operator panel.

See Chapter 2, “Using Silentwriter Software,” for instructions on how to access and use the Print Navigator.

See Chapter 3, “Using the Operator Panel,” for instructions on how to use the printer operator panel.

Font Source

This setting is available in the operator panel menu tree when soft fonts are available in printer RAM or on the optional hard disk drive. You can select Resident Font (the default), or Soft Font.

Font ID Number

You can cycle through the list of available font numbers in the operator panel menu tree by pressing the Next button on the operator panel. Internal fonts are numbered 000 through 052; 000 is the default. Soft fonts are numbered 000 through xxx.

note: You can print out a list of available fonts. See “Printing a Font List” on page 4-21.

Typeface

In the Print Navigator, you select a resident printer font by selecting its name in the Typeface list.

Lines Per Page

Options are 5 through 128. The default is 60.

Point Size

This setting is available if a scalable typeface with proportional spacing is selected. Then, you can select the following point sizes: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 36, 42, 48, 56, and 72. 12 is the default.

Pitch

This setting is available if a scalable typeface with fixed spacing is selected. Then, you can select the following pitches: 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12, 12.5, 13, 13.5, 14, 14.5, 15, 15.5, 16, 16.66, 17, 17.5, 18, 18.5, 19, 19.5, and 20. 10 is the default.

Symbol Set

There are 31 available symbol sets resident in the printer. ROMAN-8 is the default. The other available symbol sets include

ISO L1, ISO L2, ISO L5, PC-8, PC-8 DN, PC-850,

PC 852, PC-8 TK, WIN L1, WIN L2, WIN L5, DESKTOP, PS TEXT, VN INTL, VN US, MS PUBL, MATH-8, PS MATH, VN MATH, PI FONT, LEGAL, ISO-4, IS0-6, ISO11, ISO-15, ISO-17, ISO-21, ISO-60,

ISO-69, WIN 3.0

note: Printouts of these symbol sets are available from NEC’s FastFacts information retrieval service. For more information on FastFacts, see Chapter 9, “Technical Support.”

1–22 User’s Guide

U S I N G S I L E N T W R I T E R S O F T W A R E 2

Overview

Your Silentwriter 1700 Series printer comes with software that allows you to access printer features

You may have already installed the appropriate software during printer setup. If not, see Chapter 3 in the Easy Printer Setup Guide.

directly from your computer. This chapter describes the software components that you installed, including

Printer drivers: This is software that translates your computer data into a format your printer can read. You can access the printer driver software from your operating system or application to change printer settings and manage fonts.

Your Silentwriter printer works with both PCL 5e and PostScript Level 2 drivers.

Print Monitor: This software allows you to monitor the current status of the printer and your print job, as well as diagnose printer problems, in Windows and MS-DOS.

Standard software provided with the Silentwriter 1760 works with the following operating systems.

•Window 3.1x

•Windows 95

•MS-DOS

In addition to this, the Silentwriter 1765 comes with administrator and client software for configuring and

In this chapter, you learn how to access and use the following Silentwriter software for the

Silentwriter 1760 printer.

•PCL and PostScript printer drivers for Windows 3.1x

•PCL and PostScript printer drivers for Windows 95

•Silentwriter Print Monitor for Windows

•Silentwriter Uninstaller for Windows

•Print Navigator for MS-DOS

•DOS Print Monitor

For information about Silentwriter 1765 network software, see the 1765 Network Printer Configuration Guide.

For information about working with fonts, see Chapter 5.

Windows 3.1x users, begin on the next page.

monitoring the printer on NetWare, TCP/IP, and AppleTalk networks. Network utilities also support Microsoft LAN Manager, LAN Server, and OS/2 Warp Server.

Windows 95 users, begin on page 2-4.

MS-DOS users, begin on page 2-8.

2–1

Printer Drivers for Windows 3.1x

This section describes the printer driver software for Windows 3.1x. The printer drivers are named

•NEC Silentwriter 1700 (this is the PCL driver)

•NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 (this is the PostScript driver

You use a printer driver when you need to change printer settings. The printer driver is a convenient user interface for controlling many of the Silentwriter 1700 Series features. It consists of several “property sheets” that you select by clicking on their name tabs near the top of the window. Each sheet contains settings that you can change by pointing and clicking.

When to Use the PCL or PostScript Driver

Under most circumstances, you will get the same printing results using either printer driver. There are some cases, however, where one driver may perform better than the other.

Use the PCL driver NEC Silentwriter 1700 for documents that contain mostly text and limited formatting. The PCL driver handles this type of document well and delivers faster printing than the PostScript driver.

Use the PostScript driver NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 for documents that contain many complex graphic images or extensive page layout formatting. The PostScript driver handles this type of document well and delivers better graphic processing.

NEC Silentwriter 1700 Printer Driver (Windows 3.1x)

Selected paper sources and destinations are highlighted in the Printer Image area.

Accessing the Printer Driver

You can access the printer driver from your application, the Windows Control Panel, and the Windows Print Manager.

From your application: Different applications have different methods for accessing a printer driver. Below is one common example. If it does not work with your application, consult your software manual.

1.Select Print from the File menu of your application.

2.In the Print dialog box that appears, click the Setup button.

3.In the Print Setup dialog box that appears, select the appropriate Silentwriter printer driver in the Printers list and then click the Setup button.

2–2 User’s Guide

NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 Printer Driver (Windows 3.1x)

Click on paper sources and destinations in

the Printer Image area to highlight and select them.

From the Windows Control Panel:

1.In the Windows Control Panel double-click the

Printers icon.

2.In the Printers dialog box that appears, select the driver you wish to view from the Installed Printers list. Then click the Setup button.

From the Windows Print Manager:

1.Double click the Windows Print Manager icon to open it.

2.Select the printer driver you wish to view from the Printers list.

3.Select Printer Setup from the Options menu.

4.In the Printers dialog box that appears, select the same driver again in the Installed Printers list and then click the Setup button.

Changing Settings in the Printer Driver

In the printer driver, you simply point and click to change printer settings.

1.Select a category of settings that you want to change by clicking its name tab.

2.Click to select new settings in the property sheet.

3.Click OK to save the changes you made in all property sheets and close the printer driver.

Click Apply (PostScript driver only) to save the changes you made in a property sheet. The printer driver remains open.

Click Cancel to close the printer driver. Your changes will not be implemented.

Restoring Default Settings

Click the Default button to return printer settings to the defaults for the driver.

Using Online Help

Press the Help button in the printer driver folder to access definitions and instructions for using the printer driver settings.

Setting Another Printer Driver as Default

You can change printer drivers using the Windows Control Panel.

1.In the Windows Control Panel double-click the

Printers icon.

2.In the Printers dialog box that appears, select the driver you wish to use in the Installed Printers list.

3.Click the Set As Default Printer button.

4.Click on the Close button to close the Printers dialog box.

Software Silentwriter Using 2

Printer Drivers for Windows 3.1x

2–3

Printer Drivers for Windows 95

This section describes the printer driver software for Windows 95. The printer drivers are named

•NEC Silentwriter 1700 (this is the PCL driver)

•NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 (this is the PostScript driver

You use a printer driver when you need to change printer settings. The printer driver is a convenient user interface for controlling many of the Silentwriter 1700 Series features. It consists of several “property sheets” that you select by clicking on their names near the top of the window. Each sheet contains settings that you can change by pointing and clicking.

The first two property sheets, General and Detail, contain generic Windows 95 printer settings. You can use Windows online help to find their definitions. The remaining sheets are for changing Silentwriter settings, which are defined in Chapter 1.

When to Use the PCL or PostScript Driver

Under most circumstances, you will get the same printing results using either printer driver. There are some cases, however, where one driver may perform better than the other.

NEC Silentwriter 1700 Printer Driver (Windows 95)

Selected paper sources and destinations are highlighted in the Printer Image area.

Accessing the Printer Driver

You can access the printer driver from your application, or the Windows Printer folder.

From your application: Different applications have different methods for accessing the Printer Setup. Below is one common example. If it does not work with your application, consult your software manual.

1.Select Print from the File menu of your application.

2.In the Print dialog box that appears, click the Name pull-down menu and select a printer from the list.

3.Then click the Properties button in the Print dialog box to display the printer driver.

2–4 User’s Guide

NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 Printer Driver (Windows 95)

Click on paper sources in the Printer Image area to highlight and select them.

From the Printers folder:

1.Press the Start button and point to Settings in the Start pop-up menu. In the menu that appears, click

Printers.

2.In the Printers folder, select the printer driver you wish to view.

3.From the File menu, select Properties.

Changing Settings in the Printer Driver

In the Properties folder, you simply point and click to change printer settings.

1.Select a category of settings that you want to change by clicking its name tab.

2.Click to select new settings in the property sheet.

3.Click OK to save the changes you made in all property sheets and close the printer driver.

Click Apply to save the changes you made in a property sheet. The printer driver remains open.

Click Cancel to close the printer driver. Your changes will not be implemented.

Restoring Default Settings

Click the Default button to return printer settings to the defaults for the driver.

Using the Printer Driver Online Help

To display context-sensitive information about settings in the printer drivers, use your right mouse button to click an item on the screen. Then click the What’s This? button that appears. Or, click the ? button in the upper right corner of the printer driver folder, and then click an item on the screen.

In the PostScript driver, press the Help button to access the complete Online Help.

You can also select Silentwriter Online Help files from the Silentwriter Printing System menu.

1.In Windows 95, press the Start button and point to Programs in the Start pop-up menu.

2.In the menu that appears, click Silentwriter Printing System.

3.In that menu select either NEC Silentwriter 1700 Driver Help, NEC Silentwriter 1700 PS2 Driver Help, or Print Monitor Help.

Setting Another Printer Driver as Default

You can change printer drivers using the Printers folder.

1.Press the Start button and point to Settings in the Start pop-up menu. In the menu that appears, click

Printers.

2.In the Printers folder, double-click a new printer driver.

3.In the folder that appears, select Set As Default from the Printer menu.

Software Silentwriter Using 2

Printer Drivers for Windows 95

2–5

The Silentwriter Print Monitor for Windows

The Print Monitor reports the status of your print job and alerts you to printer errors.

Activating the Print Monitor

There are several ways to activate the Print Monitor

•It is automatically activated by a print error if you have selected Monitor On in the printer driver Options property sheet.

•In Windows 3.1x, double-click the Silentwriter Print Monitor icon in the Silentwriter Printing System program group.

•In Windows 95, press the Start button and point to Programs in the Start pop-up menu. In the menu that appears, click Silentwriter Printing System. In that menu select NEC Silentwriter Print Monitor.

•Double-click the Silentwriter Print Monitor icon on your display screen if it has been minimized.

Using the Print Monitor

The Print Monitor provides the following information for diagnosing printer problems

The Printer Status area reports the following conditions: Ready, Not Ready, Requires Attention, and Error.

The Operator Panel area displays the same printer messages and indicator lights that currently appear on the printer operator panel.

The Operator Instructions area gives solutions to printer problems.

The Printer Animation area describes and demonstrates the Operator Instructions for resolving problems—just press the Demonstrate button, which becomes available for selection when there is an error.

Press the Help button to display the Online Help for the Print Monitor.

note: If you are using the 1765 printer on a network, do not install the Print Monitor.

Silentwriter Print Monitor for Windows

Printer Status

Printer

Operator Panel Animation

Printer Messages

Operator

Operator Panel Instructions

Indicator Lights

2–6 User’s Guide

Deactivating the Print Monitor

If you do not want the Print Monitor to appear when printer errors occur, turn it off using Print Monitor settings in the Options property sheet of the printer driver.

note: To disable the Print Monitor program (WSWPD.EXE) entirely you must remove the Print Monitor from the Run command in the WIN.INI file.

Changing Print Monitor Settings

You can control the way the Print Monitor performs using settings in the NEC Silentwriter 1700 PCL and PS2 printer drivers. Print Monitor settings are located on the Options property sheet of each driver. Use them to

•Turn the Print Monitor On or Off

•Make the Print Monitor always the active window when an error occurs

•Make the Print Monitor beep when an error occurs

The Silentwriter Uninstaller

The Silentwriter Uninstaller removes Silentwriter software from Windows. This includes

•PCL 5e printer driver

•PostScript Level 2 printer driver

•Print Monitor

•Silentwriter program group

•Printer settings in Windows

•References in the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files

The Uninstaller does not remove TrueType fonts or any DOS printer software.

note: Use the Uninstaller first if you are going to reinstall Silentwriter software—especially in Windows 95.

To remove the Windows Silentwriter printer software in Windows 3.1x, double-click the NEC Silentwriter Uninstaller in the Silentwriter Printing System program group.

In Windows 95, press the Start button and point to Programs in the Start pop-up menu. In the menu that appears, click Silentwriter Printing System. In that menu select NEC Silentwriter Uninstaller.

For information on how to install Silentwriter Windows software, see Chapter 3 of the Easy Printer Setup Guide.

The Silentwriter Uninstaller

Software Silentwriter Using 2

The Silentwriter Uninstaller

2–7

Software for MS-DOS

This section describes the Silentwriter software for MS-DOS. If you used the express installation method for DOS, the following software was loaded onto your system

•Print Navigator software

•DOS Print Monitor software

During express installation, the Silentwriter is set as the default printer on LPT1. The printer must be connected directly to the computer to run the Print Navigator software. Complete software installation instructions are provided in Chapter 3 of the Easy Printer Setup Guide.

Commands for Running Silentwriter DOS Software

To launch the Print Navigator application, type PANEL at the DOS prompt. This displays the Print Navigator screen shown below.

To load DOS Print Monitor software, type MONITOR at the DOS prompt.

To unload DOS Print Monitor software, type NOMONITR at the DOS prompt.

To display the DOS Print Monitor, press the Hot Key combination (the default is Ctrl+Alt+S).

The Print Navigator

You can use the Print Navigator in place of the printer’s operator panel to change printer settings. It consists of five screens that allow you to update your printer settings, also called printer profiles, from your computer. You can also view your printer’s current profile on your monitor. And you can save current profile settings for use at a later time.

In addition to the standard printer settings, the Print Navigator provides the following PCL Job settings: Lines per page, Typeface, Points and Pitch, and Symbol Sets. These are defined in Chapter 1.

To launch the Print Navigator application, type PANEL at the DOS prompt. This displays the Print Navigator screen shown below.

Page Screen in the Print Navigator

2–8 User’s Guide

Using Print Navigator Online Help

Select Help Index from the Help menu to display a list of topics. Click on a topic to display detailed information. Click on the Index button to return to the topic list. Click on the Exit button to leave the Help screen.

Changing Settings

You use the Print Navigator to manage five categories of printer settings: Page, Font, Quality, Memory, and Options. Follow these steps to change printer settings.

1.Select the category that you want to change by clicking its button on the left side of the Print Navigator. This displays a screen with settings for that category.

2.You can point and click to select menu items. Or, use the tab key to move through the areas on the screen. Use the up and down arrows to move through items in a group and then press enter to make a selection.

3.Click another category button and continue to make selections.

When you are finished, click OK to save the changes you made, send the current printer profile to the printer, and close the Print Navigator.

Or, click Cancel. Your changes will not be implemented.

Restoring Default Settings

To restore factory default settings, click the Default button on the Page screen. These take effect for the next print job after you click OK. Factory default settings are listed in Appendix A.

Resetting the Printer

Resetting the printer stops the current job, clears all buffers, and reverts back to the last saved printer profile. To reset the printer, press the Printer Reset button on the Options screen. Or, select Reset Printer from the Utility menu.

Working with Printer Profiles

You use File menu selections to work with printer profiles or to exit the Print Navigator. Printer profiles are files in which you save combinations of printer settings that you wish to use again. For example, you can save settings for use with a particular application or type of document. The File menu has the following selections

Open Profile: Select this to open a printer profile that was previously saved as a file on your disk drive. Print Navigator settings are then updated based on the contents of the profile. However, the profile is not sent to the printer until you select Export Profile to Printer in the File menu.

Save Profile: Select this to save all current Print Navigator settings in a profile on your disk drive. If you open a profile and then make changes to the settings, selecting Save Profile updates the file with the new settings. If you do not have a profile open already when you select Save Profile, the Print Navigator prompts you for a file name and directory and then saves the current settings in a profile on the disk drive.

Save As: Select this to save the current profile to a new file on the disk drive. Print Navigator then prompts you to enter a file name before saving your profile to disk.

Software Silentwriter Using 2

Software for MS-DOS 2–9

Import Profile from Printer: Select this to create a printer profile using the current settings from the printer. You can then modify the new profile and/or save the profile to disk.

Export Profile to Printer: Select this to update the printer with the current Profile settings.

Exit: Select this to exit the Print Navigator program. Print Navigator then gives you the option to save any changes in a profile or export them to the printer.

Viewing the Current Printer Settings

Select the View menu to import the current printer profile and display it on screen. The printer profile shows the current printer settings.

The View screen also displays the amount of memory available in the printer to process a print job. This is shown in the Printer Memory area.

Settings can be viewed but not changed from this screen.

View Printer Settings Screen in the Print Navigator

Using the Form Feed

Press the Form Feed button on the Options screen to print a page with whatever printable data is in the buffer. If no printable data is in the buffer, a blank page is printed.

Printing Test Pages

You can print test pages by selecting these options in the Utilities menu.

Print SelfTest Page: If you select this, the printer performs a self-test and then prints a test page. The test page contains information about the printer's current profile and page count.

Print Status Page: If you select this, the Print Navigator imports the current printer profile and issues a page showing the current settings.

Print Demo Page: If you select this, the printer issues a page that demonstrates the effect of the current settings.

Connecting to a New Output Port

Select Connect in the Utility menu to set the printer port for the Print Navigator software. (This does not direct printing to another port or change the port assignment in DOS.)

2–10 User’s Guide

The DOS Print Monitor

The DOS Print Monitor is a utility that alerts you to printer errors. It has two parts

•The Message screen

•The Main Menu screen

note: The DOS Print Monitor is not supported for Windows 95, and you should not install it on computers running that system.

Loading and Unloading the DOS Print Monitor

The DOS Print Monitor cannot load when you are emulating DOS from Windows 3.1x. You must first exit Windows and return to the DOS prompt.

To load the Print Monitor, type MONITOR at the DOS prompt.

If the Print Monitor is interfering with another program, or if you wish to free more memory, deactivate it by typing NOMONITR at the DOS prompt.

Using the Non-Active File List

When working in some software programs, such as communications utilities, you may not want to be interrupted by the DOS Print Monitor. To avoid interruptions while in those specific programs, add them to the list at the bottom of the REPLIST.MSG file. For more information about this, open the

REPLIST.MSG file in the SILENT directory.

DOS Print Monitor Message Screen

The Print Monitor Message screen appears automatically when a print error occurs.

Click Continue to close the Message screen.

Click Main Menu to display the Print Monitor Main Menu screen (described below).

DOS Print Monitor Main Menu Screen

There are two ways to access the Main menu of the Print Monitor

•Click on the Main Menu button in the Message screen

•Press the Hot Key combination (the default is

Ctrl+Alt+S).

Use the tab key or mouse in the Main Menu screen to move through menu items and then press Enter to make a selection.

Display Last Message: Select this to display the last message sent by the DOS Print Monitor.

Deactivate DOS Print Monitor: When this is selected, the Print Monitor stops checking the printer’s status and does not display messages.

Activate DOS Print Monitor: When this is selected, the Print Monitor resumes checking the printer’s status and displays messages.

Change Hot Key: Select this to enter a different hot key combination. (The Hot Key lets you run the Print Monitor from DOS or a DOS program.)

Change Colors: This allows you to select replacement colors for your Print Monitor message and menu displays.

Help: Select this to display the Print Monitor Help screen.

Exit: Exit returns you to DOS. The Print Monitor remains in memory, able to monitor the printer, until you type REP /d or type NOMONITR at the DOS prompt.

Software Silentwriter Using 2

Software for MS-DOS

2–11

2–12 User’s Guide

U S I N G T H E O P E R A T O R P A N E L 3

Overview

The printer operator panel allows you to read printer messages and change printer settings directly at the printer. The diagram below identifies the different areas of the operator panel.

This chapter describes

•Operator panel features, including indicator lights, the status display, and buttons

•Operator panel tasks

•Changing settings using the operator panel menu tree

Printer messages are discussed in Chapter 8, “Troubleshooting.”

			Operator Panel Features
	READY		Status Display
	READY
Power	Warning	Data	Online
			Indicator Lights
Menu	Select	Feed	Online
			Operator Panel Buttons
			(Menu Selection Buttons)
Next	Prev	Test	Reset

3–1

Operator Panel Features

Indicator Lights

The indicator lights on the operator panel communicate the operating status of the printer.

Table 3-1: Indicator Lights

Light	Mode	Status

Power	On	Printer power is on
	Off	Printer power is off

Warning	On	An error has occurred
	Off	No alarm active
	Blinking	An alarm remains active; or, signals
		that printer is ready to quit job, press
		the Select button to quit the job

Data	On	Print buffer contains data
	Off	Print job has ended or print buffer has
		been cleared by pressing the Reset
		button
	Blinking	Data is being sent to the printer

Online	On	Printer is online and ready to print
	Off	Printer is offline or in menu mode
	Blinking	Warming up

The Status Display

The operator panel status display is an LCD panel that shows status messages, alert messages, and menu selections. When the printer is performing a job, the display indicates a printer status message, such as PROCESSING, PRINTING, etc. The standard display is READY, meaning the printer is ready for use.

For a complete listing of status and alert message definitions, see Chapter 8, “Troubleshooting.”

Operator Panel Buttons

Feed Online

Test Reset

Operator panel buttons perform different functions depending on whether the printer is online, offline, or in menu mode. These functions are summarized in Table 3-2 on page 3-3. Instructions for performing basic operator panel tasks are provided on page 3-4

Menu Select

Next Prev

Menu selection buttons, located on the left side of the operator panel, are used primarily in menu mode for changing printer settings. The operator panel menu tree and procedures for changing printer settings are discussed beginning on page 3-6.

3–2 User’s Guide

Table 3-2: Operator Panel Buttons

Button	Mode	Function

Online	Offline	Press to bring printer online.
	Online	Press to take printer offline.
	Menu	Press to exit menu mode.

Reset	Online	If status display reads PROCESSING or WAITING, press Reset to display QUITTING THE JOB OK? Then press
		Select to quit the job, otherwise the job will be completed. Press Online to cancel the reset task.
	Offline	To clear the printer buffer of data (including temporarily downloaded fonts), press and hold the Reset button for 4 seconds
		until RESETTING appears on the status display. Printer performs an internal diagnostic and then returns to online state.

Feed	Offline	In PCL emulation or Automatic Emulation Switching (AES) mode, pressing this button with the DATA indicator light on
		allows data stored in the print buffer to be printed out. If there is paper in the optional duplex unit, that paper is unloaded.
		This button is not active in PostScript emulation mode.
	Online	Button not active.

Test	Offline	Press to print a test page. A Demo or Test Page will print depending on how Define StartPage is set in the Miscellaneous
		menu. If printer is in duplex mode, both sides of the page are printed.
	Online	Button not active.

Menu	Offline	Press to enter the menu mode. The menu item, PAPER HANDLING, appears on the status display.
	Online	Button not active.
	Menu	Press to move back to previous menu level, or if at top level, press to exit menu mode.

Select	Menu	Press to move to a lower menu level or press to select the current menu item if it is already at the lowest menu level in a
		category. Then SELECTED or IS SELECTED appears on the status display for one second. SELECTED means that
		the current value or item will be the new printer default. IS SELECTED means that the current setting is already the
		default.
	Online	Press to respond “Yes” to QUITTING THE JOB OK?

Next	Menu	Press to display the next item in a menu.

Prev	Menu	Press to display the previous item in a menu.

Panel Operator the Using 3

Operator Panel Features

3–3

+ 113 hidden pages