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Printing with Windows

Using the Printer Utilities

Checking the print head nozzles
Cleaning the print head
Aligning the print head
Using Printer and Option Information
Making the Speed & Progress settings

EPSON printer utilities let you check the current printer status and do some printer maintenance from your screen.

Note:

The letter in parentheses after the utility name indicates the shortcut key for that utility. Press ALT and the letter on the keyboard to open that utility.

Do not use the Nozzle Check, Head Cleaning, or Print Head Alignment utilities if your printer is connected to your computer through a network.

Do not use Nozzle Check, Head Cleaning, or Print Head Alignment utilities while printing is in progress. Otherwise, your printout may be marred.

EPSON Status Monitor 3

This utility provides you with printer status information, such as the amount of ink remaining, and checks for printer error.

Note:

This utility is available when your system is configured to support bi-directional communication.

Nozzle Check

This utility checks the print head nozzles for clogging. Check the nozzles when you notice print quality has declined and after cleaning to confirm that the print head nozzles have been cleaned. See Checking the print head nozzles.

If you click Auto in the Nozzle Check dialog box, or turn on AUTO CLEANING from the control panel on the printer, this utility does not only check the clogging nozzles, but also performs head cleaning automatically.

Head Cleaning

This utility cleans the print head. You may need to clean the print head if you notice print quality has declined. Use this utility to perform the head cleaning. See Cleaning the print head.

Head Alignment

This utility can be used to improve the print quality of your printed data. The alignment of the print head may need to be adjusted if vertical lines should appear out of alignment or if white or black banding noise should appear in your printed data. Use this utility to realign the print head. See Aligning the print head.

Printer and Option Information

This utility lets the printer driver confirm printer configuration information. It also provides specific information regarding each certain characteristics of the printer, such as Cartridge Option and the Printer ID. See Using Printer and Option Information.

Checking the print head nozzles

If you find that the printed data is unexpectedly faint or dots in the printed data are missing, you may be able to identify the problem by using the Nozzle Check utility.

To use the Nozzle Check utility, follow these steps.

Note:

Do not start the Nozzle Check utility while printing is in progress; otherwise, your printout may be marred.

Make sure that paper is loaded in the printer.

Click Nozzle Check.

Click Print if you want to visually check if any print head nozzles are clogged, if you are using non-Epson special media, or if the width of paper you are using is less than 210 mm. Click Auto if you want to perform an automatic nozzle check and, if the nozzle check indicates it is necessary, an automatic head cleaning.

Note:

If you turn on AUTO CLEANING from the control panel on the printer even though Print has been selected, the Nozzle Check utility does not only check the clogging nozzles, but also performs head cleaning automatically. If you are using non-Epson special media, or if the width of paper you are using is less than 210 mm, turn off AUTO CLEANING from the control panel on the printer.

Follow the on-screen instructions to print a nozzle check patterns.

If you find missing dots, clean the print head nozzle. See Cleaning the print head.

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Cleaning the print head

If you find that the printed data is unexpectedly faint or dots in the printed data are missing, you may be able to solve these problems by cleaning the print head, which ensures that the nozzles are delivering ink properly, by using the Head Cleaning utility.

To use the Head Cleaning utility, follow these steps.

Note:

Do not start the Head Cleaning utility while printing is in progress; otherwise, your printout may be marred.

Use the Nozzle Check utility first to confirm that the print head needs to be cleaned to save ink because this process consumes some ink.

When one ink out light is flashing or on, you cannot clean the print head. Replace the appropriate ink cartridge first referring Replacing Ink Cartridges.

Make sure that the printer is turned on and all ink lights are off.

Click Head Cleaning.

Follow the on-screen instructions.

Click Print Nozzle Check Pattern in the Head Cleaning dialog box to confirm that the head is clean and to reset the cleaning cycle.

If you still find missing dots after cleaning, try the following solutions.

• Select PWR CLEANING from the control panel on the printer. See PWR CLEANING.

• Repeat this procedure four or five times, turn the printer off and leave it alone overnight, and try head cleaning again.

• Replace some of ink cartridges as they may be old or damaged.

If the print quality remains a problem after you have tried these solutions, contact your dealer. See Contacting Customer Support.

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Aligning the print head

If you find misaligned lines or black or white banding on the printed data, you may be able to solve these problems by aligning the print head by using the Print Head Alignment utility.

To use the Print Head Alignment utility, follow these steps.

Make sure that paper is loaded in the printer.

Click Head Alignment.

Follow the on-screen instructions.

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Using Printer and Option Information

This utility lets the printer driver confirm printer configuration information. It also provides specific information regarding certain characteristics of the printer.

If message appears in the Current Setting box prompting you to enter settings, or if you change the printer's configuration, make the necessary settings manually.

Cartridge Option

The printer driver usually gets the ink cartridge information automatically, and prints with the appropriate print mode.

Printer ID

Depending on the configuration of your system, the information displayed in the Printer and Option Information dialog box may be updated automatically, or may need to be updated manually.

To make the Printer ID setting, follow these steps.

Make sure that paper is loaded in the printer.

Click Settings Sheet. Information on your printer and options is printed out.

Make sure that the information in the utility matches the printed information. If not, adjust the information on the screen to match the printed information.

Click OK to save your settings and exit the menu.

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Making the Speed & Progress settings

You can make settings related to print speed and progress. To make the Speed & Progress settings, click Speed & Progress on the Utility menu. The Speed & Progress dialog box appears.

Note:

The specific features available in the printer software vary depending on the printer model and version of Windows that you are using.

High Speed Copies

To print multiple copies of your data faster, select High Speed Copies. This speeds up printing by using your hard disk space as a cache when printing multiple copies of your data.

Show Progress Meter

To display the Progress Meter every time you print, select Show Progress Meter. You can monitor the progress of your print job.

Always Spool Raw Datatype (For Windows XP, 2000 and NT 4.0 only)

To have NT-based clients spool documents using the RAW format instead of the EMF (metafile) format, select the Always Spool Raw datatype check box (Windows NT-based applications use the EMF format by default).

Try using this option if documents spooled in EMF format do not print correctly.

According to the data you want to print, spooling RAW datatype requires fewer resources than EMF, so some problems ("Insufficient Memory/Disk Space to Print", "Slow print speed", etc) can be solved by selecting this option.

Note:

When spooling RAW datatype, print progress as displayed by the Progress Meter may differ from actual printing progress.

Monitoring Preferences

This function lets you specify the monitoring feature of the EPSON Status Monitor 3.

To make settings for the EPSON Status Monitor 3, follow these steps.

Click Monitoring Preference. The Monitoring Preference dialog box appears.

Make the following settings.

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