Reference Guide

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How To / Using the Printer Driver

For Windows

About the printer driver
Accessing the printer driver
Making changes to printer settings
Monitoring your printer (EPSON Status Monitor 3)
Canceling printing
Uninstalling printer software

About the printer driver

The printer driver lets you choose from a wide variety of settings to get the best results from your printer. The printer driver also includes the EPSON Status Monitor 3 utility, which is accessed through the Utility tab. The EPSON Status Monitor 3 utility lets you check the status of your printer. See Monitoring your printer (EPSON Status Monitor 3) for more information.

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Accessing the printer driver

You can access the printer driver directly from any application programs, from your Windows operating system.

The printer settings made from many Windows applications override settings made when the printer driver is accessed from the operating system, so you should access the printer driver from your application to make sure you get the result you want.

Note:

Online help provides details on printer driver settings.

To access the printer driver from your application, click the Print or Page Setup command on the File menu. You also need to click Setup, Options, Properties, or a combination of these buttons.

To access the printer driver from Windows, click Start, point to Settings, and click Printers. Next, right-click the EPSON EPL-5900L Advanced icon and click Properties (in Windows Me/98/95), Printing Preferences (in Windows 2000) or Document Defaults (in Windows NT 4.0).

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Making changes to printer settings

Choosing the print quality

You can change the print quality or resolution of printouts to favor speed or detail. If you need high quality output, choose a higher number. Please note that doing so reduces the print speed.

There are four levels of print output, 300 dpi, Class 600 dpi, 600 dpi, and Class 1200 dpi. Class 1200 dpi provides high quality printing results on par with 600 dpi with the Enh. MG and RITech functions.

Click the Basic Settings tab.

Select the desired printing resolution from the Print Quality drop down list.

Click OK to accept the setting.

Note:

For details about the Enh. MG or RITech functions, see the Online Help.

If printing is unsuccessful or a memory-related error message appears, selecting a lower resolution may allow printing to proceed.

Resizing printouts

You can have your document enlarged or reduced during printing.

To automatically resize pages to fit the output paper

Click the Layout tab.

Check the Zoom Options check box.

Select the desired paper size from the Output Paper drop-down list. The page will be printed to fit on the paper you have selected.

Select Upper Left for Location to print reduced page image at upper left corner of the paper. Select Center to print reduced page image with centering.

Click OK to accept the settings.

To resize pages by a specified percentage:

Click the Layout tab.

Check the Zoom Options check box.

Check the Zoom To check box.

Specify the magnification percentage in the box, then click OK. The percentage can be set between 50% and 200% in 1% increments.

If necessary, select the paper size to be printed from the Output Paper drop-down list.

Modifying the print layout

"Layout printing" prints either two or four pages onto a single page and specifies the printing order, automatically resizing each page to fit the specified paper size. You can also choose to print documents surrounded by a frame.

Click the Layout tab.

Check the Print Layout check box, and click Print Layout Settings. The Print Layout Settings dialog box appears.

Select the number of pages you want to print on one sheet of paper.

Select the Page Order in which the pages are printed on each sheet.

Note:

The Page Order choices depend on the Pages selected above, and the paper orientation (Portrait or Landscape) selected on the Basic Settings menu.

Click OK to close the Print Layout Settings dialog box.

Click OK on the Layout menu to accept the settings.

Using a watermark

Follow the steps to use a watermark on your document. In the Watermark dialog box, you can select from a list of predefined watermarks, and you can make your original watermark with text or a bitmap (.BMP) file. The Watermark dialog box also allows you to make a variety of detailed watermark settings. For example, you can select the size, intensity, and position of your watermark.

Click the Special tab (in Windows Me/98/95) or Enhancement tab (in Windows 2000/NT 4.0).

Check the Watermark check box.

Click Watermark Settings. The Watermark dialog box appears.

Select a watermark from the Watermark Name drop-down list.

Select the location on the page where you want to print the watermark from the Location list box.

Adjust the horizontal or vertical Offset position.

Adjust the image intensity of the watermark with the Intensity slider bar.

Adjust the size of the watermark with the Size slider bar.

Select Front (to print the watermark on the face of the document) or Back (to print the watermark on the backside of the document) for the Position setting.

Click OK to accept the settings.

Making a new watermark

You can make a new watermark as follows:

Click the Special tab.

Check the Watermark check box.

Click Watermark Settings. The Watermark dialog box appears.

Click New/Delete. The User Defined Watermarks dialog box appears.

Select Text or BMP and type a name for the new watermark in the Name box.

If you select Text, type the watermark text in the Text box. If you select BMP, click Browse, select the BMP file you want to use, then click OK.

Note:

Before making a custom watermark, you should prepare a bitmap (.bmp) file.

Click Save to save the new watermark, and then click OK to close the User Defined Watermarks dialog box. Your watermark will appear in the list box.

Click OK to register the new watermark settings.

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Monitoring your printer (EPSON Status Monitor 3)

About EPSON Status Monitor 3

The EPSON Status Monitor 3 is a utility program that monitors your printer and gives you information about its current status. For example, you can find out the amount of remaining toner through this utility. If a print error occurs, the utility provides you with a message describing the error. The Status Monitor 3 is accessed from within the printer driver. See the following section for more information.

Before using Status Monitor 3, be sure to read the printer driver's README file. This file contains the latest information on the printer driver and Status Monitor 3.

Accessing the EPSON Status Monitor 3

You can access the EPSON Status Monitor 3 directly from any application programs, from your Windows operating system.

The EPSON Status Monitor 3 appears automatically when an error occurs.

To access the EPSON Status Monitor 3 from your application, click the Print or Page Setup command on the File menu, click Properties, and then click the Utility tab, and click the EPSON Status Monitor 3 icon to access the EPSON Status Monitor 3.

To access the EPSON Status Monitor 3 from Windows, click Start, point to Settings, and click Printers. Next, right-click EPSON EPL-5900L Advanced icon and click Properties (in Windows Me/98/95), Printing Preferences (in Windows 2000) or Document Defaults (in Windows NT 4.0).
Then click the Utility tab, and click the EPSON Status Monitor 3 icon to access the EPSON Status Monitor 3.

Note:

Do not clear the Monitor the printing status check box. Doing so causes the following situation:

The Status Alert window no longer comes up to notify you when an error occurs.

Your printer may not recover from some errors.

Getting printer status details

You can monitor printer status and obtain information on consumable products using the EPSON Status Monitor 3 dialog box.

1. Icon/Message:	The icon and message shows the printer status.
2. Printer image:	The image at the upper left shows the printer status graphically.
3. Text box:	The text box next to the printer image displays the current status of the printer. When a problem occurs, the most probable solution is displayed.
4. Close button:	Clicking this button closes the dialog box.
5. Paper:	Displays the paper sources, paper size and the approximate amount of paper remaining in the paper source.
6. Toner:	Indicates the amount of remaining toner. The toner icon flashes if toner is low (10 percent or less) or out.
7. Photoconductor unit life:	Indicates the remaining functional life of the photoconductor unit.

Setting Monitoring Preferences

To make specific monitoring settings, click Monitoring Preferences in the Utility menu of the printer driver. The Monitoring Preferences dialog box appears.

The following settings and buttons appear in the dialog box:

1. Select Notification:	Use the check boxes in this area to select the types of error that you wish to be notified about.
2. Default button:	Restores default settings.
3. Select Shortcut Icon:	To use the shortcut icon, select the Shortcut Icon check box and choose an icon. The icon you select appears on the right side of the task bar. Once the shortcut icon is in the task bar, you can double-click it to open the Status Monitor 3 dialog box. Alternatively, you can right-click the shortcut icon and select Monitoring Preferences to open the Monitoring Preferences dialog box, and EPSON EPL-5900L Advanced to open the EPSON Status Monitor 3 dialog box.
4. Allow monitoring of shared printers check box:	To monitor a shared printer, check this box. You need to make this setting on the server.
5. OK button:	Saves new changes.
6. Cancel button:	Cancels any changes.
7. Help button:	Opens online help for the Monitoring Preferences dialog box.

Status Alert window

The Status Alert window appears automatically when an error occurs. It indicates what type of error has occurred and offers you a possible solution. It closes automatically once the problem is cleared.

If you wish to see information about printer consumables, click Consumables. Once this button is clicked, the Status Alert window will not disappear even after a problem is cleared. To close the box you need to click Close.

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Canceling printing

Double-click the Printer icon on the taskbar.

Open the Printer menu and select Purge Print Documents (for Windows 2000 users, select Cancel All Documents).

Setting monitored printers

You can use "Monitored Printers" utility, to change the type of printers that EPSON Status Monitor 3 will monitor. When you install the EPSON Status Monitor 3, this utility is also installed. Usually, it is not necessary to change a setup. Use this utility when you want to change the settings for some reason.

Click Start, point to Program, point to EPSON, then click the Monitored Printers.

Uncheck the check box of the printer which is not monitored.

Click OK.

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Uninstalling printer software

When you re-install or update the printer driver, uninstall the printer driver that has been installed already.

Quit all applications.

Click Start, point to Settings, then click Control Panel.

Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.

Select the EPSON Printer Software, then click Add/Remove.

Note:

When using Windows 2000, click Change or Remove Programs, select the EPSON Printer Software, then click Change/Remove.

Click the Printer Model tab, select the printer icon of your printer, then click OK.

Note:

You can uninstall only the utility for Monitored Printers of EPSON Status Monitor 3. When that utility is uninstalled, you cannot change the setting of the Monitored Printers from the EPSON Status Monitor 3 utility of other printers.

Check the EPSON Status Monitor 3: Monitored Printers check box and click OK.

Follow the on-screen instructions.

Note:

When "Remove the related file" appears, click Yes.

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