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Glossary

additive primary colors

The colors of red, green and blue (RGB) - which give the perception of white when combined equally. These are the colors of the color system used by monitors and scanners.

application

A software program that helps you carry out a particular task, such as word processing or financial planning.

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standardized coding system for assigning numerical codes to letters and symbols.

banding

The horizontal lines that sometimes appear when printing graphics. This occurs when the print head is misaligned.

bi-level data

Image data that is composed of 1 bit per pixel. A pixel is represented by a single bit of digital data that can be expressed as only 1 (light) or 0 (dark).

bit

A binary digit (0 or 1), which is the smallest unit of information used by a printer or computer.

bit/pixel

The unit that indicates the number of bits allocated for a pixel. The larger the bit value, the more detail of a pixel will be reproduced.

brightness

The lightness or darkness of an image.

buffer

The portion of the printer's memory used to store data before printing it.

byte

A unit of information consisting of eight bits.

carriage

A component of the scanner that contains the optical sensor and light source for scanning.

characters per inch (cpi)

A measure of the size of text characters, sometimes referred to as pitch.

CMYK

Cyan (blue-green), magenta, yellow, and black. These colored inks are used to create the subtractive system array of printed colors.

color correction

A method of adjusting the color image data for a particular type of device so that the reproduction results are as close as possible to the original colors.

color matching

A method of processing color data so that colors displayed on a computer screen closely match colors in printouts. A variety of color-matching software is available. See also ColorSync.

color separation

A process of converting full-color images into a limited number of primary colors. Additive primary colors (red, green, and blue) are used by the scanner, and the subtractive primary colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) plus black are used for printing press separation.

color space

A method that reproduces a specific color. Additive primary colors (red, green, and blue) are used by the scanner, and subtractive primary colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) plus black are used for printing press separation.

ColorSync

Macintosh software that is designed to help you get WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get) color output. This software prints colors as you see them on your screen.

cpi

See characters per inch (cpi).

default

A value or setting that takes effect when the equipment is turned on, reset, or initialized.

dithering

A halftoning method in which dots are arranged in an orderly pattern. Dithering works best for printing images with solid colors, such as charts and graphs.

document

The item, such as a sheet of paper or a book, that is placed on the document table for the scanner to read.

dpi

Dots per inch. The dpi measures the resolution. See also resolution.

drive

A memory device, such as CD-ROM, hard disk, or floppy disk. In Windows, a letter is assigned to each drive for easy management.

driver

A software program that sends instructions to a computer peripheral to tell it what to do. For example, your printer driver accepts print data from your word processor application and sends instructions to the printer on how to print this data.

dropout color

A color the scanner does not recognize and ignores. You can select and deselect dropout colors in the scanner software.

DTP

Desktop Publishing system, a system that enables you to edit a publications on a computer.

economy printing

Printing in which images are printed with fewer dots to save ink.

ESC/I

Abbreviation for EPSON Standard Code for Image scanners. A system of commands that allows you to control image scanners from your software.

ESC/P

Abbreviation for EPSON Standard Code for Printers, the system of commands your computer uses to control your printer. It is standard for all EPSON printers and supported by most application software for personal computers.

exposure

A scanner function that lightens or darkens the scanned image data.

font

A style of type designated by a family name.

gamma

Gamma is a value that expresses the relationship between the input and output of a device. By adjusting the gamma, the brightness of the mid-tones of an image can be changed without affecting the shadows and highlights.

grayscale

A scale of shades of gray from black to white. Grayscale is used to represent colors when printing with black ink only.

high speed printing

Printing in which images are printed in both directions. This provides faster printing.

ICM

Image Color Matching. Windows color management system designed to help you get WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) color output. This software displays colors on your screen as they exist on the scanned documents, or prints colors as you see them on your screen.

initialization

Returns the printer to its defaults (fixed set of conditions). This happens every time you turn on the printer or reset the printer.

ink cartridge

Contains the ink your printer uses when printing.

ink jet

A method of printing in which each letter or symbol is formed by precisely spraying ink onto paper.

interface

The connection between the computer and the printer. A parallel interface transmits data one character or code at a time. A serial interface transmits data one bit at a time.

interface cable

The cable that connects the computer and the printer.

line sequence

A type of color scanning that separates primary colors line by line. The carriage makes only one pass.

local printer

The printer connected to the computer's port directly by interface cable.

marquee

A moveable and adjustable frame that marks the area of an image that will be previewed or scanned.

media

Materials upon which data is printed, such as envelopes, plain paper, special paper, and transparency film.

memory

The part of the printer's electronic system that is used to store information (data). Some information is fixed and is used to control how the printer operates. Information that is sent to the printer from the computer is stored in memory temporary. See also RAM and ROM.

moiré

A moiré is a cross-hatch pattern that appears on scanned images when scanning printed material. It is a result of interference that occurs due to the difference between the pitches of the scanning and the halftone screens.

monochrome

This means printing with only one color of ink, which is generally black ink.

nozzle

Fine tubes in the print head through which ink is sprayed on the page. Print quality may decline if the print head nozzles are clogged.

operation check

A method for checking the operation of the printer. When you perform a printer operation check, the printer prints the ROM version, code page, ink counter code, and a nozzle check pattern.

page sequence

The type of color scanning in which the entire image is scanned once for each separate color.

parallel interface

See interface.

pixel

Short for picture element. Each image is composed of a number of pixels. Pixels are also counted in units of dots.

port

An interface channel through which data is transmitted between devices.

primary colors

Basic colors. See "additive primary colors" and "subtractive primary colors".

printable area

The area of a page on which the printer can print. It is smaller than the physical size of the page due to margins.

printer driver

A software program that sends commands for using the features of a particular printer. Often shortened to "driver".

print queue

If your printer is connected to a network, print jobs that are sent to the printer while it is busy are stored in a waiting line, or print queue, until they can be printed.

RAM

Random Access Memory. The portion of the printer's memory used as a buffer and for storing user-defined characters. All data stored in RAM is lost when the printer is turned off.

reset

To return a printer to its defaults by turning the printer off and then back on.

resolution

The number of dots per inch used to represent an image.

ROM

Read Only Memory. A portion of memory that can only be read and cannot be used for data storage. ROM retains its contents when you turn off the printer.

RGB

Red, green, and blue. These colors, in phosphors irradiated by the computer monitor's electron gun, are used to create the additive array of screen colors.

scan

An operation performed by the sensor and the carriage. The image is divided into pixels by scanning.

scanning area

The physical size of the image that can be scanned by the scanner.

spool

The first step in printing, in which the printer driver converts the print data into codes that your printer understands. This data is then sent to the printer directly or to the print server.

spool manager

The software program that converts print data into codes that your printer understands. See also spool.

sRGB

A standard color space used as the default color space within the Windows 98 color management system (ICM 2.0).

status monitor

The software program that allows you to check the printer's status.

subtractive colors

Colors produced by pigments that absorb some colors of light and reflect others. See also CMYK.

subtractive primary colors

The colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) which produce black when mixed in certain amounts. In printing, black is often added to give more definition as mixing of actual inks cannot produce pure black.

threshold

A reference point that is used to determine whether data will be processed as "on" or "off". In the case of color image data, "on" means that a certain color will appear in a pixel or dot, and "off" means that color will not appear there.

tone correction

A method of adjusting the tone curve so that the reproduction results on different types of output devices have gradations similar to the original image.

tone curve

The graph that shows the contrast ratio between the input (original image) and output (image data) in image processing.

unsharp mask

Originally a photographic process in which a sharply focussed and a slightly out-of-focus image are combined to produce a sharper image. This process is simulated by software to produce the same effect.

USB interface

Universal Serial Bus interface. Enables the user to connect up to 127 peripheral devices (such as keyboards, mice, and printers) to the computer through a single, general purpose port. The use of USB hubs allows you to add additional ports. See also interface.

WYSIWIG

What-you-see-is-what-you-get. This term is used to describe printout that looks exactly like it appears on screen.

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