Epson Stylus Color User manual

Where to Find Information
This User’s Guide
Provides you with all the information you need to use your
EPSON Stylus Photo and consumable products, from setting
up to troubleshooting.
Online Help (Windows only)
Provides you with detailed information and instructions on the
Windows-based printer software that controls your printer.
(Online help will be automatically installed when you install
the printer software.) See Chapter 4 for information on
accessing online help.
EPSON Answers (Windows CD-ROM only)
Provides you with additional information on using your
printer and printing with colors. Here’s what you’ll find in
EPSON Answers:
qHow To displays a step-by-step guide for using your
printer, information about printer maintenance, and
instructions on replacing consumable products.
qProblem Solver helps you fix common printing problems
when you encounter them.
qTest Print lets you print a test page to check the results of
settings you have made and provides links to other sections
of EPSON Answers based on the results.
qColor Guide explains the ABC’s of color printing and
shows you how to get impressive results from your printer.
(A printed Color Guide is also included with your printer.)
LEPSON Stylus Photo
User’s Guide
A5 size cover-2
12-26-96

Color Ink Jet Printer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of SEIKO EPSON
CORPORATION. The information contained herein is designed only for use with this
EPSON printer. EPSON is not responsible for any use of this information as applied to
other printers.
Neither SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION nor its affiliates shall be liable to the purchaser of
this product or third parties for damages, losses, costs, or expenses incurred by the
purchaser or third parties as a result of: accident, misuse, or abuse of this product or
unauthorized modifications, repairs, or alterations to this product, or (excluding the U.S.)
failure to strictly comply with SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION’s operating and
maintenance instructions.
SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION shall not be liable for any damages or problems arising
from the use of any options or any consumable products other than those designated as
Original EPSON Products or EPSON Approved Products by SEIKO EPSON
CORPORATION.
EPSON and EPSON ESC/P are registered trademarks and EPSON ESC/P Raster and
EPSON Stylus are trademarks of SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
General Notice: Other product names used herein are for identification purposes only and may be
trademarks of their respective owners. EPSON disclaims any and all rights in those marks.
Copyright © 1996 by SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION, Nagano, Japan.
User’s Guide
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title page
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EPSON Stylus Photo
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Declaration of Conformity
According to ISO/IEC Guide 22 and EN 45014
Manufacturer: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
Address: 3-5, Owa 3-chome, Suwa-shi,
Nagano-ken 392 Japan
Representative: EPSON EUROPE B.V.
Address: Prof. J. H. Bavincklaan 5 1183
AT Amstelveen
The Netherlands
Declares that the Product:
Product Name: Ink Jet Printer
Type Name: EPSON Stylus Photo
Model: P952A
Conforms to the following Directive(s) and Norm(s):
Directive 89/336/EEC:
EN 55022 Class B
EN 61000-3-2
EN 61000-3-3
EN 50082-1
IEC 801-2
IEC 801-3
IEC 801-4
Directive 73/23/EEC:
EN 60950
February 1997
M. Hamamoto
President of EPSON EUROPE B.V.
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Contents
Safety Instructions
Important Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1
A few precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2
ENERGY STAR Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-3
For United Kingdom Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-4
Warnings, Cautions, and Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-5
Chapter 1 Getting to Know Your Printer
Printer Parts and Control Panel Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
When using your printer with a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
When using your printer with a Macintosh . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Options and Consumable Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Consumable products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Chapter 2 Getting Started
Unpacking the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Attaching the Paper Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
Choosing a Place for the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
Using a printer stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
Plugging in the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
Installing the Ink Cartridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
Connecting the Printer to Your PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10
Installing the Printer Software in Your PC . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11
Installing the software for Windows 95 . . . . . . . . . . . 2-12
Using your printer on a network with Windows 95 . . . . 2-16
Installing the software for Windows 3.1 . . . . . . . . . . . 2-18
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Connecting the Printer to Your Macintosh . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-20
Installing the Printer Software in Your Macintosh . . . . . . . . 2-21
Installing the printer software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-21
Printer software components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-24
Using the Chooser to select your printer . . . . . . . . . . . 2-25
Chapter 3 Starting to Print
Loading Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Printing with Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Printing with a Macintosh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Chapter 4 Using the Printer Software for Windows
Introducing the Printer Software Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Accessing the Printer Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
From Windows applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
From Windows 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
From Windows 3.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Using the Automatic Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5
Using the Predefined Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Customizing the Print Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Saving your settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9
Making the Media Type Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Using EPSON Printer Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12
EPSON Status Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13
Nozzle Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Head Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Print Head Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Understanding the EPSON Spool Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15
Checking printer status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15
Getting Information Through Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
From Windows applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
From Windows 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
From Windows 3.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
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Chapter 5 Using the Printer Software for Macintosh
Introducing the Printer Software Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2
Using the Automatic Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2
Using the Predefined Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6
Customizing the Print Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8
Making your settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9
Saving your settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10
Choosing your settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Modifying visual effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Controlling the printing quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-16
Changing the Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-18
Defining a Custom Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-20
Using EPSON Printer Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-21
EPSON StatusMonitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-22
Nozzle Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-23
Head Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24
Print Head Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24
Using the EPSON Monitor2 Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-25
Chapter 6 Printing on Special Paper
Choosing Special Paper and Other Media . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2
About special media cleaning sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Loading Special Paper and Other Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
Loading Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7
Loading Transparencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8
Using EPSON Photo Paper (S041134) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9
Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9
Removing the perforated margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11
Storing EPSON Photo Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11
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Chapter 7 Maintenance and Transportation
Replacing an Ink Cartridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2
Cleaning the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7
Transporting the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
Chapter 8 Troubleshooting
Diagnosing the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2
Error indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2
Status Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4
Printer operation check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4
Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7
Power supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7
Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-8
Paper handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-14
Printing quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-17
Printer utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-23
Increasing the Print Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-25
Cleaning the Print Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-26
Using the Head Cleaning utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-27
Using the control panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-29
Aligning the Print Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-30
Ink Cartridge Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-31
Contacting Customer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-35
For United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland users . . . 8-35
For Australian users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-38
For Singapore users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-40
For Hong Kong users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-40
For Philippines users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-41
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Appendix A Tips for Color Printing
Basics of Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2
Image Resolution and Image Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-5
Basics of Color Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-7
Appendix B Specifications
Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2
Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-3
Ink cartridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-6
Mechanical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-7
Electrical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-8
Environmental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-8
Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-8
Safety approvals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-9
Interface Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-10
Parallel interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-10
Serial interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-11
Glossary
Index
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