Epson Stylus Color 900 User manual

Users Guide
Printed on recycled paper with at least 10% post-consumer content.
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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 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 Stylus are registered trademarks and EPSON Stylus RIP is a trademark of
SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION.
AcuPhoto and EPSON FaxAdvice are trademarks and EPSON SoundAdvice is a service mark of
Epson America, Inc.
Adobe, PageMaker, Illustrator, PostScript, and the PostScript logo are registered trademarks of
Adobe Systems Incorporated.
PANTONE is a registered trademark and PANTONE CALIBRATED is a trademark of Pantone,
Inc.
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 © 1999 by Epson America, Inc. CPD8323
4/99
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Introduction
Do You Need PostScript? 1
Special Features 2
Macintosh System Requirements 3
Windows System Requirements 4
How To Use Your Manuals 4
Cautions, Notes, and Tips 5
Where To Get Help 6
1Installing EPSON Stylus
RIP for Macintosh
Checking the Printer 1-2
Determining Your Configuration 1-3
Standalone Configuration 1-3
Direct Connection Network Configuration 1-4
Typical Network Configuration 1-5
Installing EPSON Stylus RIP on
a Standalone or Print Server Macintosh 1-6
Installing EPSON Stylus RIP on a Client Macintosh 1-8
Contents
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Contents
Color Matching 1-9
Press Simulations 1-9
ColorSync 2.x Support 1-10
PANTONE Color Support 1-10
2Printing with EPSON
Stylus RIP for Macintosh
Setting Up the EPSON Stylus RIP Server 2-2
Configuring EPSON Stylus RIP Preferences 2-4
Setting Up the Chooser and PostScript Drivers 2-5
Printing from an Application 2-8
Sending the Print Job 2-9
Setting Print Job Options 2-10
Starting the EPSON Stylus RIP Server Software
Automatically 2-14
Drag and Drop Printing 2-15
Managing Print Jobs 2-16
Using the Stylus RIP Monitor 2-17
3Installing EPSON Stylus
RIP for Windows
Checking the Printer 3-2
Installing the EPSON Stylus RIP Software 3-2
Installing the PostScript Driver 3-4
Installing the PostScript Driver on Client Computers 3-7
Color Matching 3-9
ICC Support 3-9
PANTONE Color Support 3-10
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Contents
4Printing with EPSON
Stylus RIP for Windows
Printing from an Application 4-1
Starting EPSON Stylus RIP 4-2
Printing with the Default Options 4-3
Printing and Setting Printer Options 4-4
Managing Print Jobs 4-9
Batch Printing 4-10
Network Printing 4-11
Enabling File and Print Sharing 4-11
Connecting the Client Computers 4-12
Sending Print Jobs from Client Computers 4-13
Configuring EPSON Stylus RIP 4-15
Setting EPSON Stylus RIP Preferences 4-15
Starting Stylus RIP Automatically 4-16
5Troubleshooting
Printing High Quality Color Images 5-1
Solving Problems 5-2
You see a Printer cannot be opened or Printer
not found error message (Macintosh) 5-2
You see a memory or VM error
message (Macintosh) 5-3
You see a communications error message when
you try to open Stylus RIP 5-3
Stylus RIP does not run (Windows) 5-3
Your saved files dont print (Windows) 5-4
Stylus RIP takes a long time before printing starts 5-4
Your printouts contain incorrect fonts or jagged type 5-4
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Contents
The printer is producing pages containing
illegible type or characters 5-5
Images and type look bitmapped and jagged
on your printouts 5-5
You see Font not found or Find font error
messages (Macintosh) 5-6
One or more colors are missing in your printout
or it prints in black ink only 5-6
Your printed output has white lines 5-7
Bitmap images or clip art looks jagged 5-7
Youre having trouble printing from
PageMaker 6.0 or 6.5 (Windows) 5-7
EPS and TIFF files do not print 5-7
Your printout has misplaced images or type 5-8
Printed images are clipped at the edges 5-8
Your Macintosh freezes when you try to print
from QuarkXPress 5-8
Your Macintosh loses custom page sizes when
selecting PDF file output from QuarkXPress 3.3x 5-8
Index
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1
The EPSON Stylus®RIP software lets you use your EPSON
Stylus COLOR or EPSON Stylus Photo ink jet printer as a
PostScript®3 (Macintosh®and Windows NT®) and Level 2
(Windows®95/98) compatible printer. It reads the Adobe®
PostScript files automatically created by the EPSON Stylus RIP
printer driver, seamlessly converts them into raster images, and
automatically prints them on your printer. You can use the
EPSON Stylus RIP with both Macintosh and Windows
systems, in standalone or networked configurations.
Adobe PostScript is the industry standard for high-quality
graphic output. All the elements in a documentincluding
text, graphics, and other imagesare processed and reproduced
using PostScript code. Then, when you print from an application
such as QuarkXPress,
®the RIP software creates a raster image
from the PostScript code and sends it to your printer.
Do You Need PostScript?
In many cases, you may not need the ability to print in
PostScript, and for these occasions you should use the standard,
non-PostScript driver that comes with your printer. Using the
standard driver is also a good way to ensure that your computer
and printer are connected and working properly, so make sure
you install the non-PostScript EPSON driver following the
instructions in your printers setup guide.
Introduction
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Introduction
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Heres what you can use the EPSON Stylus RIP for:
◗Printing documents with placed or imported EPS images
◗Printing from complex PostScript-based drawing and
publishing applications like Adobe Illustrator,
®
Macromedia®Freehand,
®Adobe PageMaker, ®QuarkXPress,
and CorelDRAW
◗Matching PANTONE®spot colors
For all other printing applications, especially photography, use the
standard, non-PostScript EPSON driver. In many cases, you will
get better performance with the standard driver than with the
EPSON Stylus RIP.
Special Features
To make the most of your printers photo-quality output, the
EPSON Stylus RIP software includes these special features:
◗EPSON error diffusion software, the same high-quality
AcuPhotohalftoning technology used in EPSONs
non-PostScript printer drivers
◗PANTONE professional color palette filescalibrated for
your EPSON Stylus COLOR or EPSON Stylus Photo
printer using a variety of media at various resolutionsto
give you PANTONE colors when you use PANTONE
licensed applications
◗Support for ColorSync®2.x on the Macintosh and Image
Color Matching (ICM) for Windows through
International Color Consortium®(ICC) profiles
◗Press Simulation, which adjusts your EPSON printers
color gamut to more closely match the output of
SWOP-coated printing devices
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Introduction
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Macintosh System Requirements
To use EPSON Stylus RIP with a Macintosh in either a
standalone or network environment as a print server, your
system should meet the following minimum requirements:
◗Power Macintosh,
®iMacseries, or Power Macintosh G3
series
◗At least 16MB of available RAM for the EPSON Stylus
RIP software (20MB or more is recommended), in
addition to the RAM needed by your operating system and
other applications
◗
At least 52MB of free hard disk space to install the software
and at least 150MB of hard disk space for processing large files
◗Macintosh Operating System 7.6.1 or later
◗CD-ROM drive
◗Serial, Ethernet, or USB (SC900/SP1200 only) connection
to the printer
To set up a Macintosh as a client on a network using the
EPSON Stylus RIP, your system must have the following
minimum configuration:
◗Macintosh Centris,
®Macintosh Quadra, ®Performa, ®iMac
series, Power Macintosh G3 series, or Power Macintosh
◗EthernetAppleTalk®connection with the Macintosh set
up as the EPSON Stylus RIP print server
◗8MB RAM
◗
At least 2MB of free hard disk space to install the software and
at least 150MB of free hard disk space for processing large files
◗Macintosh Operating System 7.6.1 or later
◗CD-ROM drive
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Introduction
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Windows System Requirements
To use the EPSON Stylus RIP in either a standalone or
peer-to-peer network environment, your system should include:
◗IBM®-compatible PC with 486 or higher processor
(Pentium®133 MHz or higher recommended)
◗Microsoft Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0
◗At least 16MB of RAM (32MB or more recommended)
◗At least 50MB of free hard disk space to install the software
and at least 150MB of free hard disk space for processing
files (more for large files)
◗CD-ROM drive
◗An available parallel port configured as LPT1
You can print with the EPSON Stylus RIP on a peer-to-peer
Windows network by using file sharing, with the printer
connected to the print servers parallel port. In this networked
environment, you install the EPSON Stylus RIP software on the
print server only, and install the PostScript printer driver on all
your other networked computers. See page 3-4 for instructions.
How To Use Your Manuals
Before you install the RIP, make sure you set up your printer and
install the standard EPSON non-PostScript driver that came
with your printer, following the instructions in your printers
setup guide. Refer to your EPSON printers users guide for
instructions on using and maintaining your printer.
If youre familiar with software PostScript interpreters, you can use
the EPSON Stylus RIP Quick Start Guide to get started with the RIP.
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