Chapter | 1 | Printer Overview |
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Taking Care of Your Printer
Your printer will produce high print quality jobs if it is well taken care of. Periodic cleaning, handling the printer properly, and using the correct printer supplies such as paper and ribbons ensures optimum performance. Chapter 6 explains how to clean the printer, and printer supplies are listed in Appendix A.
Whenever it is necessary to service the printer, remember these important maintenance concepts:
•Use only the ribbons specified in Appendix A. Use of incorrect ribbons can lead to ink migration problems, degraded print quality, and expensive damage to the printer.
•Incorrect closure of the forms thickness lever can lead to smearing, degraded print quality, paper jams, and damage to the platen and shuttle assembly. Never close the forms thickness lever too tightly.
Protocols and Emulations
A protocol is a set of rules governing the exchange of information between the printer and its host computer. These rules consist of codes that manipulate and print data and allow for
Most impact printers use single ASCII character codes to print text, numbers, and punctuation marks. Some characters, both singly and in groups of two or more, are defined as control codes. Control codes instruct the printer to perform specific functions, such as underlining text, printing subscripts, setting page margins, etc. The main difference between most printer protocols is in the characters used to create control codes and the ways in which these characters are formatted.
When the printer executes the character and control codes of a particular printer protocol, it is “emulating” that printer. If the printer uses the Proprinter XL protocol, for example, it is emulating a Proprinter XL printer. If the printer is using the Epson FX printer protocol, for example, we can also say it is in Epson FX emulation mode.
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