Epson 1520 L

Where to Find Information

This User’s Guide

Provides you with all the information you need to use your

EPSON Stylus Color 1520 and consumable products, from

setting up to troubleshooting.

Online Help

Provides you with detailed information and instructions on the

Windows printer software that controls your printer. See

Chapter 3 for information on accessing online help.

Color Guide

Explains the ABC’s of color printing an d shows you how to get

impressive results from your printer.

Customer Support

Contact Customer Support if your printer is not operating

properly and you cannot solve the problem with the

troubleshooting in formation in this guide and online help. See

“Contacting Customer Support” in Chapter 10 for more

information.

LLoire2 Ref. Guide

Rev.c

A5 size cover-2

11-11-96 DR, pass 0

Contents

Main Where to Find Information L Color Ink Jet Printer Users Guide Declaration of Conformity ii Contents iv Page vi Page viii Safety Instructions Important Safety Instructions A few precautions 2 ENERGY STAR Compliance S Loire2 Ref. Guide For United Kingdom Use rs w 4 Use of options Safety information Warnings, Cautions, and Notes w c Page Chapter 1 Getting to Know Your Printer Printer Parts and Control Panel Functions LLoire2 Ref. Guide 1-2 A5 size Chapter 1 Control Panel R Getting to Know Your Printer 1-3 Buttons Buttons Function 1-4 LLoire2 Ref. Guide Lights R Getting to Know Your Printer 1-5 System Requirements When using your printer with a PC 1-6 When using your printer with a Macintosh Applicable computer models (as of July 1, 1996) Interface cables Environment Options and Consumable Products Options 1-8 Interface cards Interface cables Consumable Products Ink cartridges EPSON special media 1-10 Chapter 2 Getting Started Unpacking the Printer 2-2 Choosing a Place for the Printer 2-4 Attaching the paper support and the output tray Plugging in the Printer 2-6 Installing the Ink Cartridge for the First Time 2-8 Page 2-10 Page Connecting the Printer to Your PC 2-12 Installing the Printer Software in your PC For Windows 95 2-14 Page Installing the software while running Windows 95 2-16 Using your printer on a Network with Windows 95 2-18 For Windows 3.1 2-20 For DOS users Connecting the Printer to Your Mac intosh Using the built-in serial interface 2-22 Using an optional EPSON interface card Installing the Printer Software in Your Macintosh Installing the printer software 2-24 Page Printer software components EPSON Stylus Printer Driver Package 2-26 Power Macintosh Extensi on Module EPSON Namer Assigning a name to the printer 2-28 Selecting your printer with the Chooser Using the serial interface connection 2-30 Page Using the AppleTalk connection 2-32 Page Page Chapter 3 Starting to Print with Windows Before Starting to Print Loading Paper 3-2 Page 3-4 Page 3-6 Starting to Print 3-8 Page Page Chapter 4 Using the Printer Software for Windows Introducing the Printer Software Functions Accessing the Printer Software 4-2 From Windows applications From Windows 95 From Windows 3.1 4-4 Using the Automatic Setting Using the Predefined Settings 4-6 Page Customizing the Print Settings 4-8 Page Making the Media Type Setting 4-10 Page 4-12 Page Using EPSON Printer Utilities 4-14 EPSON Status Monitor Nozzle Check Head Cleaning 4-16 Print Head Alignment Understanding the EPSON Spool Manager Checking printer status 4-18 Getting Information Through Online Help From Windows applications From Windows 95 From Windows 3.1 Page Chapter 5 Starting to Print with Macintosh Before Starting to Print Loading Paper 5-2 Page 5-4 Page Starting to Print 5-6 Page 5-8 Chapter 6 Using the Printer Software for Macintosh Introducing the Printer Software Functions Using the Automatic Setting 6-2 Media Type 6-4 Page Ink 6-6 Using the Predefined Settings Photo Text/Graph Video/Digital Camera 6-8 Customizing the Print Settings Making your settings Saving your settings 6-10 Choosing your settings Modifying visual effects Color Adjustment 6-12 Slide bars Video/Digital Camera ColorSync 6-14 Controlling the printing quality Print Quality Media Type MicroWeave 6-16 High Speed Flip Horizontal Finest Detail Making the Color and Halftoning settings Ink 6-18 Halftoning Changing the Paper Size Paper size Page Defining a Custom Paper Size Using EPSON Printer Utilities 6-22 EPSON StatusMonitor Nozzle Check 6-24 Head Cleaning Print Head Alignment Using the EPSON Monitor2 Utility 6-26 Chapter 7 Paper Handling Printing on Single Sheets Tips on using the sheet feeder 7-2 Loading oversized paper in the sheet feeder 7-4 Loading paper manually 7-6 Page Adjusting the loading position 7-8 Printing on Continuous Paper Loading continuous paper 7-10 Page 7-12 Page Removing continuous paper 7-14 Page Tips on using continuous paper Adjusting the loading position 7-16 Adjusting the tear-off position Page Switching Between Continuous Paper and Single Sheets Switching to single sheets 7-18 Switching to continuous paper Printing on Special Paper Setting the adjust lever 7-20 Choosing Special Paper and Other Media 7-22 Coated (Ink Jet) Paper A5 size Chapter 7 Loading Special Paper and Other Media 7-24 Page Photo Quality Ink Jet Card 7-26 Envelopes 7-28 Labels 7-30 Removing continuous labels from the printer EPSON banner paper EPSON Ink Jet Back Light Film 7-32 Chapter 8 The Control Panel Page Using Special Power-On Functions Using the Default-Setting Mode 8-4 A5 size Chapter 8 About the default settings Print direction Font Pitch 8-6 I/F mode Auto interface wait time Software Auto CR AGM (Alternate Graphics Mode) Character table Page Skip over perforati o n Auto tear off Banner mode Parallel I/F transfer rate Changing the default settings 8-10 Page Selecting fonts 8-12 Scalable fonts Page Chapter 9 Maintenance and Transportation Replacing an Ink Cartridge 9-2 Page 9-4 Page Printing with an empty color ink cartridge 9-6 Cleaning the Printer Transporting the Printer 9-8 Chapter 10 Troubleshooting Diagnosing a Problem Error indicators 10-2 State of Panel Light Problem and Solution Troubleshooting A5 size Chapter 10 Troubleshooting 10-3 Status Monitor Self testing 10-4 Page Hex dump mode 10-6 Problems and Solutions Power supply The lights come on brie fly, but then go off and stay off. The printer does not work and the control panel lights are off. Operation 10-8 The Operate light is on but nothing prints. Nothing prints and the lights are on or flashing. The printer sounds like it is printing, but nothing prints. The self test prints well, but nothing prints from within an application pro gram. 10-10 Color documents print out in black and white. Printing starts too high or too low on the page. 10-12 Print Speed is not what you expect. Something on the page is wrong or missing. All the text prints on the same line. An extra blank line prints between each text line. 10-14 Page Paper handling Single sheets do not feed properly Single sheets do not feed properly from the sheet feeder. 10-16 A single sheet does not feed properly from the manual feed slot. The printer loads more than one sheet at a time. Ejected paper is wrinkled. 10-18 Single sheets do not fully eject. Paper feeding is crooked. Continuous paper does not feed properly Regular gaps occur in the printout. The perforation is not aligned with the tear-off position. 10-20 The tractor does not feed the paper. Paper feeding is crooked or the paper jams. Continuous pa per does not e ject properly . 10-22 Clearing a paper jam Preventing paper feed and paper jam problems 10-24 Printing quality The printed image has gaps or faint areas. The printed image is blurred. The printed image is smeared. 10-26 White horizontal lines appear through the text. Printing quality is not what you expect. 10-28 Colors are different than you expect. Colors are not very vibrant. 10-30 Photographic images look grainy or rough. Dots are missing in printed characters or graphics. Printer utilities 10-32 The Status Monitor window does not appear when you are using Windows 95. When you clean the print heads using the Head Cleaning utility, the output quality does not improve. Interface Increasing the Print Speed 10-34 The table below shows the factors related to print speed only. Troubleshooting Troubleshooting 10-35 A5 size Chapter 10 Cleaning the Print Heads 10-36 Page 10-38 Page Aligning the Print Heads 10-40 Using the print head alignment utility for DOS Using the printers control panel buttons 10-42 Ink Cartridge Problems Contacting Customer Support For United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland users 10-44 Enquiry Desk Customer Support Faxon Epson Eptec - Bulletin Board Service for latest drivers and utilities 10-46 World Wide Web For Australian users EPSON FAXBACK EPSON Bulletin Board System Internet URL http://www.epson.com.au Your Dealer EPSON Helpdesk 10-48 For Hong Kong and Singapore users Page Appendix A Tips for Color Printing Basics of Color Properties of color A-2 Synchronizing monitor colors and printer colors Tips for Color Printin g A-3 Process of color printing Dithering A-4 Error diffusion Image Resolution and Image Size Tips for Color Printin g A-5 A-6 Basics of Color Documents Know WHO your readers are and WHAT your purpose is Tips for Color Printin g A-7 Know WHEN to use color Decide WHERE color will most benefit your document Know WHY you are using color Know How to select colors A-8 Appendix B Using Optional Interfaces Available Interfaces B-2 Installing Optional Interfaces Using Optional Interfaces B- 3 B-4 The C82305/C82306 serial interface card Selecting the baud rate Using Optional Interfaces B- 5 Handshake timing Error handling Page Appendix C Specifications Technical Specifications Printing C-2 Specifications C-3 Paper C-4 Specifications C-5 C-6 Page C-8 Specifications C-9 Ink cartridges C-10 Specifications C-11 Mechanical Electrical Environmental C-12 Safety approvals Specifications C-13 Interface Specifications Your printer is equipped with an 8-bit parallel interface. C-14 Parallel interface The built-in parallel interface has the following characteristics: Specifications C-15 C-16 Timing chart Reverse channel Specifications C-17 Pin assignments C-18 Serial interface Specifications C-19 Initialization C-20 Command List ESC/P 2 control codes Specifications C-21 IBM XL24E emulation control codes C-22 Character Tables PC437 (U.S., Standard Europe) Specifications C-23 Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page International character sets C-32 Page Page Glossary Glossary 1 2 Glossary 3 4 Glossary 5 6 Index A IN-1 B C D E IN-2 F G I L IN-3 M N O IN-4 P Q R IN-5 S T U IN-6 V