Epson LQ-860 - Impact Printer User Manual

User's Manual

E P S O N ®

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E P S O N

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User’s Manual

FCC COMPLIANCE STATEMENT FOR AMERICAN USERS

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This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on. The user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna

Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver

Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected

Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

WARNING

The connection of a non-shielded printer interface cable to this printer will invalidate the

FCC Certification of this device and may cause interference levels which exceed the limits established by the FCC for this equipment. If this equipment has more than one interface connector, do not leave cables connected to unused interfaces.

FOR CANADIAN USERS

This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class B limits for radio noise emissions from digital apparatus as set out in the radio interference regulations of the Canadian

Department of Communications.

Le présent appareil numérique n’émet pas de bruits radioélectriques dépassant les limites applicables aux appareils numériques de Classe B prescrites dans le règlement sur le brouillage radioélectriques édicté par le Ministère des Communications du Canada.

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, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Epson America, Inc. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, Epson America, Inc. assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Epson America, Inc. shall not be liable against any damages or problems arising from the use of any options other than thosedesignated as Original Epson Products by Seiko Epson Corporation.

Epson and Epson ESC/P are registered trademarks of Seiko Epson Corporation.

SmartPark is a trademark of Epson America, Inc.

General Notice: Other product names used herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Copyright © 1990 by Epson America, Inc.

Torrance, California ii

IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

1. Read all of these instructions and save them for later reference.

2. Follow all warnings and instructions marked on the product.

3. Unplug this product from the wall outlet before cleaning. Do not use liquid cleaners or aerosol cleaners. Use a damp cloth for cleaning the outside of the unit.

4. Do not use this product near water.

5. Do not place this product on an unstable cart, stand, or table.

The product may fall, causing serious damage to the product.

6. Slots and openings in the cabinet and the back or bottom are provided for ventilation; to ensure reliable operation of the product and to protect it from overheating, these openings must not be blocked or covered. The openings should never be blocked by placing the product on a bed, sofa, rug, or other similar surface. This product should never be placed near or over a radiator or heat register. This product should not be placed in a built-in installation unless proper ventilation is provided.

7. This product should be operated from the type of power source indicated on the marking label. If you are not sure of the type of power available, consult your dealer or local power company.

8. This product is equipped with a 3-wire grounding-type plug, a plug having a third (grounding) pin. This plug will only fit into a grounding type power outlet. This is a safety feature. If you are unable to insert the plug into the outlet, contact your electrician to replace your obsolete outlet. Do not defeat the purpose of the grounding type plug.

9. Do not locate this product where the cord will be walked on.

i i i

10. If an extension cord is used with this product, make sure that the total of the ampere ratings on the products plugged into the extension cord do not exceed the extension cord ampere rating.

Also, make sure that the total of all products plugged into the wall outlet does not exceed 15 amperes.

11. Never push objects of any kind into this product through cabinet slots, as they may touch dangerous voltage points or short out parts that could result in a risk of fire or electric shock. Never spill liquid of any kind on the product.

12. Except as specifically explained in this User’s Manual, do not attempt to service this product yourself. Opening or removing those covers that are marked “Do Not Remove” may expose you to dangerous voltage points or other risks. Refer all servicing in those compartments to service personnel.

13. Unplug this product from the wall outlet and refer servicing to qualified service personnel under the following conditions:

A. When the power cord or plug is damaged or frayed.

B. If liquid has been spilled into the product.

C. If the product has been exposed to rain or water.

D. If the product does not operate normally when the operating instructions are followed. Adjust only those controls that are covered by the operating instructions, since improper adjustment of other controls may result in damage and will often require extensive work by a qualified technician to restore the product to normal operation.

E. If the product has been dropped or the cabinet has been damaged.

F. If the product exhibits a distinct change in performance, indicating a need for service.

iv

Contents

Introduction

1

Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2

About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Application Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Where to Get Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

5

6

Chapter 1 Setting Up the Printer

1-1

Unpacking the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

l-2

Choosing a Place for the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

l-6

Assembling the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

l-8

Testing the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

l-16

Connecting the Printer to Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . l-27

Setting Up Your Application Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l-32

Chapter 2 Paper Handling

2-l

Selecting a Paper Feeding Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Using Single Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-3

Using Continuous Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-8

Switching Between Continuous and Single Sheets . . . . . . 2-16

Printing on Special Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-23

Chapter 3 Using the Printer

3-l

Operating the Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-2

Setting the DIP Switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-6

Adjusting the Loading Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-14

Using Short Tear-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-17

Selecting Typestyles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-21

Selecting a

Character Set and Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26

Using the Data Dump Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-29

V

Chapter 4 Software and Graphics

4-l

Enhancing Your Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4-2

Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4-8

User-defined Characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4-19

Chapter 5 Using the Printer Options

5-1

The Cut Sheet Feeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-2

The Pull Tractor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-25

The Multi-Font Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-37

The Interface Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-44

Chapter 6 Maintenance

6-1

Cleaning the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-2

Replacing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-4

Transporting the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-9

Chapter 7 Troubleshooting

7-l

Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-2

Power Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-4

Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-5

Paper Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-16

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-27

Chapter 8 Technical Specifications

8-l

Printer Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-2

Interface Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-11

Option Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-16

Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-18

vi

Chapter 9 Command Summary

9-l

Data Flow Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-2

Using the Command Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-3

Commands in Numerical Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-6

Commands Arranged by Topic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-9

Appendix

A-l

Proportional Width Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A-2

Character Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-6

Glossary

Index vii

Introduction

The Epson features.

® LQ-860 is an advanced 24-pin impact dot matrix printer, combining high performance and reliability with a wide range of

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Features

In addition to the high-quality printing and ease of operation you have come to expect from Epson printers, the LQ-860 offers the following features:

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Easy paper handling, featuring automatic single-sheet loading.

Color printing in seven colors with a color ribbon. With suitable graphics software, you can mix colors within a line and print screen dumps in color.

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Compatibility with the Epson ESC/P

LQ-1500, LQ-2500, and LQ-2550.

® commands used by the LQ-500, LQ-510, LQ-800, LQ-850, LQ-950, LQ-1000, LQ-1050,

Fast draft printing of up to 300 characters per second at 10 characters per inch (cpi) in high-speed draft mode, and 295 characters per second at 12 cpi or 246 characters per second at

10 cpi in normal draft mode.

An improved control panel design that allows direct selection of many of the printer’s main features including character fonts and character spacing, as well as a choice of normal or condensed printing.

The SmartPark TM paper handling system that lets you use single sheets of paper without removing the continuous paper, eliminates paper waste with short tear-off, and allows easy and accurate paper alignment.

Introduction 1

l l

Two built-in Letter Quality fonts, Roman and Sans Serif, for producing high-quality documents.

A 360 x 360 dot per inch graphics mode.

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• A micro-adjustment feature that allows you to feed the paper forward or backward in l/180-inch increments to finely adjust the loading and short tear-off positions.

An auto-load feature lets you load a single sheet of paper automatically when not using the optional cut sheet feeder.

The Epson Extended Graphics character table, 14 international character sets, a legal symbol set, and an italic character table.

The ability to handle a wide range of paper types, including envelopes and labels.

Options

A variety of printer options is available for use with your printer.

For detailed information on using these options, see Chapter 5.

l

Single-bin and Double-bin Cut Sheet Feeders

(C806271, C806281)

The cut sheet feeders make it possible to handle single-sheet paper and envelopes more easily and more efficiently. Up to 150 sheets of standard bond paper can be automatically fed into the printer without reloading. Only the double-bin cut sheet feeder is shown below.

2 Introduction

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Pull Tractor Unit (C800161)

This option improves the performance of continuous paper handling. It is especially useful with continuous multi-part forms.

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Multi-Font Module (#7407)

The optional Multi-Font module adds to the number of fonts available in the Letter Quality mode.

Introduction 3

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Film Ribbon Cartridge (#7764)

The optional film ribbon cartridge provides you with even higher quality printing than the standard fabric ribbon.

l

Interface Boards

Optional interface boards are available to supplement the printer’s built-in parallel and serial interfaces. Guidelines for choosing the right interface and instructions on installing the boards are given in Chapter 5.

About This Manual

This user’s manual provides fully illustrated, step-by-step instructions on setting up and operating your Epson printer.

4 Introduction

Finding your way around

• Chapter 1 contains information on unpacking, setting up, testing, and connecting the printer. Be sure to read and follow these instructions first. Inside the back flap of this manual are illustrations of the printer in which all of the major parts are identified.

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Chapters 2 and 3 cover paper handling and general printer operation. This important information is necessary for the dayto-day operation of your printer.

Chapter 4 shows you how to get the most from your printer. It includes advice on the use of software commands and graphics, and creating your own user-defined characters. See Chapter 9 for a useful summary of printer commands.

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If the printer does not operate properly or the printed results are not what you expect, see Chapter 7 for troubleshooting instructions.

Other chapters and the appendix contain information on printer options, general maintenance, and specifications. You will also find a glossary of printer terms.

At the back of this manual is a handy Quick Reference card that contains the information you are most likely to need.

Conventions used in this manual

WARNINGS must be followed carefully to avoid damage to your printer and computer.

CAUTIONS should be followed carefully to ensure that your printer operates correctly.

Notes contain important information and useful tips on the operation of your printer.

Introduction 5

Application Notes

Also included in the box with your printer is a booklet called

Application Notes. It contains information on using specific software applications with your printer. Be sure to look at the booklet after you set up your printer.

Where to Get Help

Customer support and service for Epson products are provided by a network of authorized Epson dealers and Customer Care Centers throughout the United States. Epson America provides product information and support to its dealers and Customer Care Centers.

Therefore, we ask that you contact the business where you purchased your Epson product to request assistance. If the people there do not have the answer to your question, they can obtain it through our dealer support program.

Epson is confident that this policy will provide you with the assistance you need.

Call the Epson Consumer Information Center at l-800-922-8911 for the following: l l

The location of the nearest Epson dealer

The location of the nearest Customer Care Center l

Information on Epson User Groups.

To locate or purchase accessories or supplies, contact your nearest

Epson dealer or call l-800-873-7766.

6 Introduction

Chapter 1

Setting Up the Printer

Unpacking the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Checking the Parts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

Removing the Protective Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Choosing a Place for the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

Assembling the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8

Installing the Platen Knob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8

Installing the Ribbon Cartridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-9

Attaching the Paper Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-14

Testing the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-16

Plugging in the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-16

Running the Self Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-16

If

the Self Test Doesn’t Print. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-23

Connecting the Printer to Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-27

The Parallel Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-28

The Serial Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-29

Setting Up Your Application Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-32

Choosing From a Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-32

Setting Up the Printer 1-1

Unpacking the Printer

Checking the Parts

When you unpack the printer, make sure that you have all the parts shown below and that none have been damaged.

Platen knob

Color ribbon cartridge

Cross-head screwdriver

Connector lock nuts

Black ribbon cartridge

1-2 Setting Up the Printer

After removing the parts, save the packing materials in case you ever need to transport your printer.

The LQ-860 comes with one black ribbon cartridge (#7762) and one color ribbon cartridge (#7763).

Removing the Protective Materials

The printer is protected during shipping by two locking brackets.

These protective items must be removed before you turn on the printer. After removing these items, store them with the other packing material in case you ever need to transport your printer.

1. Open the printer cover.


2. Lift the paper guide cover and slide it back until the tabs on the cover fit into the raised slots on the printer. Leave the paper guide cover resting in this open position.

3. Remove any pieces of white packing material you find inside the printer.


4. Use the cross-head screwdriver that came with the printer to unscrew and remove the two transport locking brackets. Look straight down inside the printer to find the locking brackets. The brackets are orange and their screws are red.

5. Lower the paper guide cover and close the printer cover.

WARNING: Be sure to remove all protective materials before you turn on the printer.


Choosing a Place for the Printer

There are several important things to consider when selecting a place to set up your printer. Keep the following in mind:

Place the printer on a flat, hard, stable surface. A soft surface, such as a padded counter or carpeted area, will block the ventilation slots and may cause overheating.

Place the printer close enough to the computer for the printer cable to reach.

Leave adequate room around the printer to allow for easy printer operation and maintenance, and for unrestricted flow of air around the printer.

Use a grounded outlet; do not use an adapter plug.

Avoid locations that are subject to direct sunlight, excessive heat, moisture, or dust.

Avoid electrical outlets controlled by wall switches or automatic timers. Accidental interruption of power can wipe out information in both your computer’s memory and in your printer’s memory.

Avoid using outlets that share a circuit with large motors or electrical appliances; this could cause fluctuations in line voltage.

Keep the entire computer system away from potential sources of electromagnetic interference such as loudspeakers or the base units of cordless telephones.


The illustration below shows a good printer arrangement.

Note: Before using a printer stand, read these requirements and suggestions.

l

The stand should be able to support at least twice the weight of the printer.

l

Never use a stand that supports the printer at an angle of more than 15 degrees from horizontal.

l

With a cut sheet feeder, your printer must be kept level.

l

If your paper supply is positioned below the printer stand, make sure there is enough clearance to keep the paper from catching on the underside of the stand. Also, make sure the distance between the stand supports is wide enough for the paper you are using.

l

Position your printer’s cables so that they do not interfere with paper feeding. If possible, secure the cables to the printer stand.


Assembling the Printer

After you’ve decided on the best place to set up your printer, the next step is to install the platen knob.

Installing the Platen Knob

You use the platen knob to feed the paper manually in the event of a paper jam or other paper feeding problem. The platen knob is packed in an indentation in the printer’s white foam packing material.

1. Insert the platen knob into the hole on the printer’s side and rotate it slowly until it slips onto the shaft.

2. Push firmly on the platen knob until it fits against the printer case.

CAUTION: Do not use the platen knob to adjust the position of the paper. This interferes with the automatic paper loading system and may cause a paper jam.

1-8 Setting Up the Printer

Installing the Ribbon Cartridge

Your printer’s ribbon cartridges are designed for easy installation and removal. You install the standard ribbon cartridge, the color ribbon cartridge, and the optional film ribbon cartridge in the same way. A standard ribbon cartridge and color ribbon cartridge come with your printer.

Install the ribbon cartridge as follows:

1. Make sure the printer is turned off.


3. Open the paper guide cover.


4. Slide the print head approximately three inches toward the middle of the printer.

CAUTION: Never move the print head while the printer is turned on because this can damage the printer. Also, if you have been using the printer, the print head may be hot; let it cool for a few minutes before touching it.

5. Turn the ribbon-tightening knob in the direction of the arrow.

This removes slack in the ribbon and makes it easier to install.


6. Hold the ribbon cartridge while gently squeezing the two ridged plastic tabs together; then lower it until it snaps into place. The side hooks in the printer fit into the slots on each side of the ribbon cartridge, as shown below.

Note: Press lightly on both sides of the cartridge to make sure the plastic hooks are properly seated.


7. Turn the ribbon-tightening knob again to make sure the ribbon moves freely.

8. Grasp the print head and slide it from side to side to make sure it moves smoothly. Do not try to slide the print head by grasping the ribbon cartridge.

Note: Make sure the paper thickness lever on the left is set to position 2. See The Paper Thickness Lever in Chapter 2 if you are printing on special paper.


CAUTION:

Film ribbon cartridges must be used and stored within the following temperature ranges:

Operation: 60° F to 95° F (15° C to 35° C)

Storage: -22° F to 104° F (-30° C to 40° C)

Storing and using a film ribbon at high temperatures shortens the ribbon’s life expectancy, which is normally

100,000 characters (#7764). Film ribbon prints in red near the end of the ribbon. Replace the film ribbon at this point.

If you continue to use the ribbon beyond its life expectancy, printing suddenly becomes faint and the ribbon may snap.


Attaching the Paper Guide

When you use single sheets, the paper guide helps to feed the paper smoothly and efficiently into the printer. Attach the paper guide using the following procedure.


2. Place the paper guide on the printer, as shown below.


3. Raise the paper guide until it locks into place.

Note: To lower the paper guide, lift up slightly to release it from its locked position; then gently lower it down onto the printer.

4. Close the paper guide cover.


Testing the Printer

Now that your printer is fully assembled, you can use its built-in self test function to see that the printer is working correctly before you connect it to a computer. You should perform this test to make sure that your printer was not damaged during shipping and that the ribbon is correctly installed.

Before running the self test, you need to connect the printer to an electrical outlet and load a sheet of paper.

Plugging in the Printer

1. Make sure that the printer is turned off.

2. Plug the power cable into a properly grounded electrical outlet.

WARNING: Whenever you turn off the printer, wait at least five seconds before turning it back on. Rapid switching on and off can damage the printer.

Running the Self Test

The self test prints out the settings of the printer’s DIP switches and the characters in the printer’s memory. The test can be run in either high-speed draft, normal draft, or Letter Quality (LQ) mode.

You select the draft mode or Letter Quality mode, depending on which button you hold down as you turn on the printer. You choose between the high-speed draft and the normal draft mode by changing your printer’s DIP switch settings. The default setting is high-speed draft mode. To run the test in normal draft mode, see

Setting the DIP Switches in Chapter 3 before following the steps below.


With the color ribbon cartridge installed, the self test prints in seven colors: black, magenta, cyan, violet, yellow, red, and green.

With the black ribbon cartridge installed, some lines of the test print twice, making some lines darker than others.

CAUTION:

Never run the self test using paper that is narrower than 8.27 inches (210 mm). This prevents the print head from printing directly onto the platen, which can damage the print head.

Although the self test can be run with continuous paper, use singlesheet paper now because single-sheet loading is easier. Be sure to use paper that is wide enough for the self test to print. If you need to load continuous paper to print the self test, see Loading Continuous

Paper in Chapter 3.


2. Push the paper release lever back to the single-sheet position.


3.

While holding down the LINE FEED button (draft mode) or

FORM FEED button (Letter Quality mode), turn on the printer.

The printer beeps three times and the POWER and PAPER OUT lights come on.

4.

Open the paper guide cover.


5. Move the left edge guide to the right or left until it lines up with the triangular guide mark on the paper guide.

6. Adjust the right edge guide to match the width of your paper.

Setting Up the Printer 1-19

7. Next, slide a sheet of paper down between the edge guides until it meets resistance. After about two seconds, the printer loads the paper automatically and then starts the self test.

A list of DIP switch settings is printed first, followed by a series of characters. The self test continues until the paper runs out or until you press the ON LINE button.


9. If the test results are satisfactory and you wish to stop the test, press the ON LINE button.


If the test results are not satisfactory, see If the Self Test Doesn’t

Print later in this chapter for possible causes and solutions.

Note: To resume the test, press the ON LINE button once more.

10. To end the self test, press the ON LINE button. Then press the

LOAD/EJECT button to eject any paper that is still loaded. Turn off the printer.

WARNING: After turning the power off, always wait at least five seconds before turning it back on. Turning the power on and off rapidly can damage the printer.


Here are parts of typical self tests.

Normal draft mode

Count t-y

USA

France

Germany

U.K.

Denmark

Sweden

I t a l y

Spain

CG table

Italic

SW1-1 1-2 1-3 on on on on on o f f on o f f o n o n o f f o f f o f f o n on o f f o n o f f o f f o f f o n o f f o f f o f f

SW1-4 o f f

Page Length SW2

11"

C

12” C

1"Skip SW2

Invalid

C

V a l i d C

I n t e r f a c e SW2

Parallel

C

S e r i a l e v e n C

S e r i a l o d d C

S e r i a l n o n e

C

Baud Rate SW2

9600 BPS

C

19200 BPS

( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU

) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV

* + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 :

;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW

+ , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWX

, - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y

- . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ; ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

. / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[

/ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\

0123456789:;<=>?@@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]'

1-22

Setting Up the Printer

Letter Quality mode

! “ # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L

! “ # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M

“ # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N

# $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

$ % & ' ( ) * + , - ./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP

% & ' ( ) * + , - ./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ

& ’ ( ) * + , - . /0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR

' ( ) * + , - . /0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS

( ) * + , - . /0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST

) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 :;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU

* + , - . /0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV

+ , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW

Notes: l

With a black ribbon installed, some lines of the self test print twice, making some lines darker than others.

l

When using the optional cut sheet feeder, the first page of the self test printout is slightly different. For details, see The Cut

Sheet Feeder in Chapter 5.

If the Self Test Doesn’t Print

If the self test does not print properly, check the control panel and the print head area. If paper is jammed, turn off the printer and remove the paper using the platen knob. See that all packing material and shipping restraints have been removed from inside the printer. Then load a new sheet. (You can also see Chapter 7 for further information.)


Problem Solution

The printer does not print.

The printer sounds like it is printing, but nothing is printed.

The test did not print.

The ribbon may not be installed properly.

Turn off the printer, reinstall the ribbon cartridge, and then tighten the ribbon by turning the ribbon-tightening knob. Make sure the ribbon passes between the print head and ribbon guide.

The ribbon may be worn. Replace the ribbon cartridge. See Replacing the

Ribbon in Chapter 6.

Turn off the printer and repeat the self test. Make sure you hold down the

FORM FEED or LINE FEED button the entire time you are turning on the printer.

Turn off the printer and disconnect the cable from the host computer. Try the self test again.

If the printer still does not print the self test correctly, contact your Epson dealer or Epson authorized service center.


Problem

The print is faint or uneven.

Printed characters have part missing at the bottom as shown here.

A B C D

The printout is faint.

Solution

The ribbon cartridge may not be properly installed. Remove the ribbon cartridge and reinstall it; make sure the cartridge hooks are inserted securely into the printer.

The ribbon may be worn out. A worn ribbon can damage the print head and should be replaced. Install a new ribbon cartridge as soon as possible. See

Replacing the Ribbon in Chapter 6.

The paper thickness lever may not be set correctly for the paper you are using. Set the paper thickness lever to match the thickness of your paper. See The Paper

Thickness Lever in Chapter 2.

Dots are missing in the printed characters or graphics.

A line of dots is missing in the printout.

A B C D

The print head is damaged. Stop printing and contact your Epson dealer to have the print head replaced.




(continued)

Dots are missing in random positions.

A B C D

There is either too much slack in the ribbon or the ribbon has come loose and caught on something. Stop printing, turn off the printer, and reinstall the ribbon cartridge.

If the printer still does not print the self test correctly, contact your

Epson dealer or Epson authorized service center.


Connecting the Printer to Your Computer

Your printer has two separate interface connections: a parallel interface and an RS-232C compatible serial interface. If you are not sure which one is required by your computer, check your computer manual for this information.

serial interface

If you have a suitable shielded cable, you should be able to connect to most computers immediately. If you have one of the few computers that require a different type of interface, you need to install an optional interface board. See The Interface Boards in

Chapter 5.

The parallel interface is the printer’s default setting. If you need to use the built-in serial interface, be sure to change the DIP switch setting as shown in Chapter 3.

WARNING: Do not plug more than one interface cable into the printer at one time. This may damage the printer.


The Parallel Interface

Connect the parallel interface cable as described below:

1. Make sure that both your printer and computer are turned off.

2. Plug the cable connector securely into the printer.

3. Squeeze the wire clips together until they lock in place on either side of the connector.


4. If your cable has a ground wire, connect it to the ground screw beneath the interface connector.

5. Plug the other end of the cable into the computer. If there is a ground wire at the computer end of the cable, attach it to the ground connector at the back of the computer.

The Serial Interface

Connect the serial interface cable as described below:

1. Make sure both your printer and computer are turned off.


2. Plug the connector securely into the printer.

WARNING: Do not plug more than one interface cable into the printer at once. This may damage the printer.

3. Using a screwdriver, secure the connector by tightening the screw on each side of the connector.

Note: If the screws that come with the cable do not fit into the connector lock nuts on the interface, you need to replace these lock nuts with the connector lock nuts provided with the printer.


4. If your cable has a ground wire, attach it to the ground connector beneath the interface connector.

5. Plug the other end of the cable into the computer. If there is a ground wire at the computer end of the cable, attach it to the ground connector of the computer.


Setting Up Your Application Software

Now that you have set up and tested the printer, you should make sure that it works with your application programs.

Most application programs let you specify the type of printer you are using so that the program can take full advantage of the printer’s features. Many of these programs provide an installation or setup menu that presents a list of printers to choose from.

If your application program has a printer selection menu, use the instructions below.

Choosing From a Menu

Because the family of Epson printers shares a great many commands, you can use an application program even if it does not list the LQ-860 on its printer selection menu. If the printer is not listed, choose one of the following printers. They are listed in order of preference.

LQ-2550

LQ-2500

LQ-850 (LQ-950, LQ-1050)

LQ-800 (LQ-1000)

LQ-51O/LQ-500

LQ-1500

If you plan to print in color, choose the LQ-860, LQ-2550, or

LQ-2500.

If none of these printers is listed, select the first one available on the following list: LQ, EX, JX (color), FX, LX, RX, MX, Epson printer,

Standard printer, Draft printer.

To use all of the features of the printer, however, it is best to use a program with the LQ-860 on its menu. If your program does not list the printer, contact the software manufacturer to see if an update is available that supports your model.


Chapter 2

Paper Handling

Selecting a Paper Feeding Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Using Single Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-3

Loading Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-3

Reloading During Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-7

Using Continuous Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-8

Positioning Your Continuous Paper Supply. . . . . . . . . . 2-8

Loading Continuous Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-9

Switching Between Continuous and Single Sheets . . . . . . 2-16

Switching to Single Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-16

Switching Back to Continuous Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-20

Printing on Special Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-23

The Paper Thickness Lever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-23

Multi-part Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-27

Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-28

Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2-30

Paper Handling 2-l

Selecting a Paper Feeding Method

The paper release lever on the LQ-860 has three positions for use with the various methods of paper feeding. When you switch the paper path, you must change the lever to the correct position to ensure smooth operation.

The lever has three icons beside it. Each icon indicates its paper feeding method.

Single-sheet position: When you want to load single sheets from both the paper guide and the optional cut sheet feeder, set the lever in this position (all the way back).

PULL

Push tractor position: When you load continuous paper with the built-in push tractor, set the lever in this position (in the middle).

Pull tractor position: When you load continuous paper with the optional pull tractor, set the lever in this position (all the way forward). Even when you use the built-in push tractor at the same time, you must set the lever to this position. Only select this position if you are using the optional pull tractor.

2-2 Paper Handling

Using Single Sheets

Your printer can accommodate single sheets up to a maximum width of 10.1 inches (257 mm).

If you do most of your printing on single sheets, you may find it more convenient to install the optional cut sheet feeder. This option automatically inserts a new sheet and can hold up to 150 pages. For more details, see Chapter 5.

Loading Paper



Note: For normal use, the paper thickness lever is set to position

2. See The Paper Thickness Lever later in this chapter if you are printing on special paper.

Paper Handling 2-3

3. Turn on the printer. The POWER and PAPER OUT lights come on.

Note: Do not insert paper in the printer before turning on the printer.


2-4 Paper Handling

5. Move the left edge guide until it lines up with the guide mark.

(You may want to change this position later, depending on the margin settings of your application program.)

6. Adjust the right edge guide to match the width of your paper.

Paper Handling 2-5

7. Slide the paper down between the edge guides until it meets resistance and the PAPER OUT light goes off. After about two seconds, the printer loads the paper automatically and is set

ON LINE so that it can accept data from your computer.


WARNING: Never advance the paper using the platen knob except in the case of a paper jam or other paper feed problem. Using the platen knob while the printer is on may damage the printer and affect the loading and short tear-off positions.

Note: If the platen turns without loading the paper, press the

ON LINE button to take the printer off line and completely remove the paper. Then re-insert the paper more firmly.

If you need to adjust the position of the paper after it is loaded, use the micro-adjustment feature described in Adjusting the Loading

Position in Chapter 3.


You are now ready to begin printing.

To eject the paper, press the ON LINE button to take the printer off line; then press the LOAD/EJECT button.

Reloading During Printing

When you print a document of more than one page using singlesheet paper, the printer stops printing when it reaches the bottom of the page. Your application program may take the printer off line automatically. However, if the ON LINE light remains on, the first thing you do is press the ON LINE button to take the printer off line.

Once the ON LINE light is off, remove the sheet that has just been printed (if necessary, press the LOAD/EJECT button to eject the page).

Then load a new sheet to start printing the next page and follow any additional prompts from your software.

Paper Handling

2-7

Using Continuous Paper

The tractor built into your printer is remarkably easy to load and operate. Its low-profile design takes up little space and can handle paper up to 10.1 inches or 257 mm wide.

Positioning Your Continuous Paper Supply

An important consideration for achieving smooth and trouble-free paper feeding is the position of your paper supply. Three ways of positioning your printer and continuous paper supply are shown below.

Be sure to align the paper supply with the paper loaded in the tractor so that the paper feeds smoothly into the printer.


Loading Continuous Paper

1. Be sure that the printer is turned off.

2. Pull the paper release lever forward to the push tractor position, which is the middle position.

3. Open the paper guide cover and remove the paper guide.

Paper Handling 2-Y

4. Release the sprocket units by pulling the sprocket lock levers forward as shown below.

5. Slide the left sprocket unit all lever back to lock it in place.

the way to the left and press the

2-10 Paper Handling

6. Slide the right sprocket unit so that it roughly matches the width of your paper, but do not lock it.

7. Move the paper support midway between the two sprocket units.

Paper Handling 2-11

8. Open both sprocket covers.

CAUTION: Make sure that the first sheet of paper has a clean, straight edge before inserting it into the printer.

9. Fit the first four holes in the paper over the pins of both sprockets.

2-12 Paper Handling

10. Close the sprocket covers.

11. Slide the right sprocket unit to a position where the paper is straight and has no wrinkles. Then lock it in place.


12. Reattach the paper guide on top of the paper as shown below.

Note: For normal use, the paper thickness lever is set to position

2. If you are using special paper, see The Paper Thickness Lever later in this chapter for details.

13. Close the paper guide cover and turn on the printer.


14. Press the LOAD/EJECT button to feed paper to the loading position. Then press the ON LINE button to set the printer on line so that it can accept data. (Or, simply press ON LINE, and the printer loads the paper and then goes on line.)

The printer remembers the loading position and advances each page to the same position. If you need to adjust the loading position, use the micro-adjustment feature. See Adjusting the Loading Position in

Chapter 3.

CAUTION: Never adjust the loading position using the platen knob and never turn the platen knob while the printer is turned on.

When using continuous paper, you can choose the short tear-off feature to give you added paper handling capabilities. This feature makes it easier to detach printed pages and saves the blank pages that are usually lost between printing jobs. See Using Short Tear-off in Chapter 3 for details.


Switching Between Continuous and Single Sheets

Even with continuous paper loaded in the printer, the SmartPark feature allows you to easily switch to single-sheet printing without removing the continuous paper from the tractor.

Switching to Single Sheets

To switch from continuous paper to single sheets, follow the steps below.

1.

If the printer is on line, press the ON LINE button to set the printer off line.


2.

Tear off any outgoing sheets. If the paper has advanced past the print head, you need to press the FORM FEED button to advance your document to a point where it can be easily removed.

CAUTION: Make sure you tear off your printed document before pressing the LOAD/EJECT button. Reverse-feeding several pages at a time may result in a paper jam. This is especially true for narrow paper (less than 6 inches or

152.4 mm wide).


3.

Press the LOAD/EJECT button to feed the continuous paper backward out of the printer and into the standby position. The paper is still attached to the tractor but no longer in the paper path. The PAPER OUT light comes on when the paper is completely out of the paper path.

CAUTION: Pressing the LOAD/EJECT button once may not feed the paper far back enough to reach the standby position. If the PAPER OUT light does not come on, press the LOAD/EJECT button again. With normal-width continuous paper, you can press the LOAD/EJECT button up to three times. If, however, you are using narrow paper

(between 4 and 6 inches or 101.6 and 152.4 mm), you can press the LOAD/EJECT button only once. Also, do not use this button to eject labels.

WARNING: Never feed labels backward through the printer. Labels can easily come off the backing sheet and jam the printer.



5. Open the paper guide cover and lift the paper guide until it locks into place.

Paper Handling 2-19

6. Move the left edge guide until it aligns with the guide mark.

Adjust the right edge guide to match the width of your paper.

7. Slide a sheet of paper down between the edge guides until it meets resistance and the PAPER OUT light goes off. After about two seconds, the printer loads the paper automatically and sets itself ON LINE.


Switching Back to Continuous Paper

It is also easy to switch back to printing with continuous paper.

Before switching to continuous paper, make sure that the single sheet is ejected and the printer is off line.

2-20

Paper Handling


2. Lift up slightly on the paper guide and then lower it onto the back of the printer.


3. Pull the paper release lever forward to the push tractor position

(the middle position), then close the paper guide cover.

4.

Press the LOAD/EJECT button to feed the continuous paper to the loading position. Then, press the ON LINE button to set the printer on line so that it can accept data. (Or, simply press

ON LINE, and the printer loads the paper and then goes on line.)

2-22 Paper Handling

Printing on Special Paper

In addition to printing on single sheets and continuous paper, your printer can also print on a wide variety of paper types, including multi-part forms, labels, and envelopes.

If you are printing preprinted or multi-part forms or labels, it is recommended that you use the optional pull tractor. See The Pull

Tractor in Chapter 5.

Before printing on special types of paper, you need to change the paper thickness setting.

WARNING:

When printing on multi-part forms, labels, or envelopes, make sure that your application program settings keep the printing entirely within the printable area.

For multi-part forms and labels, you should not print any closer than one-half inch (13 mm) from either side of the paper.

For information on the printable area for envelopes, see

Envelopes later in this chapter.

The Paper Thickness Lever

To accommodate various thicknesses of paper, the printer is equipped with a paper thickness lever that can be set to eight positions. These positions are identified by a scale on the printer next to the lever.

Paper Handling

2-23

Note: For normal use, set the paper thickness lever to position 2 on the scale.

If you have installed the optional film ribbon cartridge, and you want to use single sheets or continuous paper, set the paper thickness lever to position 1.

The following table gives you general guidelines for selecting the right paper thickness lever position for the type of paper you are using:

Paper type

Paper (single sheets or continuous paper with film ribbon installed)

Thin paper

Paper (single sheets or continuous paper with standard ribbon installed)

24 lb paper (single sheets)

Multi-part forms

2-sheet

3-sheet

4-sheet

Labels

Envelopes

Air mail

Plain

Bond (20 lb.)

Bond (24 lb.)

Lever position

1

2 or 1

2

3

3

4

5

4

4 or 5

6

6

7

Note: If the lever is set to position 4 or higher, the printing speed may be reduced slightly.


To change the paper thickness setting, follow these steps.

1. Make sure that the printer is turned off. Then open the printer cover and the paper guide cover.

WARNING: If the printer has just been in use, the print head may be hot. Be careful not to touch it.

2. Make sure the print head is cool; then slide the print head to the middle of the printer.


3. Select the paper thickness you want according to the table at the beginning of this section. For normal use, the lever should always be set to position 2 on the scale.

4. Close the printer cover and the paper guide cover.

To help you check the position of the paper thickness lever, the orange MULTI-PART light on the control panel comes on if the lever is set to position 4 or higher.


WARNING: Always return the lever to position 2 when you go back to printing on ordinary paper. Continuous printing with the lever set at a position higher than 2 can shorten the life of the print head.

Printing past the edge of envelopes, multi-part forms, labels, or thicker-than-normal paper can damage the print head.

Multi-part Forms

With the built-in tractor unit, your printer can print on continuous multi-part forms. You can use multi-part forms that have up to four parts including the original. Make sure you set the paper thickness lever to the proper position.

Except for the paper thickness lever setting, you load multi-part paper the same way as continuous paper. For details, see Loading

Continuous Paper in this chapter. Also see Adjusting the Loading

Position and Page Length in Chapter 3.

When you set the paper thickness lever to position 4 or above, the

MULTI-PART light comes on and the printer reduces its printing speed.

CAUTION: Do not use multi-part forms with the singlesheet feeding system or the optional cut sheet feeder.


Labels

If you need to print labels, always use labels mounted on a continuous backing sheet with sprocket holes for use with a tractor.

Do not try to print labels as single sheets because labels on a shiny backing sheet almost always slip a little.

You load labels the same way that you load continuous paper except that the paper thickness lever must be adjusted for printing labels. See Loading Continuous Paper earlier in this chapter. For the correct paper thickness setting, see The Paper Thickness Lever earlier in this chapter.

WARNING: When loading labels, use the LINE FEED button to feed the sheet of labels beyond the rollers of the paper tension unit. (The loading position should be set at least

1.8 inches or 45 mm from the top edge of the sheet.)

Never feed labels backward through the printer. Labels can easily peel off the backing and jam the printer.

Therefore, never use the LOAD/EJECT button to eject labels.

Also, never use the short tear-off function with labels. (Be sure to set DIP switch 2-7 to OFF.) If a label does become stuck in the printer, contact your Epson dealer.

Because labels are especially sensitive to temperature and humidity, always use them under normal operating conditions. Don’t leave labels loaded in the printer between jobs; they curl around the platen and may jam when you resume printing.

2-28 Paper Handling

To eject labels from the printer, follow these steps:


2. Tear off the sheet of labels at the perforation behind the push tractor.

Paper Handling 2-29

3. Press the ON LINE button to set the printer off line. Then press the

FORM FEED button to eject the labels.

Envelopes

You can feed envelopes individually using the single-sheet loading feature. Before loading envelopes, adjust the position of the paper thickness lever according to the Paper Thickness Lever table earlier in this chapter. For details on paper handling, see Using Single

Sheets earlier in this chapter. See Chapter 5 for a description of how to use envelopes with the optional cut sheet feeder.

When manually feeding an envelope, you may have to push it down slightly to get it to feed properly. After about two seconds, the envelope loads automatically.


CAUTION:

The printable area for envelopes is shown below. The print head must not go past the left or right edge of the envelope or other thick paper. Make sure the page setup of your application program keeps the printing entirely within this printable area.

Always keep the longer side of the envelope horizontal.

If you use No. 6 envelopes, make sure the left edge guide is aligned with the arrow on the paper guide.

0.39 inch

(10 mm) or more

0.12 inch

(3 mm) or more

0.87 inch

(22 mm) or more

CAUTION:

Envelope printing is available only at normal temperature (41” F to 95° F or 5° C to 35° C).

To make sure that the printing fits within the printable area, always print a test sample using a normal sheet of paper before printing on envelopes.

Paper Handling

2-31

Chapter 3

Using the Printer

Operating the Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-2

Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-2

Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-3

SelecType . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-4

Other Control Panel Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-5

Setting the DIP Switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-6

Changing a DIP Switch Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6

The DIP Switch Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-7

The DIP Switch Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-10

Adjusting the Loading Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-14

The Loading Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-14

Using Micro-adjustment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-15

Using Short Tear-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-17

Using the DIP Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-17

Using the

TEAR OFF

Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-19

Adjusting the Tear-off Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-20

Selecting Typestyles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-21

Character Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-21

Character Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-24

Selecting a Character Set and Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26

Selecting an International Character Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26

Choosing a Character Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-28

Using the Data Dump Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-29

Using the Printer 3-1

Operating the Control Panel

The indicator lights give you the current status of the printer. The buttons let you control many of the printer settings.

Lights

POWER (green)

On when the POWER switch is on and power is supplied.

READY (green)

On when the printer is ready for input data. Flickers during printing.

PAPER OUT (red)

On when the printer is out of paper or when continuous paper is in the standby position.

ON LINE (green)

On when the printer is on line and ready to accept data.

MULTI-PART (orange)

On when the paper thickness lever is set to position 4 or higher.

(For regular paper, this light should not be on.) When this light is blinking, you can use the micro-adjustment function.

TEAR OFF (orange)

On when the printer is in the tear-off mode.

3-2 Using the Printer

Buttons

ON LINE

This button controls the printer’s on line and off line status. Press this button to put the printer on line or to take it off line. When the printer is on line, the ON LINE light is on and the printer can receive and print data from the computer.

FORM FEED

When the printer is off line, press this button to eject a single sheet of paper or to advance continuous paper to the top of the next page.

LINE FEED

When the printer is off line, press this button to advance the paper one line, or hold it down to advance the paper continuously.

LOAD/EJECT

When the printer is off line, press this button to feed paper to the loading position or to eject paper that is already loaded. Paper is ejected forward if the paper release lever is set to the single-sheet position and backward (out of the paper path) if the release lever is set to the continuous paper position.

BIN 1/BIN 2

When the printer is on line, press this button to select either bin 1 or bin 2 of the double-bin cut sheet feeder. The beeper sounds once if you select bin 1 and twice if you select bin 2.


TEAR OFF

Press this button to feed the perforation of continuous paper to the tear-off edge of the printer. After tearing off the paper, press this button again to feed the paper backward to the loading position.

SelecType

FONT

Press this button to select LQ ROMAN, LQ SANS SERIF, DRAFT mode, or a cartridge font (if installed). The indicator light shows the font you select. See Selecting Typestyles later in this chapter.

PITCH

Press this button to select the character spacing. You can choose

10 CPI, 12 CPI, 15 CPI, 17 CPI, 20 CPI, or PROPORTIONAL spacing. The orange indicator light shows the spacing you select. You cannot select proportional spacing with draft mode. (Draft mode overrides proportional spacing.)


Other Control Panel Features

The control panel of your printer also gives you access to several special functions.

Self test:

Micro-adjustment: By pressing the FORM FEED or LINE FEED button immediately after loading paper or when using short tear-off, you can make fine adjustments to the loading and short tear-off positions. These positions can only be adjusted while the MULTI-PART light is blinking. See Adjusting the Loading Position and Using Short Tear-off later in this chapter.

Data dump:

Both a draft and Letter Quality self test function are built into the printer. The self test printout lets you check the current DIP switch settings and operating status of the printer.

You can start the printer’s self test by holding down the LINE FEED button (for draft mode) or the FORM FEED button (for Letter Quality mode) while turning on the printer. See

Running the Self Test in Chapter 1 for more information.

By holding down both the LINE FEED and

FORM FEED buttons while you switch on the printer, you turn on the data dump mode.

This feature allows advanced users to locate the source of communications problems between the computer and printer. See Using the Data Dump Mode later in this chapter for more information.

Input buffer control: To enable or disable the input buffer, press the

LOAD/EJECT button while you turn on the power. The beeper sounds once if the input buffer is disabled and twice if it is enabled.


Setting the DIP Switches

The printer has two sets of DIP (Dual Inline Package) switches located inside the printer cover to the left of the control panel. By changing the settings of these switches, you can control various printer features, such as the character set and page length. The new settings become effective when you turn on, reset, or initialize the printer.

Changing a DIP Switch Setting

To change a DIP switch setting, follow these steps:

1. Turn off the printer.



3. Use a pointed object, such as a pen, to change the DIP switch settings. A DIP switch is on when it is set toward the back of the printer, and off when it is set toward the front of the printer.

4. Close the printer cover.

The new DIP switch settings take effect when you turn the printer on.

The DIP Switch Tables

The tables below describe the DIP switch settings.

DIP Switch 1

SW Description l - l International character set l-2 Code page table

1-3 l-4 Character table l-5 Print direction for graphics l-6 High-speed draft l-7 Cut sheet feeder mode l-8 Skip over perforation

ON OFF

See tables 1, 4

Graphics

Unidir.

OFF

ON

ON

Italics

Bidir.

ON

OFF

OFF

Using the Printer

3-7

DIP Switch 2

Table 1 International character sets

See Selecting an International Character Set later in this chapter for other character sets.

International character sets are selectable only when DIP switch 1-4 is off.


Table 2 Interface/parity selection

Interface type Parity SW 2-3 SW 2-4

Parallel

Serial

Serial

Serial

OFF

Even ON

Odd

OFF

OFF

OFF ON

None ON ON

Table 3 Baud rate selection

Baud rate SW 2-5 SW 2-6

9600 bps OFF OFF

1 9 2 0 0 b p s O N

1200 bps

OFF

OFF ON

300 bps ON ON

Table 4 Code page tables

Code page tables are selectable only when the DIP switch 1-4 is on.

Table 5 Page length selection

Using the Printer 3-9

The DIP Switch Functions

Character sets and tables

DIP switches l-1, 1-2, and l-3 select an international character set or a code page table based on the setting of DIP switch 1-4. When DIP switch l-4 is off, DIP switches l-l, 1-2, and l-3 select an international character set. When DIP switch l-4 is on, DIP switches 1-1, l-2, and l-3 select a code page table.

Also, when DIP switch l-4 is off, the italics character table is selected. When DIP switch l-4 is on, the Epson Extended Graphics character table is selected.

These character sets and code page tables are in the appendix.

Printing direction

With unidirectional printing, the print head prints in one direction only. This allows for precise vertical alignment, making it ideal for printing graphics such as lines and boxes. When DIP switch l-5 is on, the printer prints unidirectionally; when it is off, the printer prints bidirectionally. Either setting can be overridden by a software command (ESC U). To achieve precise vertical alignment without the slower printing speed caused by unidirectional printing, see your authorized service dealer for adjustment of your bidirectional print settings.

High-speed draft

When DIP switch l-6 is off, high-speed draft is selected. When the

DIP switch is on, normal draft is selected. High-speed draft prints at

300 characters per second but produces characters that are not as fully formed as the ones produced with normal draft. If you select a feature such as emphasized, double-strike, or condensed in highspeed draft mode, the printing speed temporarily switches to normal draft speed until the enhancement is turned off. This allows you to use any print enhancement without canceling high-speed draft.

3-10 Using the Printer

Skip over perforation

By changing the setting of DIP switch l-8, you can set skip over perforation to on or off. If this feature is on when using continuous paper, a one-inch margin is provided between the last printable line on one page and the first printable line on the next page. This feature is very convenient if your application program does not provide for top and bottom margins.

If you adjust your loading position correctly, you can get half of the margin at the bottom of one page and half at the top of the next page, as shown in the following illustration.

DIP switch l-8 off (Skip over perforation off) l l

23456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]

3456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^

456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_

56789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_' l l

6789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_'a

789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_'ab

89:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_'abc

9:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_'abcd

:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\l^_'abcde

DIP switch l-8 on (Skip over perforation on) l

23456789:; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]'

3456789:; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_ l l l

456789:; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_

56789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_'a

6789:; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_'ab

Using the Printer 3-11

Note: Most application programs take care of top and bottom margins. Use skip over perforation only if your program does not provide these margins.

The skip over perforation setting can be set to values other than one inch by using the ESC N command. See the Command

Summary in Chapter 9 for details.

Page length

To obtain one of the four page lengths, set DIP switches 2-1 and 2-2 according to the Page length selection table. The page lengths are:

8.5 inches (216 mm), 11 inches (279 mm),

11.7 inches (296 mm), and

12 inches (305 mm).

Page length selection

Page length

11 inches

12 inches

8.5 inches

11.7 inches

SW 2-l SW 2-2

OFF OFF

ON OFF

OFF ON

ON ON

Note: If you are using the cut sheet feeder, the page length is automatically set when you run the printer’s self test. For details, see The Cut Sheet Feeder in Chapter 5.

Other page lengths can be set using the commands ESC C and

ESC C 0. See the Command Summary in Chapter 9 for details”


Interface selection and communications parameters

DIP switches 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, and 2-6 select communications parameters that you need to set if you are using the serial interface on the printer.

DIP switches 2-3 and 2-4 select the type of interface you are using and the parity setting for the serial interface. DIP switches 2-5 and

2-6 select the baud rate at which the serial port will transmit and receive data.

Tear-off mode

When DIP switch 2-7 is on, the short tear-off mode is on. This feature automatically advances continuous paper to the tear-off position so you can tear off the page. Then it reverse-feeds the paper to the loading position before printing the next document. See the section on using short tear-off later in this chapter.

CAUTION: Do not use the short tear-off mode with labels.

Auto line feed

When auto line feed is on (DIP switch 2-8 on), each carriage return code (CR) is automatically followed by a line feed code (LF).


Adjusting the Loading Position

The Loading Position

The loading position is the position of the paper when it has been automatically loaded by the printer.

This position is important because it determines where the printing begins on the page. If the printing is too high or too low on the page, change the loading position using the micro-adjustment feature described in the next section.

You can set separate loading positions for single sheets, continuous paper, and sheets loaded by the cut sheet feeder.

CAUTION:

Never use the platen knob to feed paper except in case of a paper jam or other paper feeding problem. (If you need to use the platen knob, make sure the power is off.) If you need to adjust the loading position, always use the micro-adjustment feature.

Until the loading position is reset, the printer remembers this position even if it is turned off, and uses it as a reference point for feeding paper.

The micro-adjustment feature moves the paper in l/180-inch increments to make fine adjustments to the loading position. You can use this feature to adjust the loading position immediately after loading paper only.

Once you have used micro-adjustment to change the loading position of continuous paper, the printer remembers that position even after it is turned off. When you use micro-adjustment to change the loading position of single-sheet paper, however, the printer does not remember this position after the power is turned off. When the power is turned back on, the loading position returns to its factory setting.


Using Micro-adjustment

1. Make sure that the printer is turned on and that either a single sheet or continuous paper is ready to be loaded.

2. If you are using the cut sheet feeder or continuous paper, press the LOAD/EJECT button to feed paper to the loading position.

Then press the ON LINE button. (Or, simply press ON LINE, and the printer loads the paper and then goes on line.) If you are using single sheets, wait two seconds; the printer loads paper and then goes on line automatically. In both cases, the MULTI-

PART light begins to blink.

LOAD

EJECT

ON LINE

MULTI-

PART

Note: You can use the FORM FEED and LINE FEED buttons for micro-adjustment only while the MULTI-PART light is blinking.


3. The dots on the clear plastic ribbon mask show you where the bottom edge of your first line of text will print. This position is based on the first printable line of text. Press the FORM FEED button to feed the paper backward or the LINE FEED button to feed the paper forward.

Note: When the paper reaches the factory-set loading position, the printer beeps and micro-adjustment feeding pauses for a moment before continuing. You can use this factory setting as a reference point when adjusting the printer’s loading position.

When the paper reaches either the minimum or maximum top margin, the printer beeps and the paper stops moving.

Once you have adjusted your paper, the printer remembers this new loading position. When the printer receives data, the MULTI-PART light stops flashing.


Using Short Tear-off

You can use the short tear-off feature in one of two ways. If DIP switch 2-7 is on and the printer does not receive data for three seconds after it has reached the bottom margin or received a form feed, the short tear-off feature automatically feeds the perforation of the continuous paper to the tear-off edge of the printer cover so that you can tear off the last sheet. When you resume printing, the paper feeds backward to the loading position. This feature lets you save the paper normally lost between documents.

You can also use the short tear-off feature by pressing the TEAR OFF button on the control panel to feed the perforation of the paper to the tear-off edge of the printer. After tearing off the paper, press

TEAR OFF again to feed the paper backward to the loading position.

Note: You can use the tear-off feature only with the built-in tractor feeding system.

Using the DIP Switch

1. Set DIP switch 2-7 to on.

2. Load continuous paper in the normal way. Leave the paper guide cover open so that you can use the cover’s tear-off edge.

You can leave the short tear-off feature on (DIP switch 2-7 on) even when using single sheets. Moving the paper release lever to the single-sheet position disables the short tear-off feature.

WARNING: Never use short tear-off with labels.

Otherwise, labels may come off their backing and jam the printer.


When you have finished printing, and if the perforation is at the top of form position, the printer automatically feeds the perforation of the continuous paper to the tear-off edge of the printer cover. You can then tear off the page using the tear-off edge as shown below.

If the page perforation is not properly aligned with the tear-off edge, you can adjust the tear-off position using micro-adjustment, as described later in this section.

Note: Short tear-off is performed whenever the printer receives a full page of data or a form feed and no more data is received for three seconds.

When you resume printing after tearing off the sheet, the paper automatically feeds backward to the loading position before printing begins.


Using the TEAR OFF Button

1. When you have finished printing, press the TEAR OFF button once. The orange TEAR OFF light comes on and the printer feeds the paper’s perforation to the tear-off edge of the printer cover.

2. Tear off the page using the tear-off edge.

3.

Press the TEAR OFF button again to feed the paper back to its loading position.


Adjusting the Tear-off Position

If the paper’s perforation does not meet the tear-off edge, you can adjust the tear-off position using the micro-adjustment feature.

1. Make sure the printer feeds the paper to the tear-off position after printing the document. The TEAR OFF light should be on and the MULTI-PART light should begin blinking, indicating that you can now use the micro-adjustment feature to make fine adjustments to the tear-off position.

2. To make fine adjustments to the tear-off position, press the

FORM FEED button to feed the paper backward or the LINE FEED button to feed it forward.

You can now tear off your document from the perforation and resume printing. The printer remembers this new tear-off position even after the printer is turned off and on again.


Selecting Typestyles

You can produce a wide range of typestyles by selecting different character fonts, widths, and other enhancements from the SelecType control panel or by using software commands. This section describes only the features controlled by SelecType. To use software commands, see the Command Summary in Chapter 9.

You can use the SelecType section of the control panel to choose fonts and character spacings. Orange lights indicate which features you have chosen.

Note: The settings you select using the SelecType panel remain valid even after you turn off, reset, or initialize the printer.

However, commands from your application program temporarily override the SelecType settings.

Some application programs are designed to control all typestyle functions. These programs cancel all previous typestyle settings by sending certain software commands before printing. Because these commands override SelecType settings, you should use the program’s print options instead of SelecType to select your typestyles. If SelecType does not work with a particular application, check your software manual for instructions on selecting typestyles.

Character Fonts

The printer has six built-in fonts: high-speed draft, draft, Roman,

Roman proportional, Sans Serif, and Sans Serif proportional.

Using the Printer

3-21

To select a font, press the FONT button until the font’s orange indicator light comes on. Note that font selection skips over SLOT A or SLOT B if no optional font module is installed in that slot.

DRAFT

ROMAN

SANS SERIF

SLOT A

SLOT B

FONT

There are two printing speeds for the DRAFT font, high-speed draft and normal draft. These printing speeds are controlled by DIP switch 1-6.

The following samples show the character set available for each font.

DRAFT

W e ’ v e j u s t s e e n y o u r e x c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s i n a r e c e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

T r a d e r ' s T i m e s .

W h a t i s t h e p r i c e s c h e d u l e f o r q u a n t i t i e s o v e r o n e g r o s s ?


ROMAN

W e ’ v e j u s t s e e n y o u r e x c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s i n a r e c e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

T r a d e r ’ s

T i m e s . What is the price schedule for quantities over o n e g r o s s ?

SANS SERIF

W e ’ v e j u s t s e e n y o u r e x c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s i n a r e c e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

T r a d e r ’ s T i m e s . W h a t i s t h e p r i c e s c h e d u l e f o r q u a n t i t i e s o v e r o n e g r o s s ?

The DRAFT mode uses fewer dots per character for high-speed printing, which makes it ideal for rough drafts and editing work.

ROMAN and SANS SERIF are Letter Quality (LQ) fonts. Letter Quality fonts take a little longer to print, but produce nicely formed characters suitable for most documentation requirements.

Other fonts are available on optional font cartridges. See The Multi-

Font Module in Chapter 5.


Character Spacing

To select character spacing, press the PITCH button until the indicator light of the desired character spacing comes on.

10 CPI

12 CPI

15 CPI

17 CPI

20 CPI

PROPORTIONAL

PITCH

Note: Some of the fonts in the optional font module do not offer all character spacings. See The Multi-Font Module in Chapter 5.

For each of the two Letter Quality fonts, you can choose a fixed character pitch of 10, 12, 15, 17, or 20 characters per inch (cpi) or proportional spacing. However, high-speed draft and normal draft fonts cannot be combined with proportional spacing. Draft overrides proportional.

For the fixed pitch settings (10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 cpi), each character is given an equal amount of space. For proportional spacing, character width varies from one character to the next. For example, a narrow letter like i receives less space than a wide letter like W.


The following printout compares the five pitches with proportional spacing.

T h i s is

1 0 c p i p r i n t i n g .

This is 12 cpi printing.

This is 15 cpi printing.

This is 17 cpi printing,


This is proportional spacing.


Selecting a Character Set and Table

Selecting an International Character Set

International character sets provide you with the characters and symbols used in other languages. You can select one of eight international character sets by changing the DIP switch settings,

Whenever the printer is turned on, reset, or initialized, the character set selected by the DIP switches becomes the default character set.

To select an international character set, set DIP switches l-l, 1-2, and

1-3 according to the table below. DIP switch l-4 must be off.

This table also shows the characters that differ in each international character set.

CAUTION: To change the setting of a DIP switch, first turn off the printer, change the DIP switch setting, and then turn the printer back on.


In addition to the eight character sets shown above, the seven international character sets that follow can be selected with a software command: ESC R. For more information, see the

Command Summary in Chapter 9.

ASCII decimal code

Country

8 Japan

9 Norway

10 Denmark II

11 Spain II

12 Latin America

13 Korea

64 Legal

Once you set the DIP switches for a certain character set, that set remains valid even after you turn off, reset, or initialize the printer.

Software commands, however, override the DIP switch settings until the commands are canceled or the printer is turned off, reset, or initialized.


Choosing a Character Table

DIP switch 1-4 selects either the italic character table or the Epson

Extended Graphics character table. The Epson Extended Graphics character table contains international accented characters, Greek characters, mathematic symbols, and character graphics for printing lines, corners, and shaded areas.

If you have an IBM@ or IBM-compatible computer, select the Epson

Extended Graphics table when you wish to print character graphics as they are displayed on the screen. Even if you select Epson

Character Graphics, you can still print ordinary text and italics. For italics, see the description of the ESC 4 command in the Command

Summary, Chapter 9.

Note: In most cases, Epson Extended Graphics is the preferred selection.

To select a character table, set DIP switch l-4 according to the table below.

0I

.

CAUTION:

To change the setting of a DIP switch, first turn off the printer, change the DIP switch, and then turn the printer back on.

Sample printouts of the italic characters and the Epson Extended

Graphics characters are shown in the appendix.


Using the Data Dump Mode

The data dump mode is a special feature that makes it easy for experienced users to identify the cause of communication problems between the printer and application programs. The data dump mode gives a printout of the codes reaching the printer.

To use the data dump mode, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the printer is loaded with either single-sheet or continuous paper.

2. If the printer is on, turn it off; then hold down the FORM FEED and LINE FEED buttons at the same time you turn on the printer.

3. Run any program that causes the printer to print (either an application program or one in any programming language).

Your printer prints out all the codes sent to the printer, as shown below. (To print the last line, you must take the printer off line.)

1B 4 0 1B 5 2 0 0 1B 7 4 0 1 1B 3 6 1 2 1B 5 0 1B 7 0 0 0

2 0 2 0 5 4 6 8 6 9 7 3 2 0 6 9 7 3 2 0 6 1 6 E 2 0 6 5 7 8 6 1

6 D 7 0 6 C 6 5 2 0 6 F 6 6 2 0 6 1 2 0 6 4 6 1 7 4 6 1 2 0 6 4

7 5 6 D 7 0 2 0 7 0 7 2 6 9 6 E 7 4 6 F 7 5 7 4 2 E 2 0 5 4 6 8

6 9 7 3 2 0 6 6 6 5 6 1 7 4 7 5 7 2 6 5 2 0 6 D 6 1 6 B 6 5 7 3

0 A 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 6 9 7 4 2 0 6 5 6 1 7 3 7 9 2 0 6 6 6 F

. @ . R . . t . . 6 . . P . p .

T h i s i s a n e x a m p l e o f a d a t a d u m p p r i n t o u t . T h i s f e a t u r e m a k e s

. easy o

On the left side of the printout all the codes are printed in hexadecimal format. On the right side of the printout all printable characters are printed, and others, such as control codes, are represented by dots.

4. To turn off the data dump mode press ON LINE to take the printer off line. Then turn off the printer. (You can also cancel the data dump mode by sending an INIT signal from the computer.)

By reading the characters printed in the text field on the right side of the data dump printout (see step 3) or the printout of hex codes, you can check which codes are being sent to the printer.


To interpret the sample data dump printout, examine the first three hex codes on the second line of the printout sample (20 20 54). Each hex code 20 represents a space; hex code 54 represents the letter T.

Check the second line of the text field on the right side of the printout and you will find the letter T preceded by two spaces.

The chart below interprets the first eight codes of the sample printout.

Hex codes

1B40 l B 5 2 0 0 l B 7 4 0 1

Command

ESC

ESCRO

ESCt1

Function

Initialize printer

Select USA character set

Select Epson Extended Graphics set


Chapter 4

Software and Graphics

Enhancing Your Printing . . . . . . .

Print Quality and Fonts . . . . . .

Character Spacing . . . . . . . . . . .

Character Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Special Effects and Emphasis. .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Color Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Print Head. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Graphics Command . . . . .

Column Reservation Numbers

A Simple Graphics Program . .

Designing Your Own Graphics

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14

User-defined Characters. . . . . . . .

Designing Your Characters . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-19

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-19

Defining Your Characters . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-21

Sending Information to Your Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23

Printing User-defined Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26

Copying ROM Characters to RAM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27

Letter Quality Characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4-28

Mixing Print Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4-29

Software and Graphics 4-l

Enhancing Your Printing

You can obtain a wide variety of printing effects with the LQ-860 printer, from changing the number of characters per inch to using special effects on selected words and phrases. This section gives you a sampling of the features you may select with your software.

For software control of these features, see the instructions for your application programs or look up their specific commands in the

Command Summary in Chapter 9.

Print Quality and Fonts

The printer has three levels of print quality: high-speed draft, normal draft, and Letter Quality (LQ). Draft printing speeds are controlled by DIP switch 1-6.

High-speed draft is ideal for rough drafts and large documents or reports that you need to print quickly. Normal draft takes a bit longer but offers higher resolution characters. Finally, Letter Quality takes even longer, but produces darker, more fully-formed characters suitable for presentation-quality documents.

For Letter Quality printing, the printer offers two fonts, Roman and

Sans Serif. To expand your range of typestyles, you can also use the optional font module. For more information, see The Multi-Font

Module in Chapter 5.

You can select any of three built-in fonts (draft, Roman, and Sans

Serif) with a software command (see Chapter 9) or by SelecType (see

Chapter 3).

D r a f t p r i n t i n g i s e x t r e m e l y f a s t .

NLQ Roman is clear and typewriter-like.

N L Q S a n s S e r i f i s c r i s p a n d d i s t i n c t i v e .

4-2


Note: High-speed draft is available only with 10 cpi printing.

Underlining and double-width printing can be combined with high-speed draft. If other enhancements or character spacings are selected, the printer switches to normal draft speed. High-speed draft resumes again after the feature is turned off.

Character Spacing

To add greater variety to your documents, the printer has five cpi spacings, as well as proportional spacing. You can select each one with a software command or with SelecType.

For each of the Letter Quality fonts (Roman and Sans Serif), you can choose a character spacing of 10, 12, 15, 17, or 20 cpi, or proportional spacing. However, you cannot combine normal draft mode with proportional spacing, and high-speed draft mode is available only in 10 cpi printing.

The printout below compares the five spacings:

T h i s i s 1 0 c p i p r i n t i n g .

This is 12 cpi printing.


This is 17 cpi printing,


As shown above, 15 cpi characters are only about two-thirds the height of 10 and 12 cpi characters. This makes 15 cpi particularly useful when you want to separate certain material from the main text.

Software and Graphics 4-3

In fixed cpi spacing each character is given the same amount of space. The width of proportional characters, however, varies from character to character. For example, a narrow letter like i takes less space than a wide letter like W. The width of each proportional character is given in the appendix.

The following printout compares 10 cpi spacing with proportional spacing:

T h i s i s 1 0 c p i p r i n t i n g .

This is proportional spacing.

Note: Proportional spacing is not available in the draft mode.

Character Size

In addition to the basic cpi spacings and proportional spacing, the printer offers three other modes that can change the size of your printing. These modes are double-wide, double-high, and condensed.

The double-wide mode doubles the width of any size character, while the double-high mode doubles the height of any size character. These modes are useful for emphasizing document titles and headings in reports, but are usually not suitable for large amounts of text. These modes can also be combined to obtain even more impressive printing results.

This is normal 10 cpi printing.

T h i s i s d o u b l e - w i d e .

This is double-high,

This is double-wide and double-high.

4-4 Software and Graphics

Both 10 and 12 cpi printing and proportional spacing can be reduced to about 60 percent of their normal width using the condensed mode. This mode is particularly useful for printing wide spreadsheets because condensed 12 cpi printing allows you to print up to

160 characters on an 8-inch line.

You select the condensed mode with a software command. See

ESC SI in Chapter 9 for more information.

Condensed 10 cpi gives you character on a line.

Condensed 12 cpi gives even more.

Widening or narrowing the characters also widens or narrows the spaces between words. Because word processors usually create a left margin by printing spaces, you may need to change the left margin and the number of characters on a line to keep the margins correct if you change character widths.

Note: You cannot condense 15, 17, or 20 cpi.

High-speed draft temporarily switches to normal draft speed when you select condensed printing.

Special Effects and Emphasis

The printer offers two ways of emphasizing text and also allows you to use underlining, superscripts, subscripts, and italics. You can directly control these features using software commands. Many application programs can also produce some of these effects. See your application program manual for details.


4-5

Emphasized and double-strike printing

Emphasized and double-strike printing can give words and phrases added prominence. In emphasized mode, the printer prints each character twice as the print head moves across the paper, with the dots in the second pass printed slightly to the right of the first pass.

This process produces darker, more fully-formed characters.

In double-strike mode, the print head prints each line twice, making the text bolder. For even greater boldness, you can combine emphasized and double-strike. The following samples show the different effects you can achieve using these modes alone and in combination.

This is ROMAN p r i n t i n g .

This is ROMAN, emphasized.

This i s R O M A N , d o u b l e - s t r i k e .

This is ROMAN, with both.

Note: High-speed draft temporarily switches to normal draft speed when you select emphasized or double-strike printing.

See ESC E and ESC G in Chapter 9 for more information.

Italic printing

You can print italics by using the ESC 4 software command. This is true no matter how DIP switch 1-4 is set.

T h i s i s

R O M A N p r i n t i n g .

T h i s i s R O M A N i t a l i c s .

4-6


Underlining, strike-through, and overlining

The underline, strike-through, and overline modes are useful for highlighting selected text. This feature can be used to score spaces, subscripts, and superscripts without a break. You can choose from a variety of line styles, including single, double, broken, or continuous. See the ESC (- command in Chapter 9 for more information.

This is continuous underlining.

Superscripts and subscripts

Superscripts and subscripts can be used for printing footnote numbers and mathematical formulas. See ESC S in Chapter 9 for more information. The example below shows underlining and subscripts combined in a mathematical formula.

average =

(a1

+ a2

+ .

. . .

.

. . .

.

.

+ a n ) n

Outline and shadow

The outline and shadow features are useful for adding variation and emphasis to text that you wish to stand out, such as headings. See

ESC q in Chapter 9 for more information. The following samples show the outline and shadow features individually, plus a combination of outline with shadow.


Graphics

The dot graphics mode allows your printer to produce color or black and white pictures, graphs, charts, or almost any other pictorial image you can create.

Because many commercial software programs use graphics, you may be able to print graphs like the one on this page and pictures simply by giving your software a few instructions.

The quickest and easiest way to print graphics on your printer is to use a commercial graphics program. With such programs you usually create an image on your monitor then give a command to send the image to the printer.

If you use commercial software that produces graphics, all you need to know about dot graphics is how to use the software. The application program will take care of the printer. (Some programs call this bit image printing.) On the other hand, if you wish to do your own programming or merely wish to understand how this printer prints graphics, read on.

I n c o m e B r e a k d o w n

4-8 Software and Graphics

Color Graphics

With a color ribbon and the appropriate software, you can print graphics in up to seven colors. Be sure your graphics program supports color on the LQ-860.

The Print Head

To understand dot graphics you need to know a little about how your printer’s print head works.

The print head has 24 pins. As the print head moves across the page, electrical impulses cause the pins to fire. Each time a pin fires, it strikes the inked ribbon and presses it against the paper producing a small dot. As the print head moves along, the pins fire time after time in different patterns forming letters, numbers, and symbols.

Because the dots overlap each other both horizontally and vertically in Letter Quality mode, it is difficult to see the individual dots.

Instead, the letters and symbols seem to be made up of unbroken lines.

In order for the dots to overlap vertically, the pins in the print head are in more than one column, but the intelligence of the printer handles the timing of pin firings so that the effect is that of 24 pins arranged in a single vertical column.

Dot patterns

The print head is able to print graphics as well as text because graphic images are formed on the printer in about the same way that pictures in newspapers and magazines are printed. If you look closely at a newspaper photograph, you will find that it is made up of thousands of small dots. Your printer also forms its images with patterns of dots, as many as 360 dots per inch horizontally and 360 dots per inch vertically. The images printed by this printer can, therefore, be as finely detailed as the one at the beginning of this section.


Twenty-four-pin graphics

The graphics mode that takes full advantage of this printer’s print head is 24-pin graphics. This mode has five densities, but for simplicity this explanation deals with only one of them, tripledensity.

Triple-density prints up to 180 dots per inch horizontally. As the print head moves across the paper, every 1/180th of an inch it must receive instructions about which of its 24 pins to fire. At each position it can fire any number of pins, from none to 24. This means that the printer must receive 24 bits of information for each column it prints. Because the printer uses 8-bit bytes of information in communicating with the computer, it needs three bytes of information for each position.

Pin labels

To tell the printer which pins to fire in each column, you first divide each of the vertical columns into three sections of eight pins each and consider each section separately. Because there are 256 possible combinations of the eight pins in each section, you need a numbering system that allows you to use a single number to specify which of the 256 possible patterns you want. This numbering system is shown below:

128

64

32

16

2

1

8

4

To fire any one pin, you send its number to the printer. To fire more than one pin at the same time, add up the numbers of the pins and send the total. Using these labels for the pins, you fire the top pin by sending 128. To fire the bottom pin, you send 1. If you want to fire only the top and bottom pins, you simply add 128 and 1 and send 129.


By adding the appropriate label numbers together, you can fire any combination of pins. Below are three examples of how to calculate the number that will fire a particular pattern of pins.

With this numbering system, any combination of the eight pins adds up to a decimal number between 0 and 255, and no numbers are duplicated.

Because there are 24 pins in each column, you must make a calculation for each of the three sections in each column. As you can see, this method of planning and printing dot graphics requires considerable calculation. Because triple-density uses 180 columns per inch, printing a single line of triple-density graphics only one inch long requires 540 numbers. Fortunately, commercial graphics software is available to do these calculations for you.

Before you can put these numbers into a graphics program, however, you need to know the format of the graphics command.

The Graphics Command

The graphics mode command is quite different from the other commands used by the printer. For most of the other printer modes, such as emphasized and double-wide, one command turns the mode on and another turns it off. For graphics, the command is more complicated because the code that turns on a graphics mode also specifies how many columns it will use. After the printer receives this code, it interprets the numbers that follow as pin patterns and prints them on the paper.

Software and Graphics 4-11

Your printer has one command that allows you to use any of the

11 graphics options. The format of the command is:

ESC * m nl n2 data

In this command, m selects the graphics option and nl and n2 specify the number of columns to reserve for graphics. The available graphics options are listed below:

Option

Single-density

Double-density

High-speed double-density*

Quadruple-density*

CRT I

CRT II

Single-density

Double-density

CRT III

Triple-density

Hex-density*

* Adjacent dots cannot be printed in this mode.

Pins m

Horiz. density dots/in.

8 0 60

8 1 120

8 2 120

8 3 240

8 4 80

8 6 90

24 32 60

24 33 120

24 38 90

24

24

39

40

180

360

Column Reservation Numbers

The graphics command requires more than one number to specify how many columns to reserve because one line can use thousands of columns, but the printer does not use numbers larger than 255 in decimal. Therefore the graphics mode command uses two numbers, nl and n2, for reserving columns.


To find nl and n2, divide the total number of columns by 256. The result is n2; the remainder is n1.

Because the command is set up for two numbers, you must supply two even if you need only one.

When you need fewer than 256 columns, just make nl the number of columns you are reserving and make n2 a zero.

For example, if you wish to send 1632 columns of graphics data, nl should be 96 and n2 should be 6 because 1632 = 96 + (6 x 256).

The printer interprets the number of bytes specified by nl and n2 as graphics data, no matter what codes they are. This means that you must be sure to supply enough bytes of graphics data or the printer stops and waits for more data and seems to be locked. If, on the other hand, you supply too much graphics data, the excess will be interpreted and printed as regular text.

A Simple Graphics Program

This first program is just a simple example to show how the graphics command can be used in a BASIC program.

Type in and run the following program. Be especially careful to include both semicolons to produce the printout below it.

10 WIDTH "LPT1:",255

20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"*"CHR$(32)CHR$(40)CHR$(0);

30 FOR X=1 TO 120

40 LPRINT CHR$(170);

50 NEXT X

Line 20 selects single-density 24-pin graphics mode (mode 32) and also reserves 40 columns for graphics. Because 24-pin graphics requires three bytes of data for each column, line 30 begins a loop to supply 120 bytes of data. Line 40 contains the number 170, which produces the first pin pattern shown in the section on pin labels, and line 50 ends the loop.


4-13

Designing Your Own Graphics

With what you know now, you can use the simplest application of graphics-calculating by hand the data to print the graphic image.

While this method is the most tedious, it helps you understand dot graphics. It is also useful for small graphic elements that are used many times.

The illustration below shows how you can use a grid on paper to plan where you want dots to be printed. This grid is for a single line of graphics 42 columns long. Because each line of 24-pin graphics is approximately l/8th of an inch high and because triple-density graphics print 180 dots per inch horizontally, a design planned on this grid will be about 1/8th of an inch high and less than 1/4th of an inch wide.

The actual pattern that the printer prints on the paper is made up of dots that overlap each other both vertically and horizontally. The planning grid uses an x for each dot because using an accurate representation of the dots makes calculating the data numbers difficult because they cover each other. Therefore, remember that each x represents the center of a dot, and the dots actually overlap.


Write the assigned values of the pins next to your design, then total the values for each column of dots. These totals are the values that you send to the printer as graphics data to print the design.

Below is the same grid divided into three sections to make the data calculation easier. At the bottom of each section of each column is the total of the pin numbers for that section. This gives you the total of 126 data numbers necessary to print this small figure.


Below is the BASIC program that prints the design shown on the previous pages. Note that the data numbers in lines 80 through 140 are the same numbers that are at the bottom of each section in the last illustration. The WIDTH statement in line 10 is for IBM PC

BASIC; the WIDTH statement format may be different for your system.

10 WIDTH "LPT1:",255

20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"*"CHR$(39)CHR$(42)CHR$(0);

30

FOR

X=1 To 126

40 READ N

50 LPRINT CHR$(N);

60 NEXT X

70 LPRINT

80

DATA

0,0,63,0,0,127,0,0,255,0,3,255,0,15,255,0,31,255

90 DATA 0,127,255,0,255,255,1,255,255,255,3,255,255,7,255,255,15,

255,255

100 DATA 31,255,254,31,255,252,31,255,248,31,255,240,31,255,

224,31,255,192

110 DATA 31,255,0,31,252,8,31,240,0,31,224,0,31,128,0,31,240,0

120 DATA 31,255,192,28,255,224,28,127,240,28,15,248,30,0,252,

31,0,126

130 DATA 15,128,15,7,192,7,3,240,7,1,254,7,0,255,7,0,127,135

140 DATA 0,31,199,0,7,231,0,1,247,0,0,255,0,0,127,0,0,63

In this program, line 20 assigns the graphics option (24-pin tripledensity) with code 39. Code 42 sets the number of pin columns at 42.

Lines 80 through 140 contain 126 bytes of data (42-pin columns x 3 bytes) for each pin column. Lines 30 through 60 print the following design:

Notice that the dots overlap quite a bit. This design was printed using the triple-density 24-pin graphics option because the density is the same (180 dots per inch) in both directions.


Adding the following lines to the preceding program causes the pattern to print 10 times in a row as shown below:

15 FOR C=1 TO 10: RESTORE

65 NEXT C

Individual graphics option commands

There are four individual graphics option commands that are very much the same as the ESC * command, but each one works for only one graphics option. All these commands are for 8-pin graphics options. Note that the commands contain one less variable than the

ESC * command because they don’t need to select a graphics option.

The commands are shown below:

Command

ESC K

ESC L

ESC Y

ESC Z

Function

Single-density

Double-density

Double-density, high-speed

Quadruple-density

ESC * format

ESC*0

ESC*1

ESC *2

ESC*3

Because of a difference in line spacing increments, the shape of graphics figures produced on the printer with an 8-pin option is different from the output from the same program on a 9-pin printer.

The reassigning command

The printer has a command that allows you to change the graphics option assigned to any of the four individual graphics option commands. The command looks like this:

ESC?sm


The letter s represents the command that you wish to change the assignment for (K, L, Y, or Z) and m is the number of the graphics option that you want to assign to it. For example, to change the

ESC K command to use the CRT I graphics option, the command in

BASIC is:

LPRINT CHR$ (27);"?";"K";CHR$(4)

This is a quick way to change the aspect ratio of the design that you are printing. Changing the graphics option will change the width without changing the height. You should, however, make this change with caution.

If you change one of the 8-pin graphics options to a 24-pin graphics option without changing the program that supplies the graphics data, you will print garbage (if the program prints at all).

Remember, the 24-pin graphics options require three times as much graphics data as the 8-pin graphics options.


User-defined Characters

With this printer, it is possible to define and print characters of your own design. You can design an entirely new alphabet or typeface, create special characters for use as mathematical or scientific symbols, or create graphic patterns with user-defined characters to serve as building blocks for larger designs.

Below, you can see samples of typefaces created with the userdefined character function.

You can make the task of defining characters easier by using a commercial software program that assists you in creating characters or simply supplies you with sets of characters already created. Also, some popular software programs make use of the printer’s userdefined character function to enhance printouts. (These characters are called download characters in some programs.)

The standard ASCII characters are stored in the printer’s Read Only

Memory (ROM) or optional Multi-Font Module, and the userdefined characters are stored in the printer’s Random Access

Memory (RAM).

Designing Your Characters

User-defined characters are like dot graphics because you send the printer precise instructions on where you want each dot printed. In fact, planning a user-defined character is like planning a small dot graphics pattern.


4-19

Design grids

To design a character you use a grid that is 24 dots high-one dot for each pin on the printer’s print head. The width of the character matrix depends on the character set in use. For draft characters, the grid is nine dots wide, for Letter Quality it is 29 dots wide, and for proportional characters it is 37 dots wide. The dots for both Letter

Quality and proportional characters are spaced more closely together than those for draft characters.

The illustrations below show the two design grids. The line at the side, labeled cap, indicates the top of a standard capital letter. The line labeled base indicates the baseline for all letters except those with descenders (the bottom parts of such letters as j and y). The bottom row is usually left blank because it is needed for underlining.

Letter quality / Proportional

Draft pica

The grid on the right side can be used for either Letter Quality or proportional characters. For Letter Quality you do not use all the columns.


There is one restriction in designing characters. Dots in the same row may not print in adjacent columns. This means that there must be an empty dot position both to the left and right of each dot that prints. This is true in draft, Letter Quality, and proportional modes.

Defining Your Characters

The first step in defining characters is to place the dots on a grid just as you want them to print. The examples shown here, like the ones in the graphics section, use an x to represent each dot.

In the illustration below, you see a draft grid with a simple userdefined character planned on it.

Now you translate the dot pattern you’ve created on paper to a numeric format so you can send the data to your printer. Every dot has an assigned value. Each vertical column (which has a maximum of 24 dots) is first divided into three groups of eight dots. Each group of eight dots is represented by one byte, which consists of eight bits. Hence, one bit represents one dot.


Data numbers

The bits within each byte have values of 1,2,4,8,16,32,64, and 128.

In the vertical column of dots, the bits are arranged so that the most significant bit (with a value of 128) is at the top of the column and the least significant bit (with a value of 1) is at the bottom.

The next illustration shows how to use this method to calculate the data numbers for the character in this example. On the left side of the figure, the data numbers are calculated for the middle column.

The value of each byte is calculated by adding the values of the rows in which dots appear. The right side of the figure shows the whole character with the three data numbers for each column indicated at the bottom.

This manual uses decimal numbers because the program examples are written in BASIC and everyone is familiar with decimals. The data you send to your printer, however, must be in the form (binary, decimal, hexadecimal) that you can use with your programming language.


You have seen how to design a character by placing dots on a grid and translating the dots to decimal equivalents. The last step in defining a character is sending this information to your printer.

Sending Information to Your Printer

The printer loads characters in the print style (Letter Quality, draft, or proportional) that the printer is currently using. It also records whether italic, superscript, or subscript is turned on. This means that if you want to print a character in italics, for example, you must have the italic mode turned on when you define the character.

The command your printer uses to define characters is one of the most complex in its repertoire. The format of the command is this:

ESC & 0 nl n2 d0 dl d2 data

The ESC & is simple enough. The 0 (which is ASCII code 0, not a numeric zero in quotation marks) allows for future enhancements.

At this time, it is always ASCII 0.

You can define many characters with a single command. The values nl and n2 are the ASCII codes of the first and last characters you are defining. If you are defining only one character, n1 and n2 are the same. You can use any codes between decimal 32 and 127 for nl and n2, but it is best not to define decimal 32, which is the code for a space. Also, you can use letters in quotation marks instead of ASCII codes for n1 and n2.

An example will show how to specify n1l and n2. For instance, if you wanted to redefine the characters A through Z, nl would be A (or

ASCII code 65) and n2 would be Z (or ASCII code 90). So the command ESC & 0 AZ (followed by the appropriate data) would replace the entire alphabet of capital letters.


4-23

Following the specification of the range of characters to be defined in this command are three data bytes, d0, dl, and d2, that specify the width of the character and the space around it. The left space (in dot columns) is specified by d0, and the right space is specified by d2.

The second byte, dl, specifies the number of columns of dots that are printed to make up the character. By varying the width of the character and the spaces around it, you can create proportionalwidth characters that print at draft speed. The table below shows the maximum values for these bytes.

Mode

Draft

Letter Quality 10 cpi

Letter Quality 12 cpi

Proportional d1

9

29

23

37 d 0 + d 1 + d 2

12

36

30

42

The last part of the command to define your characters is the actual data that defines the dot patterns for each character. Because it takes three bytes to specify all the dots in one vertical column, your printer expects d1 x 3 bytes of data to follow d2.

4-24


This example of a character definition program should make this clear:

18 LPRINT CHR$(27)"x0"

20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(0);

30 LPRINT "@@";

40 LPRINT CHR$(1)CHR$(9)CHR$(1);

50 FOR I=1 TO 27

60 READ A: LPRINT CHR$(A);

70 NEXT I

80 LPRINT "@@@@@"

90 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(1);

100 LPRINT "@@@@@"

110 LPRINT CHR$(27)"X"CHR$(0);

120 LPRINT "@@@@@"

130 END

140

DATA

1,0,0,2,0,0,4,0,0

150 DATA 8,0,0,23,255,240,8,0,0

160 D

A

TA 4,0,0,2,0,0,1,0,0

In line 10, the ESC x0 command selects draft printing.

The actual character definition starts in line 20. The two @ signs in line 30 represent nl and n2, the range of characters being defined (in this case, a range of 1). Line 40 contains d0, dl, and d2.

The information about the actual character design (which is contained in the DATA statements at the end of the program) is sent to the printer in the loop between lines 50 and 70.

Note: When defining Letter Quality or proportional characters, put a WIDTH statement in your program to prevent carriage return and line feed codes from interfering with your definitions.


4-25

Printing User-defined Characters

If you entered the previous program example, you defined an arrow and placed it in the RAM location for ASCII code 64 (replacing the @ sign). You can now print out a three-line sample of your work. The first and third lines (printed by lines 80 and 120) print the normal @ sign. The second line (printed by line 100) prints out the arrow that you defined.

Run the program to see the printout below:

@@@@@

@@@@@

As you can see, both sets of characters (the @ from the original characters in ROM that the printer normally uses and the alternative character you defined) remain in the printer available for your use.

The command to switch between the two sets is used in line 90 and

110.

ESC % n

If n is equal to 0, the normal ROM character set is selected (this is the default). If n is equal to 1, the user-defined character set is selected.

If you select the user-defined character set before you have defined any characters, the command is ignored and the ROM characters remain in use.

You may switch between character sets at any time-even in the middle of a line. To try this, place semicolons at the end of lines 80 and 100 in the program example.


Copying ROM Characters to RAM

After running the program, if you select the user-defined character set and try to print other characters, the only one that will print is your arrow. Because no other characters are in the printer’s userdefined RAM, there is nothing else to print. Other characters sent to the printer do not even print as spaces; it’s as if they were not sent at all.

In many cases, you will want to redefine only a few of the characters to suit your needs-the rest of the alphabet will work fine as it is. As you have seen, it is possible to switch back and forth between the normal character set and your user-defined character set. It is, however, rather inconvenient.

Therefore, your printer has a command that allows you to copy all of the standard characters from ROM to the user-defined character set.

The command format is as follows, where the value of n represents the font family:

ESC : 0 n 0

Note: This command cancels any user-defined characters you have already created. You must send this command to the printer before you define characters.

If you use this command at the beginning of a program, then define your special characters and select the user-defined set, you can print with the user-defined set as your normal character set. You never need to switch back and forth between sets.

Software and Graphics 4-27

Letter Quality Characters

If you select Letter Quality printing with the ESC xl command, you can design user-defined characters using up to 29 columns of the

Letter Quality/Proportional grid. The dot columns are spaced closer together horizontally than draft dot columns (the horizontal dot spacing is 1/360th of an inch as opposed to 1/120th of an inch for draft characters).

Proportional mode characters

Selecting the proportional character mode yields user-defined characters of the highest resolution. You can design characters using all 37 columns of the Letter Quality/Proportional grid.

Remember that in Letter Quality and proportional modes, as in draft mode, you cannot place dots in adjacent columns. There must be an empty dot position both to the left and right of each dot that prints.

Superscripts and subscripts

You can also create superscript and subscript user-defined characters. Just as Letter Quality characters are defined when the

Letter Quality mode is selected, superscript and subscript characters are created when you select either superscript or subscript.

These characters can be used as either superscripts or subscripts.

The characters are exactly the same; only their placement is different. The difference between these characters and regular characters is that superscript and subscript characters are smaller.

They are a maximum of 16 dots high. Their maximum width in dot columns is shown in the table below:

Mode

Draft

Letter Quality

Proportional d1

7

23

23 d 0 + d 1 + d 2

12

36

42


Because superscript and subscript characters are smaller, when you define them you only need two bytes of data for each vertical row of dots. Design grids for these characters are shown in the figure below:

Draft pica

Letter Quality and Proportional

Mixing Print Styles

You can use each of the three user-defined character modes (draft,

Letter Quality, and proportional) in combination with most of your printer’s various print styles. For instance, emphasized mode works with user-defined characters. The characters you design are enhanced to give this printing effect.

Mixing the three types of user-defined character sets is not possible.

For example, if you select draft and define some characters, then select proportional and define some more, the draft character definitions are deleted. Only one type of character definition may be stored in RAM at any time.

Software and Graphics

4-29

If you define characters in one mode, then switch to another mode and select the user-defined character set, the command is ignored and nothing is printed. The user-defined character definitions, however, remain unaffected. If you switch back to the mode in which they were defined, you can then select and print them.

Keep in mind that user-defined characters are stored in RAM, which is not permanent memory. When the printer power is turned off or the printer is initialized with the INIT signal, the user-defined characters are lost. (Some computers do this each time BASIC is loaded.)


Chapter 5

Using the Printer Options

The Cut Sheet Feeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-2

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-2

5-7

Loading Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Testing the Printer in the Cut Sheet Feeder Mode . . . . . 5-10

Loading Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-12

Operating the Cut Sheet Feeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14

Using Continuous Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-16

Loading Single Sheets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-21

Removing the Cut Sheet Feeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-22

The Pull Tractor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-25

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-25

Paper Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-28

Removing the Pull Tractor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-34

The Multi-Font Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-37

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-41

Selecting a Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-42

The Interface Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-44

Choosing an Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-44

Compatible Interfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-44

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5-45

Using the Printer Options 5-l

The Cut Sheet Feeder

The optional cut sheet feeders make it possible to handle singlesheet paper more easily and more efficiently. Up to 150 sheets of standard bond paper can be fed automatically into the printer without reloading. You can also feed envelopes using the cut sheet feeder.

Both single-bin (C806271) and double-bin (C806281) cut sheet feeders are available. The double-bin sheet feeder has a front bin

(bin 1) and a back bin (bin 2) in which you can store two different types of paper. You select the bin to feed from through the control panel or using a simple command.

The illustrations in this section show the double-bin feeder. You use the other sheet feeder in the same way.

Installation

1. First, assemble the cut sheet feeder following the instructions provided in its accompanying manual.

5-2 Using the Printer Options

2. Make sure the printer is turned off. Lift the paper guide cover up and off the printer.

3. Remove the paper guide.

Using the Printer Options 5-3


5. Remove the paper tension unit by pressing the levers back to open the mounting latches. At the same time, lift up on the front of the unit and lift the unit off of the printer.


6. Tilt the cut sheet feeder slightly forward to fit the notches at the base of the unit over the pins on the printer. Then tilt the feeder back until it rests on top of the printer.

7. Open the printer cover and attach the cut sheet feeder cover included with the cut sheet feeder.


8.

Turn on the cut sheet feeder mode by setting DIP switch 1-7 to on.

Note: Always make sure that the printer is turned off before changing the DIP switch settings.

9. Close the cut sheet feeder cover and the printer cover.

10. Turn on the printer.


Loading Paper

1. Make sure the printer is turned off. Check that the cut sheet feeder mode is turned on with DIP switch 1-7. Then turn on the printer.

2. Pull the left and right paper set levers of the selected bin all the way forward until the paper guides retract and lock open to allow for paper loading.

Note: Make sure the front levers on the left and right paper guides are up when using normal paper.


3. Slide the left paper guide to where the fin on the edge guide matches the arrow on the panel. Next, slide the right paper guide so that it roughly matches the width of your paper.

4. Take a stack of paper and fan it as shown. This keeps the paper from sticking and ensures that only one sheet feeds at a time. Tap the side and bottom of the paper on a flat surface to even the stack.

Note: For best results, use typewriter quality paper. If you plan to use paper with a glossy or textured surface, test it before using it to print documents. Do not use multi-part forms, carbon paper, or labels in the cut sheet feeder.


5. Insert the stack of paper between the paper guides, aligning it with the left edge of the guide. Then adjust the right paper guide until the paper is held firmly, but not so tightly that it causes the paper to buckle. Make sure the paper can move up and down freely.


6. Push the paper set levers back until they clamp the paper against the guide rollers. The levers will not close completely if too much paper is used. If this happens, remove some paper from the stack and try again.

7. If you use the double-bin cut sheet feeder, you can select the paper bin number with the control panel on the printer. Press the TEAR OFF button to change between bin 1 and bin 2. The printer beeps once if you select bin 1 and twice for bin 2. (You can also select the bin with the ESC EM software command.)

Testing the Printer in the Cut Sheet Feeder Mode

When you perform the cut sheet feeder self test, the printer counts the number of lines on the page. As shown below, the number of lines counted is printed out at the bottom of the first test page. This number is the default page-length setting. This setting, however, can be overridden by software commands.


Running the self test is the same as when the cut sheet feeder mode is off. The steps below are for a self test in draft mode.

1. Make sure that the printer is turned off and a stack of paper is inserted in the selected bin of the cut sheet feeder. Check that the cut sheet feeder mode is selected and the paper release lever is pushed to the rear.

2. While holding down the LINE FEED button, turn on the printer.

(For Letter Quality mode, press the FORM FEED button instead of the LINE FEED button.)

A part of the printout of the first sheet is shown below. The printout of the second sheet is similar to the original self test described in Chapter

1.

T h i s i s t h e f i r s t l i n e .

T h i s i s l i n e X X .

3. The self test continues until the paper runs out or until you press the ON LINE button. To stop the test, press the ON LINE button.

Note: To resume the test, press the ON LINE button once more.

4. To end the self test when paper is loaded, press the ON LINE button to take the printer off line. Press the LOAD/EJECT button to eject the paper. Then turn off the printer.


5-11

Loading Envelopes

You can print on plain, bond, or air mail envelopes. The cut sheet feeder can hold up to 25 plain or bond envelopes, or 30 air mail envelopes. Before printing on envelopes, you need to set the paper thickness lever. See Printing on Special Paper in Chapter 2.

WARNING: When you print on envelopes, be sure that the settings of your application program keep the printing entirely within the printable area.

You load envelopes in much the same way as regular paper.

1. Make sure that the paper release lever is in the single-sheet position.

CAUTION: If you are using the double-bin cut sheet feeder, be sure to load envelopes into bin 1, never into bin 2. Make sure that you select bin 1 using the

TEAR OFF button or with the ESC EM software command.

5-12 Using the Printer Options

2. Push down on the two front levers on the left and right paper guides until they lock into position.

3. Take a stack of envelopes and fan it; then tap it on a flat surface to even the edges. Then insert the envelopes into the front bin.

4.

Press the LOAD/EJECT button to load an envelope. Then press the

ON LINE button to start printing.

Using the Printer Options 5-13

Operating the Cut Sheet Feeder

After stacking paper in the cut sheet feeder, turn on the printer and make sure that the ON LINE light is on. When the printer is on line, a new sheet of paper loads automatically whenever a printable character or line feed command is sent to the printer.

Paper out condition

When the printer is on line and receives print data from the computer, the first sheet loads automatically. Subsequent sheets load automatically as necessary.

l l

In the cut sheet feeder mode, the PAPER OUT light goes on while a sheet of paper is being loaded, but the printer remains on line.

When the specified paper bin is empty, the printer automatically goes off line and the PAPER OUT light goes on. To resume printing, add more paper and press the ON LINE button.

Note: If you turn off your printer during the time the printer detects a paper out or paper jam condition, any data remaining in the printer’s buffer is discarded.

Control panel operation

To operate the cut sheet feeder from the control panel when the printer is in the cut sheet feeder mode, first make sure that the printer is off line.

LINE FEED

FORM FEED

When there is paper in the printer, press this button to feed the paper one line or hold it down to feed the paper continuously.

When there is no paper in the printer, press this button to load the paper. (Note that paper loads automatically when you print.) When there is paper in the printer, press this button to eject the sheet without loading the next sheet.

5-14

Using the Printer Options

LOAD/EJECT

BIN 1 BIN 2

(TEAR OFF)

When there is no paper in the printer, press this button to load the paper. (Note that paper loads automatically when you print.) When there is paper in the printer, press this button to eject the sheet.

When the printer is on line or off line, press this button to select either bin 1 or bin 2 if you are using a double-bin cut sheet feeder.

Software operation

The following commands cause the printer to eject the sheet in the printer without loading the next sheet.

FF:

ESC EM R:

Form Feed

Ejects a sheet in the cut sheet feeder mode

Note: The ESC EM command is a software command used to control the operation of the cut sheet feeder. For more information about this command, see the Command Summary in

Chapter 9.

If the paper reaches the bottom of the print area when any of the following line feed commands is used, the sheet in the printer is automatically ejected and the next sheet is loaded.

LF: Line Feed; advances the paper one line

VT: Vertical Tab; advances vertical tab position the paper to the next

ESC J: Line feed; advances the paper n/l80th of an inch

Software is not effective while the printer is off line. Make sure that the printer is on line if you wish to control the cut sheet feeder using software commands.


Using Continuous Paper

The printer allows you to easily switch between the cut sheet feeder and the tractor feeding system without having to remove either the feeder or the continuous paper supply.

1.

2.

Make sure the continuous paper is already loaded and in the standby position as explained in Chapter 2.

Install the cut sheet feeder as described in this section, making sure that DIP switch l-7 is set to on.

3.

4.

If a single sheet is still in the printer, eject it by pressing the

LOAD/EJECT button.

To switch from the cut sheet feeder to continuous paper, pull the paper release lever forward to the push tractor mode position

(the middle position). You do not need to change the setting of

DIP switch l-7.

CAUTION:

When using the built-in push tractor only, be sure that the paper release lever is always in the push tractor position.

5-16


5. Raise the paper path guide until it clicks open. This guide directs the flow of continuous paper out of the front of the printer.


6. Raise the continuous paper support on the paper path guide.

7. Press the ON LINE button. The printer loads continuous paper and goes on line.

Note: l

With the paper release lever forward and the printer off line, the control panel functions normally, allowing you to use the micro-adjustment feature to finely adjust the loading position of your paper.

l

If you wish to use the short tear-off feature, you can tear off the perforation of the continuous paper at the cut sheet feeder's tear-off edge. See Chapter 3 for more information on the short tear-off feature.

CAUTION:

Never attempt to print on labels when the cut sheet feeder is installed.

5-18


Switching back to the cut sheet feeder

To switch back to using the cut sheet feeder, press the ON LINE button to take the printer off line, and then follow these steps:

1. Tear off all printed sheets. Press the LOAD/EJECT button until the continuous paper feeds backward out of the paper path.

2. Lower the continuous paper support and close the paper path guide.


3. Push the paper release lever all the way back to the single-sheet position.


Loading Single Sheets

Your cut sheet feeder also has a single-sheet loading feature. This feature is especially useful because it allows you to switch to a different type or size of paper without replacing the stack of paper already in your cut sheet feeder.

1. Make sure that the paper release lever is in the single-sheet position.

CAUTION: If you are using the double-bin cut sheet feeder, make sure that bin 1 is selected by the TEAR OFF button or with the ESC EM software command.

2.

Press the ON LINE button to take the printer off line.

3. Align the single sheet to be fed with the mark on the left paper guide. Then slide the sheet into the paper path until you feel resistance.

4.

Press the LOAD/EJECT button to load the sheet.

Note: If you want to load two or more consecutive single sheets, pull the paper set levers on the cut sheet feeder forward.


Removing the Cut Sheet Feeder

1. Turn off the printer and remove any paper stacked in the cut sheet feeder.

2. Open the cut sheet feeder cover and remove it.


3. Tilt the back of the cut sheet feeder forward to release its notches from the printer’s pins. Then lift up and remove the cut sheet feeder.


4. Replace the paper tension unit as shown below. Tilt the unit back and position the back notches on the unit over the rear mounting pins of the printer. Press the levers open as you tilt the unit toward you until the front latches click in place over the front mounting pins located behind the paper bail.

5. Set DIP switch l-7 to off to turn off the cut sheet feeder mode.

Note: When DIP switch 1-7 is off, the printer uses the continuous paper page length selected by DIP switches 2-1 and 2-2.

Removal of the cut sheet feeder is now completed. Be sure to store the removed cut sheet feeder in its original box and packing materials.

6. Replace the paper guide cover.


The Pull Tractor

The optional pull tractor (C800161) provides optimum continuous paper handling. The pull tractor is especially useful with continuous preprinted forms, multi-part forms, and labels. Use of the pull tractor is also recommended for obtaining the highest quality graphics. For best results, use the pull tractor along with the built-in push tractor as described in this section.

Installation

1. Turn off the printer and remove the paper guide cover.


2. Remove the paper guide.

3. Remove the paper tension unit by pressing the levers back to open the mounting latches. At the same time, lift up the front of the unit.


4. Hold the pull tractor with the knob to the right. Fit the rear notches on the tractor over the rear mounting pins of the printer.

5. Tilt the tractor unit toward you until the front latches click in place over the front mounting pins of the printer.


6. Pull the paper release lever all the way forward to the pull tractor position.

CAUTION:

You cannot use the short tear-off function with the pull tractor. Before you start printing with the pull tractor, be sure that DIP switch 2-7 is set to off.

Paper Handling

1. Load continuous paper in the push tractor as described in

Chapter 2. However, make sure the left sprocket units on both the push tractor and the pull tractor are positioned evenly. Then lock the sprocket units on the push tractor in place.


2. Raise the paper bail. Slide the right sprocket unit to the right and open both sprocket covers.

3. Make sure that the printer is off line and then press the

LOAD/EJECT button to load the paper. If you need to adjust the loading position, use the micro-adjustment function described in

Chapter 3. Next, press the FORM FEED button to advance the paper one page so that you can fit the paper onto the pull tractor.

CAUTION: Never use the platen knob to feed the paper while the printer is turned on.


4. Pull the sprocket lock levers toward you to release them.

5. Adjust the sprocket units to match the width of the paper. Place the paper support evenly between the sprocket units.


6. Fit the holes of the paper over the tractor pins on the sprocket units, adjusting the position of the sprocket units as necessary.

7. If the paper does not fit exactly onto the tractor pins or if the paper buckles, press in on the pull tractor knob and turn it in the desired direction until the paper fits properly. Then close the sprocket covers.


The Pull Tractor

8. See that the paper is not crooked or wrinkled and lock the sprocket units in place.

CAUTION:

Make sure that the sprocket units of the two tractor units are properly aligned.

9. Slide the rollers on the paper bail bar so they are evenly distributed across the width of your paper, making sure that the right and left rollers are at both edges of your paper. Then lower the paper bail.


10.

Attach the paper guide. Then slide the edge guides together so they meet at about the middle of the paper’s width. The paper guide separates the printed pages and prevents them from returning to the paper feed path and jamming the printer.

11. Install the pull tractor cover.

12. Press the ON LINE button to set the printer on line.

Note: Do not use the short tear-off feature with the pull tractor.


Removing the Pull Tractor

1. Remove the pull tractor cover and the paper guide.

2. Tear off any printed sheets or extra blank sheets.

3. Press the ON LINE button to take the printer off line and press the

LOAD/EJECT button until the continuous paper feeds backward out of the paper path to the standby position. The PAPER OUT light comes on when the paper is completely out of the paper path.

Note: Make sure you tear off the printed document before removing paper with the LOAD/EJECT button. Reverse-feeding several pages at a time may result in a paper jam.


4. Remove the continuous paper from the built-in push tractor unit.

5. Turn off the printer. Then, pressing the tabs on the pull tractor, tilt it back and lift it off the printer.


5-35

6. Replace the paper tension unit as shown below. Tilt the unit back and position the back notches on the unit over the rear mounting pins of the printer. Press the levers open as you tilt the unit forward until the front latches click in place over the front mounting pins.

7. Install the paper guide and the printer cover unit.

8. Push the paper release lever all the way back to the single-sheet position.


The Multi-Font Module

The optional Multi-Font Module (#7407) gives you an easy way to have access to seven more fonts for your printer. After you install the Multi-Font Module in either slot A or slot B of the printer, the following fonts are available: Courier, Prestige, Script, OCR-A,

OCR-B, Orator, and Orator-S. You can use any one of these fonts as your default font when the printer is turned on and any of the others optionally by sending a command to the printer.

CAUTION: Do not insert the Multi-Font Module when the printer is turned on.

These are samples of the character sets of the Multi-Font Module’s fonts:

Courier

W e ’ v e j u s t s e e n y o u r e x c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s i n a r e c e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

T r a d e r ’ s T i m e s . W h a t i s t h e p r i c e s c h e d u l e f o r q u a n t i t i e s o v e r o n e g r o s s ?


5-37

Prestige

W e ' v e j u s t s e e n y o u r e x c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z é b r a s i n a r e c e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

T r a d e r ' s T i m e s . W h a t i s t h e p r i c e s c h e d u l e f o r q u a n t i t i e s o v e r o n e g r o s s ?

Script

W e ’ v e j u s t s e e n y o u r e

X c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s i n a r e

C e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

T r a d e r ’ s T i m e s . W h a t i s t h e p r i c e s c h e d u l e for quantities over one gross?


OCR-A

We've just seen your excellent ad for m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s in a recent back issue of

Trader's Times. What is the price for quantities over one gross?

schedule

OCR-B

W e ' v e j u s t

Trader's Times.

s e e n y o u r e x c e l l e n t a d f o r m i n i a t u r e z e b r a s i n a r e c e n t b a c k i s s u e o f

W h a t i s t h e p r i c e s c h e d u l e f o r q u a n t i t i e s o v e r o n e g r o s s ?

Note: The OCR-A and OCR-B fonts can be read by an optical character reader (also known as a document reader or image scanner) for input into another computer. The print enhancements, such as bold and underlining, cannot be read by an actual optical character reader.


Orator

W

E

'

V E J U S T S E E N Y O U R E X C E L L E N T A D F O R

MINIATURE ZEBRAS IN A RECENT BACK ISSUE OF

T

R A D E R

'

S

T

I M E S

.

W

H A T

I S T H E P R I C E S C H E D U L E

FOR QUANTITIES OVER ONE GROSS?

Orator-S

We've just seen your excellent ad for

miniature

zebras in a recent back issue of

is

the price schedule


Installation

WARNING: Always turn off the printer before you insert or remove the module. Installing or removing the module while the power is on may damage the printer.


2. Dial the rotary switch on the font module to select the font you want according to the table in the next section, Selecting a Font.

3. Hold the module with the rotary switch facing up, and insert the font module securely into slot A or B. If you install only one font module, insert it in slot A.


4. Turn on the printer. Then select SLOT A or SLOT B by pressing the

FONT button on the SelecType panel.

FONT

DRAFT

ROMAN

SANS SERIF

SLOT A

SLOT B

I

Note: This font module selection remains valid even after you turn off, reset, or initialize the printer.

Selecting a Font

This table shows the family numbers and characters per inch of the fonts in the Multi-Font Module.

Font name

Courier

Family number Characters per

2 10, 12, 15

Prestige

Script

OCR-B

3

4

5

OCR A 6 10

Orator 7 10

Orator-S

8 10

10, 12, 15

10, 12, 15

10 inch


There are two ways to select a font from the module: l l

With the printer turned off, dial the family number of the font with the rotary switch on the module. When the printer is turned on, that font becomes the default font if the slot is selected by pressing the button on the control panel.

Send a software command, ESC k, to the printer to select the family number. See the Command Summary in Chapter 9 for details.

Proportional spacing is not effective when printing any font in this module.

Numbers 0, 1, and 9 are not used.

Some fonts may not include all characters shown in the character tables in the appendix.


The Interface Boards

A number of optional interfaces are available that supplement the capabilities of your printer’s built-in serial and parallel interfaces.

Choosing an Interface

Optional interfaces can be divided into three main categories which are described briefly below.

l IEEE-488 interfaces offer standardized connections, trouble-free operation, and the ability to connect computers, printers, and other devices on the same line so that they may share data freely.

l l

Third-party interfaces, such as Coax and Twinax, allow Epson printers to function as local IBM printers without the addition of any other circuitry or components.

Serial interfaces are required if your computer is not equipped with a parallel interface or if you need an interface that conforms to the Current Loop standard instead of RS-232C. These interfaces also provide some combination of the following features: X-ON/X-OFF data communication protocol, loopback self test modes, and data buffers that increase the printer’s data buffering capacity by 8 KB.

If you are unsure whether you need an optional interface or would like to know more about interfaces, contact your Epson dealer.

Compatible Interfaces

The current interfaces that are compatible with your printer are the

New serial interface (#8143), the Intelligent serial interface (#8148), the Intelligent IEEE-488 interface (#8165), the Coax interface, and the

Twinax interface. New optional interfaces are introduced from time to time. Check with your Epson dealer for the most up-to-date list.


Note: Some interfaces may not be available in all countries.

All Epson interfaces have the Epson name printed on them. If the board has an identification code printed on it, it is a four-digit number beginning with 8 and should correspond to one of the numbers listed above.

Also Coax and Twinax interfaces are available from Epson dealers.

These interfaces allow connectivity to mainframes and minicomputers and emulation of IBM printers.

Installation

The optional interface boards available for your printer are easy to install. The only tool needed is a cross-head screwdriver.

Note: Before you use the interface board, make sure your printer’s DIP switches are set for parallel interface, even if you are installing a serial interface board.

Removing the upper case

1. Turn off the power to the printer and the computer. Next, unplug the power cord from the electrical outlet and disconnect the interface cable from the printer.

WARNING: High voltages are present inside the printer when the power is on. Do not attempt to remove the cover unless the printer is turned off and the power cord is unplugged. Also, try not to touch contacts on the circuit board of the printer because many of the components can be destroyed by the static electricity that may build up on your body.


2. Remove any installed printer options such as the pull tractor or the cut sheet feeder. Then, open the paper guide cover and remove the paper guide.

3. Turn the printer around so the back is facing you.

4. Using a cross-head screwdriver, remove the retaining screw securing the interface board cover.

5. Pull the interface board cover toward you and remove it.


6. Remove the shield plate above the parallel interface by pressing in on the plastic clips located on the back of the plate inside the printer.

7. Remove the screw labeled CG (chassis ground) from the main board. Then set it aside in a safe place.


The

Interface Boards

Installing the board

There are two basic types of interface board designs, which slightly change the way they are installed in the printer. The frame ground

(FG) wire is attached for one type and not attached for the other.

This difference does not affect the operation of the interface in any way. Check to see which type of interface board you have and then follow the instructions for that type of board.

FG wire attached

FG wire not attached

If the FG wire is not attached, follow these steps:

1. Set the DIP switches on the interface board according to the manual accompanying your interface board.


2. Use the CG screw to attach the round end of the FG wire to the main board and position the other end as shown.

3. Align the interface board with the CN2 connector on the main board and with the interface port on the back of the printer.

Carefully insert the pins on the optional interface board into the mating connector on the main board. Then secure the board with three of the screws provided.


4. Attach the plug end of the FG wire onto the FG pin located on top of the interface board.

If the FG wire is attached, follow these steps:

1. Set the DIP switches on the interface board according to the manual accompanying your interface board. (If you are installing the #8143 board, see the next section, #8143 New Serial

Interface.)

2. Carefully place the interface on the back of the printer as shown below. Use the CG screw to connect the round end of the FG wire to the main board.


3. Holding the interface board level, rotate it counterclockwise into position above the main board. Then lower the interface board into the printer and attach it to the main board. Make sure the connector pins are properly inserted into the mating connector.

4. Secure the board with three of the screws provided.


Attaching the interface board cover

1. Reattach the interface board cover and secure it with the screw you removed earlier.

2. Replace all parts and options you removed earlier.

WARNING: Before you use the optional interface board, be sure to disconnect the interface cable for the printer’s built-in parallel or serial interface. Two interface cables must not be installed at the same time.


Chapter 6

Maintenance

Cleaning the Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-2

Replacing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-4

Transporting the Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6-9

Maintenance 6-l

Cleaning the Printer

To keep your printer operating at its best, you should clean it thoroughly several times a year. Follow the steps below:

1. Make sure that the printer is turned off. Then remove the paper guide and any installed options.

2. Using a soft brush, carefully remove all dust and dirt.

3. If the outer case or paper guide cover is dirty or dusty, clean it with a soft, clean cloth dampened with a mild detergent solution. Keep the printer cover in place to prevent water from getting inside the printer.

6-2 Maintenance

WARNINGS: l

Never use alcohols or thinners to clean the printer, because these chemicals can damage the components as well as the case.

l

Be careful not to get water on the printer mechanism or electronic components.

l l l

Do not use a hard or abrasive brush.

Do not spray the inside of the printer with lubricants; unsuitable oils can damage the mechanism. Contact your Epson dealer if you think lubrication is needed.

Before cleaning, disconnect the printer from the wall socket.

Maintenance 6-3

Replacing the Ribbon

Replace the ribbon when the printout becomes too faint. The following Epson replacement ribbon cartridges are available:

#7762: Standard (black)

#7763: Color

#7764: Film (black)

Note: The optional film ribbon prints in red near the end of the ribbon. Replace the film ribbon at this point.

Do not use ribbons designed for nine-pin printers.

1. Make sure that the printer is turned off. Then open the printer cover and the paper guide cover.

WARNING:

If you have used the printer recently, the print head may be hot. Let it cool before attempting to replace the ribbon.

6-4 Maintenance

2. Holding the print head, not the ribbon cartridge, move the print head to about three inches from the left side toward the center of the printer.

3. To release the ribbon cartridge, gently press the tab at the top left of the cartridge holder. Then lift the cartridge straight up and out of the printer.

Maintenance 6-5

4. To remove slack in the new ribbon, turn the ribbon-tightening knob in the direction of the arrow.

Note: The film ribbon cartridge has a slightly different tightening knob and comes with a white shipping spacer. Before installing a film ribbon, remove the white tab spacer from the cartridge first.

5. Hold the ribbon cartridge while gently squeezing the two ridged plastic tabs together; then lower it until it snaps into place. The side hooks in the printer fit into the slots on each side of the ribbon cartridge.

6-6 Maintenance

6. Turn the ribbontightening knob again to make sure the ribbon moves freely.

7. Holding the print head, not the ribbon cartridge, slide the print head from side to side to make sure that it moves smoothly.

Maintenance 6-7


6-8 Maintenance

Transporting the Printer

Before you transport your printer some distance, carefully replace it in the original box and packing materials, as described below.

1. Turn off the printer, then remove any installed options.

2. Unplug the power cord from the electrical outlet and disconnect the interface cable between the printer and the computer.


M a i n t e n a n c e 6 - 9

4. Open the printer cover, and remove the ribbon cartridge and the platen knob.

5. Using the cross-head screwdriver, reattach the two transport locking brackets.

6-10 Maintenance


7. Fit the printer back into the white packing material and then back into its original box.

Maintenance 6-11

Chapter 7

Troubleshooting

Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-2

Power Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-4

Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-5

Paper Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-16

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7-27

T r o u b l e s h o o t i n g 7 - l

Problems and Solutions

This chapter discusses problems you may encounter while operating your printer and their likely solutions. If you are having difficulty achieving the desired printing result, first locate the problem in the table below and then see the appropriate page for the solution.

Power supply l

Power is not being supplied.

See 7-4

Printing l l l l l l




Printed characters are not what you expected.

The print position is not what you expected.

The color printing is not what you expected.

See 7-5

See 7-6

See 7-7

See 7-8

See 7-11

See 7-15

If the printer still does not print, try the self test described in

Chapter 1. If the self test works properly, the printer is all right, and the problem probably lies in the computer, the software, or the cable. If the self test does not work, contact your Epson dealer.

l l

Paper handling

Single sheets do not feed properly.

Continuous paper does not feed properly.

See 7-16

See 7-19

7-2 Troubleshooting

l l

Switching between single sheets and continuous paper cannot be performed properly.

The short tear-off function does not operate properly.

Options l

Using the cut sheet feeder, the paper does not feed properly.

l l l

Using the pull tractor with the push tractor, continuous paper does not feed properly.

Using the font module, the module’s fonts do not print.

Using an optional interface, the printer does not operate properly.

See 7-24

See 7-26

See 7-27

See 7-31

See 7-35

See 7-35

T r o u b l e s h o o t i n g 7 - 3

Power Supply

Problem

Power is not being supplied.

The POWER light does not go on.

Solution

The POWER light comes on then goes off.

The light stays off even when the power is switched on again.

The power cable may not be properly plugged into the electrical outlet. Turn off the printer and properly plug the power cable into the electrical outlet.

The power switch is off. Turn it on.

Power is not being supplied to the electrical outlet. Plug another electrical device into the outlet to determine whether the outlet is operating properly.

If the electrical outlet is controlled by a switch, use an electrical outlet that is not controlled by an outside switch.

The problem may be with the electrical outlet. Plug another electrical device into the outlet to determine whether the outlet is operating properly.

7-4 Troubleshooting

Printing

Problem


The ON LINE light is on but nothing is printed.

The ON LINE light is off.

The PAPER OUT light is on.

Solution

The software may not be installed properly for your printer. Check the printer settings and make the necessary changes.

The interface cable may be loose. Check both ends of the cable between the printer and the computer. Secure the connector using the wire retaining clips.

You may not be using the correct interface cable. Make sure your interface cable meets the printer and the computer specifications. Try the self test described in Chapter 1. If the self test is successful, the problem is with the software and not with the interface cable.

The printer may be off line and cannot receive data. Press the ON LINE button.

The ON LINE light should go on. See

Chapter 3.

The paper may be set too far to the right, so that the paper detector cannot sense it.

Move the paper a little to the left. The

PAPER OUT light should go off.

The printer may be out of paper. Load more paper into the printer. See Chapter 2.


Problem

The printer does not print (continued).

The printer sounds like it is printing, but nothing is printed.

The printer makes a strange noise, the buzzer sounds several times, and the printer stops abruptly.

The ON LINE light is flickering but the printer does not print, or it stops printing abruptly.


Printed characters have parts missing at the bottom as shown here.

A B C D

Solution

The ribbon cartridge may not be installed properly. Turn off the printer, reinstall the ribbon cartridge, and take up any slack in the ribbon.

The ribbon may be worn. Replace the ribbon cartridge. See Chapter 6.

This indicates an error in printer operation. Turn off the printer, check for paper jams or other problems, then turn the printer back on. If the printer still does not print correctly, contact your Epson dealer.

The print head is overheated. Wait a few minutes; the printer resumes printing automatically when the print head cools.

The ribbon cartridge may not be installed properly. Remove the ribbon cartridge and reinstall it. Make sure the cartridge hooks are inserted securely into the printer. See Chapter 6.

7-6 Troubleshooting

Problem

The print is faint or uneven (continued).

The printout is faint.

Solution

The ribbon may be worn out. A worn ribbon can damage the print head and should be replaced. Install a new ribbon cartridge. See Chapter 6.

The paper thickness lever may not be set correctly for the paper you are using. Set the paper thickness lever to match the thickness of your paper. See Chapter 2.


A line of dots is missing in the printout.

ABCD

The print head is damaged. Stop printing and contact your Epson dealer to have the printer repaired.

Dots are missing in random positions.

ABCD

There is either too much slack in the ribbon or the ribbon has come loose and gotten caught on something. Stop printing, turn off the printer, and reinstall the ribbon cartridge. See Chapter 6.

T r o u b l e s h o o t i n g 7 - 7

Problem

Printed characters are not what you expected.

The typestyle or characters that are set by the software cannot be printed.

The Roman, the characters

Sans Serif, or Draft font is selected in your software, but are printed in a different font.

Italic characters are printed instead of the selected graphic “line” characters.

Solution

The software may not be correctly installed for your printer. Use the program’s setup (or install) procedure to check the printer settings, and reset as needed.

The wrong font is selected. If your program accepts control codes, set the codes to the values below to select the built-in fonts:

Roman: ESC k 0

Sans Serif: ESC k 1

Draft: ESC x 0

See Chapter 3 and Chapter 9.

The wrong character table is selected. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the Epson

Extended Graphics character table using

ESC t 1. See Chapter 9.

You can also select the graphics character table by changing a DIP switch setting. To do this, turn off the power, set DIP switch

1-4 to on, then turn on the printer. See

Chapter 3.

7-a Troubleshooting

Problem

Printed characters are not what you expected

(continued).

Graphic characters or lines are being printed instead of the selected italic characters.

The wrong international characters are being printed.

Solution

The wrong character table is selected. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the italic character table using ESC t 0.

You can also select the italic character table by changing a DIP switch setting. To do this, turn off the power, set DIP switch l-4 to off; then turn on the power. See

Chapter 3.

The wrong international character set is selected. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the desired international character set using ESC R n. See the description of

ESC R in Chapter 9.

You can also select the international character table by changing DIP switch settings. To do this, turn off the power and set DIP switches l-l, l-2, and l-3 to the correct positions for the character set you want. See Chapter 3. You can check the current DIP switch settings by running the self test.


Problem


(continued).

The wrong graphics characters are printed.

Solution

The characters printed are smaller than expected.

The typestyle selected by SeIecType is not printed.

The wrong graphics character set is selected. To set the desired graphics character set, turn off the power and set

DIP switches l-l, l-2, and l-3 to the correct positions for the graphics character set you want. See Chapter 3.

You can check the current DIP switch settings by running the self test.

The wrong pitch may be selected. Check to see if the correct pitch is selected by the

PITCH button on the control panel.

The condensed mode may be set. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, you can cancel the condensed mode by sending the DC2 code to the printer. See Chapter 9.

The software may not be properly installed for your printer. Use the program’s setup

(or install) procedure to check the printer settings and reset as needed.

Your software may be overriding your

SelecType setting. Use the application program, not SelecType, to change typestyles.

7-10 Troubleshooting

Problem


(continued).

The printer prints series of strange characters.

a

Solution

Your printer and the computer may not be communicating correctly. Make sure that you are using the correct interface cable and that the communication protocol is correct. See your computeis manual for more information.

Make sure the interface cable is fastened securely to both the printer and the computer.

The print position is not what you expected.

Printing starts too high or too low on the page.

Text is printed on the same line.

Text is printed with an extra blank line in between.

The loading position may be incorrect.

Use micro-adjustment to adjust the loading position. See Chapter 3. If the problem persists, check the top margin set by your application software and adjust it.

A line feed signal is not being sent at the end of each line of text. Change the auto line feed setting with DIP switch 2-8. See

Chapter 3.

Two line feed signals are probably being sent. Change the auto line feed setting with DIP switch 2-8. See Chapter 3.

Troubleshooting 7-11

Problem

The print position is not what you expected

(continued).

Text is printed with an extra blank line in between, even after setting the auto line feed setting to off.

Line spacing is incorrect.

One line of printing has taken up two lines.

Solution

Your interface cable may not be configured correctly. Disable the AUTO

FEED XT signal of your interface.

Line spacing is too tight or too far apart.

If your application program is capable of sending control codes, specify the line spacing using ESC 0, ESC 2, ESC 3, or

ESC A. See Chapter 9.

Auto line feed may be on. Turn off DIP switch 2-8.

The margin setting may not be correct.

Use your application program to change the margin.

In BASIC, enter either of the following statements:

WIDTH LPRINT 255 or

WIDTH “LPT1” 255

If the printer still does not print properly, set the right margin to the maximum setting using ESC Q. See Chapter 9.


Problem


(continued).

Page length does not match the length of the paper.

Regular gaps occur in the printout.

Solution

The page length may be set incorrectly.

Change the page length setting with DIP switches 2-l and 2-2. See Chapter 3. If your program allows you to send control codes to the printer, specify page size by sending ESC C or ESC C 0. See Chapter 9.

If this does not resolve the problem, check the page length set by your application software and adjust it if necessary.

If you are using the cut sheet feeder, the self test function prints the number of printable lines that can fit on a single sheet. Use this feature to determine the correct page length setting. See Chapter 5.

One-inch skip over perforation may be set. Set DIP switch l-8 to off. See

Chapter 3. If your program allows you to use control codes, use ESC 0 to cancel skip over perforation. See Chapter 9.


Problem


(continued).

Skip over perforation is set, but the perforation does not fall in the center of the skip.

Solution

The page length for continuous paper may be set incorrectly. Set DIP switches

2-l and 2-2 to the correct position for the page length you want. See Chapter 3. If your program allows you to use control codes, you can also use the ESC C or

ESC C 0 command to set the page length.

See Chapter 9.

The loading position of the paper may be too high or too low. Use the microadjustment feature to reset the loading position so that the perforation is centered within the skip area. See

Chapter 3.

Your application program may be setting the top and bottom margins. If this is the case, turn off skip over perforation by setting DIP switch l-8 to off.


Problem


(continued).

Vertical printed lines do not align or gaps appear in lines or graphics.

Solution

The printer is usually set for bidirectional printing. This can cause a slight misalignment of graphics characters.

When precise printing of vertical lines is necessary, contact your service center to have them perform the bidirectional print alignment adjustment or select the unidirectional print mode by sending

ESC U or ESC < to the printer. You can also select unidirectional printing by setting DIP switch l-5 to on. See

Chapter 3. Unidirectional printing is slightly slower. See Chapter 9.

The color printing is not what you expected.

The characters printed in color printing.

are not

The printing is not performed in the desired color.

The application program may not be properly installed for the color printing.

Use the program’s setup (or install) procedure to check the printer setting and reset as needed.

The printing color setting may not be set correctly. If your application program is capable of sending control codes, select the color using ESC r. See Chapter 9.

Troubleshooting 7-15

Paper Handling

The following section guides you through problems in handling single sheets and continuous paper. If you are having problems using the optional cut sheet feeder or pull tractor, see the section on options later in this chapter.


Single sheets do not feed properly.

The LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, but the platen does not move and paper does not feed.

You may be trying to feed paper using one of the control panel buttons while the printer is on line (ON LINE light is on).

Press the ON LINE button once to take the printer off line; then feed the paper. After feeding the paper, press the ON LINE button again to set the printer on line. See

Chapter 3.

The cut sheet feeder mode may be turned on (DIP switch l-7 is on). When you are not using the cut sheet feeder, make sure

DIP switch l-7 is off. See Chapter 3.

The paper may be set too far to the right so that the paper detector cannot sense it.

Move the paper a little to the left. The

PAPER OUT light should go off.


Problem

Single sheets do not feed properly

(continued).

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, the platen rotates, but paper does not feed.

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, the paper jams.

Solution

The paper release lever may be set in the wrong position. Push the paper release lever back to the single-sheet position. See

Chapter 2.

The left and right edge guides may be too close together, preventing the paper from feeding smoothly. Adjust the position of the edge guides so that the paper can move up and down freely. See Chapter 2.

The paper may not be firmly inserted.

When feeding thicker than normal paper, press down lightly on the paper while pressing the LOAD/EJECT button.

The edge guides may be too far apart.

Adjust the edge guides to the width of the paper.

The dimensions of the paper may exceed the specified limits. Use only paper sizes that are within the specified range. Multipart forms cannot be used with this printer’s single-sheet feeding system. See

Chapter 8.

The paper guide may not be attached, or it may not be in the correct position. When printing on single sheets, use the paper guide in its upright position. See Chapter 2.

Troubleshooting 7-17

Problem

Single sheets do not feed properly

(continued).

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, the paper feeds through and then out of the printer.

The paper feed is crooked.

The paper does not fully eject.

Solution

The paper may have been between the edge guides before the printer was turned on. When loading single sheets, be sure that paper is not in the paper guide before you turn the printer on.

The paper guide may not be attached, or it may not be in the correct position.

When printing on single sheets, use the paper guide in its upright position.

The paper may be dog-eared. Use new paper.

You may be trying to eject the paper using the FORM FEED button. Always press the LOAD/EJECT button to eject the paper.

The page length setting may be wrong. If the page length is incorrectly set by your software, the paper may not fully eject.

Check your software settings.


Problem

Continuous paper does not feed properly.

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, the platen does not rotate and paper does not feed.

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, the platen rotates but paper does not feed.

Solution

You may be trying to feed paper using the control panel buttons while the printer is on line (ON LINE light on>. Press the

ON LINE button once to take the printer off line, then try feeding paper. After feeding paper, press the ON LINE button again to set the printer on line. See Chapter 3.

The paper release lever may be pushed back to the single-sheet position. When using the push tractor, be sure the paper release lever is in the middle (push tractor position). See Chapter 2.

Continuous paper may have already been in the paper path. (In this case, the paper feeds backward to the standby position.)

Press the LOAD/EJECT button again to load the paper.


Problem

Continuous paper does not feed properly

(continued).

The paper feed is crooked or the paper jams.

Solution

The paper supply may be obstructed by a cable or some other object. Make sure that the paper feeds smoothly into the printer.

See Chapter 2.

Your supply of continuous paper may be too far from the printer. Position your paper supply within 3 feet (1 meter) of the printer. See Chapter 2.

The paper may be caught on the edge guides. When using continuous paper, make sure that the paper guide is installed over the paper and that the edge guides are positioned in the center. See

Chapter 2.

The holes on the sides of the paper may not be aligned with each other. Reposition the paper on the tractor pins. See Chapter 2.

The sprocket units are incorrectly positioned for the paper width. Move the right sprocket unit to remove any slack across the width of the paper. See Chapter 2.

The position of your paper supply may be preventing it from feeding straight. See

Chapter 2.


Problem


(continued).

The paper feed is crooked or the paper jams (continued).

Regular gaps occur in the printout.

Solution

The sprocket lock levers may be unlocked, or the sprocket covers may be open. Position the sprocket units to match the width of your paper. Then, lock them in place by pressing the sprocket lock levers away from you. See Chapter 2.

The paper guide may be in the upright position. When using continuous paper, make sure that the paper guide is in the lowered position so that it can act as a paper separator. See Chapter 2.

The paper thickness lever may be in the wrong position. For printing on ordinary paper, always set the lever to position 2.

The paper dimensions may exceed the specified limits. Use only paper sizes that are within the specified range. Your printer can print on continuous multi-part forms consisting of 1 original and 3 copies. See Chapter 8.

Skip over perforation may be interfering with your application program settings.

Set DIP switch l-8 to off. If your program allows you to use control codes, you can use ESC 0 to cancel skip over perforation.


Problem


(continued).

Skip over perforation does not function.

Solution

Skip over performation is set, but the perforation does not fall in fhe center of the skip.

The loading position of the paper shifts slightly while printing several pages.

After printing stops, the paper automatically feeds forward.

You may not have turned off the power after setting

DIP switch 1-8 to on. To make new DIP switch settings effective, turn the power off, then on again.

The page length for one page of continuous paper may be set incorrectly.

Set

DIP switches 2-1 and 2-2. See

Chapter 3. You can also use control codes

ESC

C or ESC C 0 to set the page length correctly. See Chapter 9.

The loading position of the paper may be too high or too low. Use the microadjustment to reset the loading position.

See Chapter 3.

The paper you are trying to feed may be too heavy for the built-in push tractor.

When highly accurate paper feed is necessary, such as when printing carbon copies, use the optional pull tractor.

The short tear-off function may be selected. When you resume printing, the paper feeds backward to its loading position. If you do not need this function, set DIP switch 2-7 to off. See Chapter 3.


Problem


(continued).

The short tear-off function is selected

(DIP switch 2-7 is on), but if does not work.

The LOAD/EJECT button is pressed to eject the paper, the paper feed stops, and paper does not fully eject or it jams.

Solution

You may not have turned off the power after setting the DIP switch. To make new

DIP switch settings effective turn the power off, then on again.

There may still be data in the print buffer.

The short tear-off function works only if the data in the print buffer is completely printed and the next print position is at the top of the next page.

Your program may not be sending a form feed command to the printer. At the end of your program or the page, send a form feed (FF). If you are using BASIC, be sure to add a semicolon (;) after the FF code to prevent any additional codes from being sent to the printer. The total printed and unprinted lines must equal the total page length.

You may have tried to back feed too many pages. Before ejecting the paper, always tear off the last printed page. See

Chapter 2.

You may be trying to eject labels. Labels may jam when they are fed backward, so always use the FORM FEED button and feed labels forward to eject them.

Troubleshooting

7-23

Problem


(continued).

When printing labels, the labels either do not feed or feed incorrectly.

Solution

You may not be using the correct type of labels. Read through the section on printing on special paper for the correct type of labels to use. See Chapter 2.

You may be trying to back-feed labels through the printer. This can cause labels to come off their backing and jam the printer. Do not back-feed labels using the

LOAD/EJECT or TEAR OFF button. Also, make sure that DIP switch 2-7 (short tearoff) is off.

If a label does become jammed in the printer mechanism, see your Epson dealer for assistance.

Switching between single sheets and continuous paper cannot be performed properly.

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed to load continuous paper, the platen does not rotate and the paper is not loaded.

The paper release lever may not be in the correct position. Push the lever foward to the push tractor (middle) position.


Problem

Switching between single sheets and continuous paper cannot be performed properly

(continued).

The paper release lever is correctly set for continuous paper, but when you press the

LOAD/EJECT button, the platen rotates backward and the paper comes off the sprockets.

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed to load a single sheet from the paper guide, the platen rotates in reverse, the single sheet does not load, and continuous paper the comes off the sprockets.

Solution

A single sheet may be in the paper guide, causing the continuous paper to back out and come off the sprockets. When using continuous paper, always make sure to remove any single sheets remaining in the paper guide. See Chapter 2.

The paper release lever may not be in the proper position. Pull the lever forward to the middle (push tractor position), set the paper, and then press the LOAD/EJECT button.


Problem

Switching between single sheets and continuous paper cannot be performed properly

(continued).

Even with the paper release lever set correctly to the singlesheet position, the single sheet and continuous paper feed together and jam.

Solution

The continuous paper may not have fed backward far enough to reach the standby position before you changed the position of the paper release lever. Remove the jammed paper and try again. Also, check that the PAPER OUT light comes on before changing the position of the paper release lever to make sure that the continuous paper is completely ejected. When there is more than one page to eject, you must press the LOAD/EJECT button more than once. See Chapter 2.

The short tear-off function does not operate properly.

One page is completely printed, but the paper does not feed.

Printing ended in the middle of a page.

DIP switch 2-7, short tear-off mode, may be set to off. Set DIP switch 2-7 to on to turn on the short tear-off mode.

One page of data may not have been sent to the printer. Finish the page by sending a form feed code (FF) to the printer or by sending enough line feed codes (LF) to advance the remainder of the page.


Options

Problem

Using the cut sheet feeder, the paper does not feed properly.

The LOAD/EJECT button is pressed, but the platen does not move and the paper does not feed.

After a print command is sent from the computer, the platen does not move and the paper does not feed.

Solution

You may be pressing the LOAD/EJECT button while the printer is on line.

Always take the printer off line before feeding the paper. Paper feeds automatically when the cut sheet feeder receives a print command from the computer (only while the printer is on line).

The printer may be off line. Press the

ON LINE button to put the printer on line.

The cut sheet feeder mode may be off.

Set DIP switch l-7 to on. To use control codes instead, use ESC EM 4 to set the cut sheet feeder mode. The printer must be ready with no paper out condition to receive this command. Send the command with continuous paper loaded and with the paper select lever in the continuous position (all the way back).


Problem

Using the cut sheet feeder, the paper does not feed properly

(continued).

After a print command is sent from the computer, the platen rotates, but paper does not feed. The PAPER

OUT light is on.

Solution

DIP switch l-7 is set to off. DIP switch l-7 must be set to on in order to use the cut sheet feeder. See Chapters 3 and 5.

The cut sheet feeder may be incorrectly installed on the printer. Remove and reinstall the cut sheet feeder making sure that the mounting notches are properly mated with the pins on the printer. See

Chapter 5.

The cut sheet feeder may be out of paper.

Load more paper in the cut sheet feeder’s bin.

The paper release lever may not be in the single-sheet position. Push the lever all the way back to the single-sheet position.

See Chapter 5.

The paper set levers on the cut sheet feeder may be pulled forward. After loading a stack of paper in the cut sheet feeder, push the paper set levers backward. See Chapter 5.


Problem


(continued).

After a print command is sent from the computer, the platen rotates, but paper does not feed. The PAPER

OUT light is on

(continued).

Two or more sheets feed at the same time.

Solution

The left and right paper guides may be too close together, preventing smooth paper feed. Adjust the position of the paper guides so that the paper can move up and down freely. Check the envelope levers. They should be up for single sheets and down for envelopes. See Chapter 5.

Paper may be jammed near the print head. Remove the paper jam (temporarily remove the cut sheet feeder if necessary).

You may have loaded too many sheets in the cut sheet feeder’s bin. Remove the sheets. The bin can hold up to 150 sheets.

There may be only one sheet left in the bin. The last sheet in the bin may not feed, so add more paper.

You may have loaded too many sheets in the cut sheet feeder’s bin. Remove the sheets. The bin can hold up to 150 sheets.

You may have forgotten to fan the stack of paper before loading it into the bin.

Remove the paper and fan it. Then align the edges of the stack. See Chapter 5.


Problem


(continued).

The paper feed is crooked.

Solution

You try to manually insert a single sheet, but instead paper feeds from the cut sheet feeder’s bin.

The paper may be old or creased. Discard it and load new, clean sheets of paper.

The left and right paper guides may be too far apart. Adjust the paper guides to the width of the paper.

There may be too much outgoing paper.

Never let more than 80 sheets of outgoing paper accumulate while printing.

The weight of your paper may be too heavy or too light for the cut sheet feeder.

Refer to the specifications in Chapter 8 and make sure that your paper is the proper size and quality.

The single sheet may have been inserted in the wrong place. Check it and try again. See Chapter 5.

Paper may feed from the bin if you try to insert several single sheets. To insert several single sheets, pull the paper set lever forward, insert the sheets, and then pull the paper set lever back to its original position.


Problem


(continued).

One page pages.

of printing has spread to two

Solution

When printing envelopes, the envelopes either do not feed or feed incorrectly.

Using the pull tractor with the push tractor, continuous paper does not feed properly.

When the FORM FEED or LINE FEED button is pressed, the paper does not feed at all. Platen does not rotate.)

The page length setting may be wrong.

Run a self test in cut sheet feeder mode.

The printer will automatically measure the paper loaded and set the correct page length. See Chapter 5.

You may have to change the top or bottom margin or page length for your application program.

The two front levers may not be set to envelope feeding. Push down on the two front levers until they lock into position.

See Chapter 5.

The printer may be light is out).

on line. Before using the control panel buttons to feed paper, always take the printer off line (ON LINE


Problem

Using the pull tractor with the push tractor, continuous paper does not feed properly

(continued).

Paper feed is crooked or the paper jams.

Solution

Something may be obstructing the paper feed, like an object on top of the paper stack or a cable caught on the paper.

Make sure that nothing prevents the smooth flow of paper and position the paper so that it feeds straight in line with the sprockets.

The supply of paper may be too far from the printer. Position the paper supply so that it is less than three feet (one meter) away.

The paper may be caught on the edge guides. When using continuous paper, make sure that the paper guide is lowered over the paper and that the edge guides are moved to the center of the paper’s width. See Chapter 2.

The pull tractor and push tractor sprockets are not aligned correctly. When using both tractors, be sure that the sprockets on both are positioned evenly.

See Chapter 5.

7-32

Troubleshooting

Problem


(continued).

Paper feed is crooked or the paper jams

(continued).

Solution

Several lines of space occur in the printout.

Skip over perforation is set, but if does not work.

The paper may be slack. Adjust the position of the sprockets to take up any slack along the width of the paper.

Remove slack lengthwise by pressing in and rotating the pull tractor knob on the right. Do not turn the platen knob.

The paper thickness lever may not be correctly set. Set the paper thickness lever to match the thickness of your paper.

The paper may not meet the specifications. Check that your paper is the proper size, weight, and thickness.

Skip over perforation may be set. Set DIP switch l-8 to off.

You may have changed the DIP switches with the power on. To make new DIP switch settings effective, turn the power off, then on again.


Problem


(continued).

Skip over perforation is set, but the skip has shifted from the perforation, or the perforation does not fall in the center of the skip.

When the printing ends the paper feeds abruptly, and as it resumes printing, the paper feeds backward and comes off the pull tractor sprockets.

When the LOAD/EJECT button is pressed to eject the paper, the paper comes off the pull tractor sprockets.

Solution

The page length for one page of the continuous paper may be set incorrectly.

Use DIP switches 2-l and 2-2. See Chapter

3. You can use control codes ESC C or

ESC C 0 to set the correct page length. See

Chapter 9.

The loading position of the paper may be too high or too low. Use the microadjustment feature to reset the loading position. See Chapter 3.

The short tear-off function may be selected. The short tear-off function cannot be used with the pull tractor, so be sure to set DIP switch 2-7 to off. See

Chapter 3.

When the paper release lever is in the pull tractor position, the paper feeds backward to eject. When using the pull tractor, press the

Chapter 5.

FORM FEED button to feed the paper forward to eject. See


Problem

Using the font module, the module’s fonts do not print.

The font module is set, but the fonts in the module do not print.

Solution

The font module may not be fully inserted in the slot. Check it and insert the module properly if necessary.

The font module may be inserted the wrong way. Align the ( ) marks on the module and the slot and insert the module properly. See Chapter 5.

The font in the module may not be correctly selected. Select the slot by pressing the FONT button on the control panel. See Chapters 3 and 5.

If your program allows you to use control codes, use ESC k command to select the font. See Chapter 9.

Using an optional interface, the printer does not operate properly.

The printer does not print or the printout is not what you expected.

The interface board may be loose or not properly connected. Check that the interface board is correctly inserted into the connector on the main board. See

Chapter 5.

Troubleshooting 7-35

Problem

Using an optional interface, the printer does not operate properly

(continued).

The printer does not print or the printout is not what you expected

(continued).

Solution

You may be trying to use an interface with the wrong specification. Check the specifications to make sure that you can use the interface with this printer. See

Chapter 5.

The DIP switch settings may not be set correctly. Make sure that DIP switches 2-3 and 2-4 are set for parallel, regardless of whether the optional interface board is parallel or serial. See Chapter 3. You can also check the current DIP switch settings by running the self test.

You may be trying to use a cable with the wrong specification. Make sure that the cable matches the specifications of the interface.

The DIP switches or jumpers on the interface board may be set incorrectly. See the interface manual for the correct settings.

The interface settings on the computer may be incorrect. See your computer manual for the correct settings.


Problem

Using an optional interface, the printer does not operate properly

(continued).

The printer does not print or the printout is not what you expected

(continued).

Solution

The computer and interface settings may not match. Match the settings for each condition.

Two cables may be installed on the printer; only one cable may be attached at any time.

If the printer still does not operate properly after checking the above points, run a self test of the interface to make sure that there are no on-board defects. If any abnormality is found, contact your Epson dealer.

Note: If you are still having problems after working through the solutions in this section, you may want to try using the data dump mode, a mode that helps advanced users determine the causes of communication problems between the printer and the computer. See Data Dump Mode in Chapter 3 for more information.

Troubleshooting

7-37

Chapter 8

Technical Specifications

Printer Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Paper.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mechanical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8-2

8-4

8-8

Electrical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10

Interface Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Parallel Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Serial Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-14

Option Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-16

Cut Sheet Feeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-16

Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-18

Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-19

Technical Specifications 8-1

Printer Specifications

Printing

Print method:

Print speed:

24-pin impact dot matrix

Quality

High-speed draft

Normal draft

Letter Quality

Characters per inch Characters/second/line

10 3 0 0

10 246

295 12

10

12

82

98

Printing direction:

Line spacing:

Paper feed speed:

Bidirectional logic-seeking for text and graphics. Unidirectional for graphics.

(Unidirectional can be selected with a DIP switch or by using the proper software command.) l/6 inch or programmable in increments of l/360 inch

Single sheet:

56.4 ms/line (l/6 inch feed) without cut sheet feeder

67.3 ms/line (l/6 inch feed) with cut sheet feeder

Continuous: 64.1 ms/line (l/6 inch feed)

8-2 Technical Specifications

Printable columns:

Character spacing Maximum printed characters

10 cpi 80

137 10 cpi condensed

12 cpi

12 cpi condensed

96

160

Buffer:

Character fonts:

6KB or 0KB (panel button selectable)

Font

High-speed draft

Normal draft

Epson Roman

Available sizes (Characters per inch)

10

10, 12, 15, 17, 20, Proportional

10, 12, 15, 17, 20, Proportional

Epson Sans Serif 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, Proportional

Characters: 96 standard ASCII character set

(including italic characters)

14 international character sets

1 legal character set

Epson Extended Graphics character set


Paper

Paper feeding methods: Friction

Built-in push feed tractor with paper tension unit

Pull tractor (optional)

Single-bin or double-bin cut sheet feeder

(optional)

Paper width and length:

Paper

Single sheet width length

Continuous paper width

Envelopes

Labels

7.2 to 10.1 inches (182 to 257 mm)

14.3 inches (364 mm) maximum

4.0 to 10.0 inches (101 to 254 mm)

No. 6 6.54 x 3.62 inches (166 x 92 mm)

No. 10 9.45 x 4.09 inches (240 x 104 mm)

2.5 x 0.94 inch (63.5 x 23.8 mm ) minimum

4 x 0.94 inch (101.6 x 23.8 mm) maximum


Printable area:

Single sheet

0.33 inch

(8.5 mm) minimum

0.12 inch

(3.0 mm) minimum

0.53 inch

(13.5 mm) minimum

Note: Printing on paper from 9 to 10.1 inches wide increases the minimum right and left margins to 0.24 inches (6.0 mm).


Continuous paper

0.35 inch

(9 mm) minimum

0.51 inch (13 mm) minimum

Note: The minimum for the right and left margins increases to

0.98 inch (25.0 mm) when printing on IO-inch wide paper.


Envelope

0.33 inch

(8.5 mm) minimum

0.12 inch

(3 mm) minimum

0.87 inch

(22.0 mm) minimum

Note: Envelope printing is only available at normal operating conditions. Load the envelope with its long side horizontal.

Paper weight:

Paper thickness:

Number of copies:

Single Sheet 14 lb to 24 lb

Continuous 14 lb to 22 lb

Multi-part forms

12 lb to 15 lb per sheet.

Maximum number sheets = 4

Envelope 12 lb to 24 lb

Single Sheet 0.0025 to 0.0055 inch

(0.065 to 0.14 mm)

Continuous 0.0025 to 0.012 inch

(0.065 to 0.32 mm)

Envelope

Label

(plus base paper)

0.0063 to 0.0197 inch

(0.16 to 0.52 mm)

0.0063 to 0.0075 inch

(0.16 to 0.19 mm)

One original plus up to 3 copies

(at normal temperature)

One original plus up to 2 copies

(all temperature ranges)

Total thickness must not exceed 0.012 inch

(0.32 mm)


Notes: l

The use of 24 lb paper is only available at normal temperature.

l l

Printing past the edge of envelopes, multi-part forms, labels, or paper that is thicker than normal can damage the print head.

Labels with a pressure sensitive covering, either glued or tacked onto the backing sheet, can be printed under the conditions listed below. The total thickness may not exceed

0.0118 inch (0.3 mm).

-- The temperature range is 41° F to 95° F (5° C to 35° C).

-- The relative humidity is between 10 and 80 percent.

Mechanical

Ribbon:

MCBF:

Black ribbon cartridge #7762:

Life expectancy (in Letter Quality characters, at 48 dots/character)--

3 million characters

Color ribbon cartridge #7763:

Life expectancy (in Letter Quality characters, at 48 dots/character)

Black:

Cyan:

1.0 million characters

0.7 million characters

Magenta: 0.7 million characters

Yellow: 0.5 million characters

Film ribbon cartridge #7764:

Life expectancy (in Letter Quality characters)--0.1 million characters

For all components excluding print head:

5,000,000 lines

8-8

Technical Specifications

MTBF:

Print head life:

Dimensions and weight:

4000 power-on hours (at 25% duty)

200 million strokes/wire (fabric ribbon)

100 million strokes/wire (film ribbon)

100 million strokes (color ribbon)

Height

Width

Depth

Weight

7.6 inches (194 mm)

18.5 inches (469 mm)

15.7 inches (399 mm) approx. 22.0 lb (10 kg)

Electrical

Voltage:

Frequency:

Insulation resistance:

Dielectric strength

(between AC line and chassis):

120 VAC ± 10%

49.5 to 60.5 Hz

10M ohms between AC power line and chassis

Can withstand 1.0 kV rms applied for one minute or 1.2 kV rms applied for one second


Environment

Temperature:

Humidity (without condensation):

Operation angle:

Shock:

Vibration:

Operation: 41° F to 95° F (5° C to 35° C)

Storage: -22° F to 150° F

(-30° c to 60° C)

Operation: 10% to 80%

Storage: 5% to 85%

Less than 15° (without cut sheet feeder)

0° (with cut sheet feeder)

Operation: Up to 1 G within 1 ms

Storage: Up to 2 G within 1 ms

Operation: Up to 0.25 G at up to 55 Hz

Storage: Up to 0.50 G at up to 55 Hz


Interface Specifications

Your printer is equipped with both a parallel and a serial interface.

For specifications on optional interfaces, see the manuals provided with the interfaces.

Parallel Interface

Pin assignments for the parallel interface

Connector pin assignments and a description of their respective interface signals are shown in the following table.

2

3

4

5

8

9

6

7

10

Signal

Pin

1

Return

Pin

19

11

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

Signal

STROBE

DATA 1

DATA 2

DATA 3

DATA 4

DATA 5

DATA 6

DATA 7

DATA 8

ACKNLG

BUSY

IN

IN

IN

IN

IN

IN

IN

IN

OUT

Direction

IN

Description

STROBE pulse to read data. Pulse width must be more than 0.5

microseconds at the receiving terminal.

These signals represent information of the 1st to 8th bits of parallel data, respectively. Each signal is at HIGH level when data is logical 1 and LOW when it is logical 0.

OUT

About an 11-microsecond pulse. LOW indicates that data has been received and that the printer is ready to accept more data.

A HIGH signal indicates that the printer cannot receive data. The signal goes

HIGH in the following cases:

1) During data entry (ea. char. time)

2) During printing

3) When off line

4) During printer-error state

Technical Specifications 8-11

Signal Return

Pin Pin

12 30

13

14

15

16

17

18

19-30

31

32

33

34

35

36

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

16

-----

-----

-----

-----

-----

Signal

PE

SLCT

AUTO

FEED

XT

NC

GND

CHASSIS

GND

NC

GND

INIT

Direction Description

OUT A HIGH signal indicates that the printer is OUT of paper.

OUT Pulled up to +5 volts through 3.3. K ohm resistance

IN

-----

-----

When this signal is LOW, the paper is automatically fed 1 line after printing.

(The signal level can be fixed to this by setting DIP switch 2-8 to on.)

Not used.

Logic ground level.

-----

-----

-----

-----

IN

Printer's chassis ground, which is isolated from the logic ground.

Not used.

Twisted-pair return signal ground level.

ERROR

GND

NC

-----

SLCT IN

OUT

-----

-----

OUT

IN

When this level becomes LOW for at least 50 microseconds, the printer controller is reset to its power-up state and the print buffer is cleared. This level is normally HIGH.

This level becomes LOW when the printer is:

1) in paper out state

2) off line

3) in error state.

Same as for PINS 19-30.

Not used.

Pulled up to 5V through 3.3. K ohm resistance.

The DC1/DC3 code is valid only when this signal is HIGH. (Internal fixing can be carried out with Jumper J1. The level of this signal is factory-set to LOW.)


l l l l

The column heading “Direction” refers to the direction of signal flow as viewed from the printer.

“Return” denotes the twisted-pair return, to be connected at signal ground level. For the interface wiring, be sure to use a twisted-pair cable for each signal and to complete the connection on the return side. These cables should be shielded and connected to the chassis of the host computer and the printer.

All interface conditions are based on TTL level. Both the rise and the fall times of each signal must be less than 0.2 microseconds.

Data transfer must be carried out by observing the ACKNLG or

BUSY signal. Data transfer to this printer can be carried out only after receipt of the ACKNLG signal or when the level of the

BUSY signal is LOW.

Intevface timing

The figure below shows the timing for the parallel interface.


Printing enabled/disabled signals and control conditions

The table below shows the relationship between printing being enabled or disabled, the on line/off line status, and the receipt of the data on/off control characters, DC1 or DC3.

ON LINE SLCT IN DC1/DC3 ERROR BUSY

(Indicator (Data on) on/off control)

On line

On line

Low (J9 DC1/DC3 High interface) (no effect)

ACKNLG Printing

High/Low Pulsed

(Disabled/ enabled) ea. char.

(normal

High/Low Pulsed ea. char.

Enabled cond.)

Enabled

On line

Off line

High

High

DC1

Recv’d

DC3

Recv’d

High

High

High/Low DC1/DC3 Low

(no effect) (no effect)

High/Low Pulsed

High ea. char.

Not generated

Disabled*

Disabled

* While printing is disabled, character data is being received and acknowledged so that the printer can look for another DC1 character, which would allow it to resume printing.

Serial Interface

The built-in serial interface is an RS-232C asynchronous interface with the following characteristics:

Data format

1 start bit

Data word length: 8 bit

Odd, even, or no parity

1 stop bit

Baud rate

300, 1200, 9600, 19200 bits per second


Signal level

Mark (1) -3 V to -27 V

Space (0) +3 V to +27 V

Handshaking

Handshaking by DTR signal or X-on/X-off. The DTR signal changes to mark-meaning the printer is not ready to receive data-when the number of bytes free in the input buffer goes down to 256. The signal changes to space-meaning that the printer is now readywhen the number of bytes in the input buffer rises to 528.

Error handling

A * character is printed if a parity error is detected. All other errors are ignored.

Connector

D-sub 25-pin connector

In this table, the direction of signals is given relative to the printer.

Pin number

2

20

3

11

7

1

Signal

TXD

DTR

RXD

REV

(=2nd RTS)

SG

CG

Signal direction Direction out out in out

Transmits data for X-on/X-off

Indicates whether or not the printer is ready to receive data. "Mark" level indicates printer is not ready to receive data.

Receives data

Same as DTR

-----

-----

Signal (logic) ground level

Printer chassis ground


Option Specifications

Cut Sheet Feeder

Bin and capacity: stacker Single sheet: Up to 150 sheets of 22 lb

(82g/m 2 ) paper

Up to 185 sheets of 17 lb

(64g/m 2 ) paper

(total thickness should be up to 0.59 inch or 15 mm)

Envelopes:* Up to 25 (plain and bond type)

Up to 30 (air mail)

*For double-bin cut sheet feeder, envelopes can be used only in bin 1.

Reliability (total cycle of bin 1 and bin 2)

MCBF:

Paper:

100,000 cycles

Paper length

Paper thickness

Paper weight

Single sheets bin 1 and bin 2

8.27 to 14.33 inches

(210 to 364 mm)

0.0028 to 0.0039 inch

(0.07 to 0.10 mm)

17 to 22 lb paper

(64 to 82 g/m 2 )

Envelopes bin 1

3.62 to 4.09 inches

(92 to 104 mm)

0.0063 to 0.0205 inch

(0.16 to 0.52 mm)

12 to 24 lb paper

(45 to 91 g/m 2 )

8-16 Technical Specifications

Paper storage condition:

Temperature: 64° F to 72° F

(18° C to 22° C)

Humidity: 40% to 60%

Environmental

Temperature:

Humidity (without condensation):

Operation:

Storage:

Operation:

Storage:

41° F to 95° F (5° C to 35° C)

-22° F to 149° F

(-30° C to 65° C)

15% to 80%

5% to 85%

Notes: l l

24 lb paper printing is available only at normal operating conditions.

Envelope printing is available only at normal operating conditions.


Initialization

There are three ways that the printer can be initialized (returned to a fixed set of conditions).

Hardware initialization

Software initialization l l

When the power is turned on.

When the printer receives an INIT signal at the parallel interface (pin 31 goes LOW).

l

Software sends the ESC @ (initialize the printer) command.

These three kinds of initialization have slightly different effects. In particular, ESC @ resets the typestyle to the current SelecType setting; the other two methods reset the typestyle according to the default settings selected by the DIP switch settings. Also, ESC @ does not initialize the printer mechanism, clear the input data buffer, or clear the user-defined character set.

8-18 Technical Specifications

Default Settings

The following table shows the default conditions that become valid when the printer is initialized.

Item

Top of form position

Left and right margins

Line spacing

Vertical tab positions

Horizontal tab positions

VFU channel

Font selection

Reset to:

Current paper position

Cancelled

1/6-inch line spacing

Cleared

Every eight characters

Channel 0

The current FONT button setting

Character spacing

User-defined characters

The current PITCH button setting

Hardware:

Software:

Cleared

Deselected only

Justification Left justification

Graphic mode assignment ESC K = ESC*0, ESC L = ESC*1,

ESC Y = ESC*2, ESC Z = ESC*3

In addition, the data buffer is cleared when the printer is initialized by turning on the power or by sending an INIT signal.

Note: The user-defined character set is not cleared when the printer is initialized by ESC 63.

Technical Specifications 8-19

Chapter 9

Command Summary

Data Flow Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Using the Command Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Control Key Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-4

9-5

Commands in Numerical Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Commands Arranged by Topic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-9

Printer Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MSB Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Data Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vertical Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Horizontal Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-9

9-12

9-13

9-14

9-20

9-23

Overall Printing Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Print Size and Character Width. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-26

Print Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Word Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Character Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-36

User-defined Characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Graphics.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9-30

9-35

9-38

9-40

Command Summary 9-1

Data Flow Process

The diagram below shows the basic data flow process up to the time output is printed.

l l l

The data received by the printer is first stored in the input buffer.

Data is picked up from the input buffer and then processed through the data analysis section. There it is divided into graphics image data, control codes, and printable characters.

Graphics data is sent to the print buffer (line buffer), while the control codes and printable characters are sent to the control code processing section.

The control code processing section converts printable characters into the specified character patterns. The control codes are also processed along with the printable data.

l After processing, the character and image patterns are stored in the print buffer (line buffer) for printing.

Printing begins when either of the following conditions are met: l l

The buffer is full. For example, when a line length is set for 80 columns, printing begins when the 81st data item is received.

A print control code is sent. Printing begins when the printer receives any of the following print control codes: CR, LF, VT,

ESC J, ESC j, or FF.

9-2 Command Summary

Using the Command Summary

This chapter lists and describes all the commands available on the printer.

The first part of this chapter lists all commands in numerical order and gives the number of the page where each is fully described. If you know which command you are looking for, consult the numerical list.

Note: The Quick Reference card at the end of the book also contains a list of the commands divided by topic, with page number references that direct you to full explanations of the commands.

The second part of this chapter lists and describes each command separately; the commands are divided into the following subjects:

Printer operation

MSB control

Data control

Vertical motion

Horizontal motion

Overall printing style

Print size and character width

Print enhancement

Word processing

Character sets

User-defined characters

Graphics

Each command has a format section and a comments section. The format section gives the ASCII, decimal, and hexadecimal codes for the command. The comments section describes the effect of the command and gives any additional information necessary for using it.

The format section includes:

ASCII:

Decimal: the sequence in standard ASCII characters the sequence in decimal numbers

Hexadecimal: the sequence in hexadecimal numbers


Variables are represented by italicized letters such as n, n1, and m.

The variables are explained in the comments section.

Note: Some application programs use control key sequences. See the Control Key Chart later in this chapter.

Examples

The simplest type of command consists of a single character to be sent to the printer. For instance, to print in condensed mode, the code format is:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

SI

15

Hexadecimal: OF

This code can be sent from a program by sending the code 15 directly.

More complex commands consist of two or more character codes.

For example, to print in double-wide mode, the code format is the following:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC W n

27 87 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 57 n

In this case n can be either 1 (on) or 0 (off), to begin or end doublewide printing. You can use either of the following commands to turn on double-wide print from BASIC:

LPRINT CHR$(27);CHR$(87);CHR$(1)

LPRINT CHR$(27);"W";CHR$(1)

For the following commands that use only 0 or 1 for the variable, either the decimal or hexadecimal values 1 and 0 or the ASCII characters 1 and 0 can be used:

ESC U, ESC x, ESC p, ESC W, ESC S, ESC-, ESC %, and ESC w.

9-4 Command Summary

For example, in BASIC you can turn on proportional spacing with either of these statements:

LPRINT CHR$(27);"p";CHR$(1)

LPRINT CHR$(27);"p";"1"

Dec.

11

12

13

8

7

9

10

5

6

3

4

1

0

2

Control Key Chart

Some application programs use control key codes for decimal values

O-27. The table below gives you the proper values. The Control Key column indicates that you press the control key at the same time you press the key for the letter or symbol in that column. For example, you press the control key and A at the same time to send the value 1.

Some application programs that use this system cannot use

Control-@, and many programs use the control keys for other purposes.

Hex.

07

08

09

0A

0 B

0C

0D

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

Ctrl. Key

E

F

C

D

@

A

B

J

I

G

H

K

L

M

Dec.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

Hex.

0 E

0F

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

1A

1B

Ctrl. Key

Q

R

S

T

N

O

P

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

[

Command Summary 9-5

Commands in Numerical Order

The following list shows control codes and ESC sequences with their decimal and hexadecimal values, and the page where the description of the command can be found.

ASCII Dec.

Hex. Description Page

VT

FF

CR s o

BEL

BS

HT

LF

SI

DC1

DC2

DC3

DC4

CAN

DEL

ESC SO

ESC SI

ESC EM

ESC SP

ESC !

ESC #

ESC $

ESC %

ESC &

ESC (-

11

12

13

14

9

10

8

7

15

17

18

19

20

24

127

14

15

25

32

33

35

36

37

38

40

07

08

09

0A

0B

0C

0D

0E

0F

11

12

13

14

18

7F

0E

0F

19

20

21

23

24

25

26

28

Beeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12

Backspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-20

Tab Horizontally . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-21

Line Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-15

Tab Vertically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-17

Form Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-13

Carriage Return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12

Select Double-wide Mode

(one line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-26

Select Condensed Mode . . . . . . . 9-25

Select Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

Cancel Condensed Mode . . . . . . 9-26

Deselect Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9

Cancel Double-wide Mode

(one line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-27

Cancel Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-12

Delete Character. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9

Select Double-wide Mode

(one line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-27

Select Condensed Mode . . . . . . . 9-26

Control Cut Sheet Feeder . . . . . . 9-10

Set Intercharacter Space . . . . . . . 9-33

Master Select. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-23

Cancel MSB Control. . . . . . . . . . . 9-11

Set Absolute Print Position. . . . . 9-20

Select User-defined Set . . . . . . . . 9-37

Define User-defined Characters 9-36

Select Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-31


ASCII

ESC *

ESC +

ESC -

ESC =

ESC >

ESC ?

ESC @

ESC A

ESC B

ESC C

ESC C 0

ESC D

ESC E

ESC F

ESC G

ESC H

ESC J

ESC K

ESC /

ESC 0

ESC 2

ESC 3

ESC 4

ESC 5

ESC 6

ESC 7

ESC :

ESC <

ESC L

ESC M

72

74

75

68

69

70

71

65

66

67

67

61

62

63

64

44

45

46

47

48

4A

4B

41

42

43

43

3D

3E

3F

40

Dec.

Hex.

Description

52

53

54

55

47

48

50

51

58

60

42

43

45

76

77

2A

2B

2D

2F

30

32

33

34

35

36

37

3A

3C

4C

4D

Page

Select Graphics Mode . . . . . . . . . 9-39

Set n/360-inch Line Spacing. . . . 9-15

Turn Underline Mode

On/Off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-32

Select Vertical Tab Channel . . . . 9-18

Select l/8inch Line Spacing . . . 9-15

Select l/6-inch Line Spacing . . . 9-16

Set n/180-inch Line Spacing. . . . 9-16

Select Italic Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-34

Cancel Italic Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-35

Enable Printable Characters . . . . 9-37

Enable Upper Control Codes . . . 9-37

Copy ROM to RAM . . . . . . . . . . . 9-36

Select Unidirectional Mode

(one line) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-9

Set MSB to 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-11

Set MSB to 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-11

Reassign Graphics Mode . . . . . . 9-40

Initialize Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

Set n/60-inch Line Spacing. . . . . 9-16

Set Vertical Tabs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-17

Set Page Length in Lines. . . . . . . 9-13

Set Page Length in Inches . . . . . . 9-14

Set Horizontal Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . 9-22

Select Emphasized Mode . . . . . . 9-28

Cancel Emphasized Mode . . . . . 9-29

Select Double-strike Mode . . . . . 9-29

Cancel Double-strike Mode . . . . 9-29

Perform n/180-inch Line Feed. . 9-17

Select Single-density Graphics

Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-38

Select Double-density Graphics

Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-38

Select 12 CPI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24


ESC U

ESC W

ESC Y

ESC Z

ESC \

ESC a

ESC b

ESC g

ESC k

ESC 1

ESC p

ASCII

ESC N

ESC 0

ESC P

ESC Q

ESC R

ESC S 0

ESC S l

ESC T

ESC q

ESC r

ESC t

ESC w

ESC x

Dec.

Hex.

Description

78

79

80

81

82

83

83

84

85

87

89

90

92

97

98

103

107

108

112

113

114

116

119

120

4E

4F

50

51

52

53

53

54

55

57

59

5A

5C

61

62

67

6B

6C

70

71

72

74

77

78

Page

Set Skip Over Perforation . . . . . . 9-14

Cancel Skip Over Perforation. .. 9-14

Select 10 CPI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24

Set Right Margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-19

Select an International

Character Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-35

Select Superscript Mode . . . . . . . 9-30

Select Subscript Mode . . . . . . . . . 9-30

Cancel Superscript/Subscript

Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-30

Turn Unidirectional Mode

On/Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-10

Turn Double-wide Mode

On/Off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-27

Select High-speed Double-density

Graphics Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-38

Select Quadruple-density

Graphics Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-39

Set Relative Print Position . . . . . 9-21

Select Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-33

Set Vertical Tabs in Channels. .. 9-18

Select 15 CPI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24

Select Typestyle Family. . . . . . . . 9-23

Set Left Margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-19

Turn Proportional Mode

On/Off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-25

Select Character Style . . . . . . . . . 9-32

Select Printing Color . . . . . . . . . . 9-28

Select Character Table . . . . . . . . . 9-34

Turn Double-high Mode

On/Off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-28

Select Letter Quality or Draft. .. 9-22


Commands Arranged by Topic

This following section lists and describes all the commands by topic.

See the Quick Reference card at the back of this book for a handy list of commands by topic.

Printer Operation

Initialization

ESC @

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC @

27 64

Hexadecimal: 1B 40

Initialize Printer

Comments:

Resets the printer mode and clears the current print line preceding the command. See Initialization in Chapter 8.

DC1

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

DC1

17

Hexadecimal: 11

Select Printer

Comments:

Returns the printer to the selected state if it has been deselected by the printer deselect code (DC3). It does not select the printer if it has been switched off line by the ON LINE button.

DC1 and DC3 do not work if pin 36 on the parallel interface is low (for example, on IBM PC and compatible computers).


DC3

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

DC3

19

H e x a d e c i m a l 1 3

Deselect Printer

Comments:

Puts the printer into the deselected state until the select printer code (DCl) is received. The printer cannot be reselected with the

ON LINE button.

DEL

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

DEL

127

Hexadecimal: 7F

Delete Character

Comments:

Removes the last text character on the print line but does not affect control codes.

Printing direction

ESC < Select Unidirectional Mode (one line)

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC <

27 60

Hexadecimal: 1B 3C

Comments:

Printing is normally bidirectional. This command selects unidirectional printing for one line only. (It is cancelled by a carriage return.) The print head moves to the extreme left (home) position and printing takes place from left to right.


ESC U Turn Unidirectional Mode On/Off

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC U n

27 85 n


Comments:

The following values can be used for n:

1: Turns the mode on

0: Turns the mode off

Printing is normally bidirectional. This command selects unidirectional printing for more accurate positioning.

ESC EM

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC EM n

27 25 n


Control Cut Sheet Feeder

Comments:


1: Selects bin 1

2: Selects bin 2

R: Ejects a sheet. (No paper is loaded.)

The command should not be used unless the cut sheet feeder is installed. It is ignored if any value other than 1, 2, or R is used for n.

The cut sheet feeder mode can also be turned on and off by setting DIP switch l-7.


MSB Control

MSB means the Most Significant Bit. MSB control (ESC =, ESC >, and ESC #) does not work for graphics or user-defined characters.

ESC =

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC

27 61

Hexadecimal: 1B 3D

Set MSB to 0

Comments:

Sets the MSB of all incoming data to 0. Some computers always send data with the MSB set to 1, which means that italics or character graphics are always printed. ESC = can overcome this problem.

Set MSB to 1 ESC >

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC >

27 62

Hexadecimal: 1B 3E

Comments:

Sets the MSB bit of all incoming data as 1.

ESC #

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC #

27 35

Hexadecimal: 1B 23

Cancel MSB Control

Comments:

Cancels the MSB control set by ESC = or ESC >.

9-12

Command Summary

BEL

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

BEL

7

Hexadecimal: 07

Comments:

Sounds the printer’s beeper.

Beeper

Data Control

CR

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

CR

13

Hexadecimal: 0D

Carriage Return

Comments:

Prints the data in the print buffer and returns the print position to the left margin. A line feed is added if the AUTO FEED XT line on the parallel interface is held LOW or if DIP switch 2-8 is on.

CAN

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

CAN

24

Hexadecimal: 18

Cancel Line

Comments:

Clears all text on the print line, but does not affect control codes.


Vertical Motion

Form feeding

FF

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

FF

12

Hexadecimal: 0C

Form Feed

Comments:

Prints the data in the print buffer and advances the paper to the top of the next form according to the current page length. The default page length is 66 lines; you can change the page length with ESC C. When using a cut sheet feeder, FF ejects the sheet into the stacker but does not load a new sheet.

ESC C

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC C n

27 67 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 43 n

Set Page Length in Lines

Comments:

Sets the page length to n lines in the current line spacing. The value of n must be from 1 to 127 lines. The top of form position is reset to the current line.

Overrides the DIP switch page length setting.


ESC C 0 Set Page Length in Inches

Format:

ASCII code: ESC C 0

27 67 0 n n

Decimal:

Hexadecimal: 1B 43 00 n

Comments:

Sets the page length to n inches. The value of n must be from 1 to

22. The top of form position is reset to the current line.

Overrides the DIP switch page length setting.

ESC N

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC N n

27 78 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 4E n

Set Skip, Over Perforation

Comments:

The variable n is the number of lines skipped between the last line printed on one page and the first line to print on the next page.

For example, with the standard setting for line spacing (l/6-inch), and page length (66 lines), ESC N 6 prints 60 lines and then skips

6. This setting is cancelled by ESC 0, ESC C, or ESC C 0. The value of n must be from 1 to 127.

Overrides the DIP switch setting for l-inch skip over perforation.

ESC 0

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 0

27 79

Hexadecimal: 1B 4F

Cancel Skip Over Perforation

Comments:

Cancels the skip over perforation set by ESC N. Overrides the DIP switch setting for l-inch skip over perforation.

Command Summary 9-15

Line feeding

LF

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

LF

10

Hexadecimal: 0A

Line Feed

Comments:

When this command is received, the data in the print buffer is printed and the paper advances one line in the current line spacing.

ESC +

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC

27 + n

Hexadecimal: 1B 2B n n

Set n/360-inch Line Spacing

Comments:

Sets line spacing to n/360 of an inch for subsequent line feed commands. The value of n must be from 0 to 255.

ESC 0

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 0

27 48

Hexadecimal: 1B 30

Select l/S-inch Line Spacing

Comments:

Sets the line spacing to l/8 of an inch for subsequent line feed commands.

9-16 Command Summary

ESC 2

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 2

27 50

Hexadecimal: 1B 32

Select 1/6-inch Line Spacing

Comments:

Sets the line spacing to l/6 of an inch for subsequent line feed commands. This line spacing is the default at power on.

ESC 3

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 3 n

27 51 n



Comments:

Sets the line spacing to n/180 of an inch for subsequent line feed commands. The value of n must be from 0 to 255.

ESC A

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC A n

27 65 n



Comments:

Sets the line spacing to n/60 of an inch for subsequent line feed commands. The value of n must be from 0 to 85.

Command Summary 9-17

ESC J

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC J n

27 74 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 4A n

Perform n/180-inch Line Feed

Comments:

Advances the paper n/180 of an inch. The value of n must be from 0 to 255. This command produces an immediate line feed but does not affect subsequent line spacing and does not produce a carriage return.

V T

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

VT

11

Hexadecimal: 0B

Tab Vertically

Comments:

Advances the paper to the next vertical tab position in the channel selected by ESC /. If no channel has been selected, channel 0 is used. If no vertical tabs have been set, the paper advances one line.

ESC B Set Vertical Tabs

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC B nl n2 . . . 0

27 66 nl n2 . . . 0

Hexadecimal: 1B 42 nl n2 . . . 00

Comments:

Sets up to 16 vertical tabs in the current line spacing. Tab settings are not affected by subsequent changes in line spacing. The tab settings are entered as nl, n2, etc.-all from 1 to 225, in ascending order. The 0 value (null) indicates the end of the command. All settings are stored in channel 0 (see ESC b). ESC B 0 clears the tab settings.


ESC b Set Vertical Tabs in Channels

Format:

ASCII code: ESC b

27 98 c nl n2 . . .

c nl n2 . . . 0

0

Decimal:

Hexadecimal: 1B 62 c nl n2 . . . 00

Comments:

Functions the same as ESC B, except that the variable c selects a channel for the vertical tabs, which must be from 0 to 7.

Therefore, up to eight sets of vertical tabs can be set. The channels are selected by ESC /. To clear the tabs in channel c, use ESC b c 0.

ESC /

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC / c

27 47 c

Hexadecimal: 1B 2F c

Select Vertical Tab Channel

Comments:

This command is used to select the vertical tab channel, with the value of c from 0 to 7. All subsequent VT commands use the channel selected by this command. If no channel has been selected, channel 0 is used.


Horizontal Motion

Margins

ESC 1

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 1

27 108 n n

Hexadecimal: 1B 6C n

Set Left Margin

Comments:

Sets the left margin to n columns in the current character size.

Settings made in the proportional mode are treated as 10 cpi. This command clears previous tab settings and all previous characters in the print line. Use lowercase 1 (as in left), not the numeral one.

The minimum space between the margins is the width of one double-wide 10 cpi character.

ESC Q

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC Q n

27 81 n


Set Right Margin

Comments:

Sets the right margin to n columns in the current character size.

Settings made in the proportional mode are treated as 10 cpi. This command clears previous tab settings and all previous characters in the print line. The minimum space between the margins is the width of one double-wide 10 cpi character.


BS

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

BS

8

Hexadecimal: 08

Backspace

Comments:

Prints out data in the print buffer, then moves the print position one space to the left. Backspacing is possible up to, but not beyond, the left margin setting. The BS code is ignored if ESC a2 or ESC a3 has been sent.

ESC $ Set Absolute Print Position

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC $ nl n2

27 36 nl n2

Hexadecimal: 1B 24 nl n2

Comments:

This sequence specifies the distance from the current left margin that subsequent characters are to be printed, using this formula: total number of dots = nl + (n2 x 256). Each unit equals 1/60th of an inch. The sequence is ignored and the previous setting remains effective if the position specified is beyond the right margin.


ESC \ Set Relative Print Position

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC \ nl n2

27 92 nl n2

Hexadecimal: 1B 5C nl n2

Comments:

Determines the position (relative to the current position) at which printing of subsequent data will start. To find nl and n2, first calculate the displacement required in dots. If the displacement is to the left, subtract it from 65536. Send the resulting number using this formula: total number of dots = nl + (256 x n2). The command is ignored if it would move the print position outside the current margins. A unit is 1/120th of an inch in draft, and

1/180th of an inch in Letter Quality or proportional modes.

Horizontal tabbing

H T

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

HT

9

Hexadecimal: 09

Tab Horizontally

Comments:

Advances the print position to the next horizontal tab setting. The default tabs are at S-character intervals in the currently set pitch.

Tab positions are not affected by subsequent changes in cpi.


ESC D Set Horizontal Tabs

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC D nl n2 . . . 0

27 68 nl n2 . . . 0

Hexadecimal: 1B 44 nl n2 . . . 00

Comments:

This command allows setting of up to 32 horizontal tabs, which are entered as nl, n2, n3, etc., (from 1 to 255) with the number 0 character terminating the command. The tab settings must be entered in ascending order. ESC D 0 clears all tabs. The default settings, when power is turned on or after an ESC @ command, are at every eight characters. The tab settings are not affected by changes in cpi. The tab positions in proportional printing are determined by the 10 cpi character size.

Overall Printing Style

ESC x

Format:

ASCII code: ESC

27 x

Decimal: l20 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 78 n n

Select Letter Quality or Draft

Comments:

The following values can be used for n:

0: Selects draft mode.

1: Selects Letter Quality (LQ) mode.

Overrides the SelecType panel setting.


ESC k

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC k n

27 107 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 6B n

Select Typestyle Family

Comments:

This command affects only the Letter Quality typestyle, not draft.

If n = 0, the Roman typestyle in the printer is used. To select one of the other typestyles, use the family number of the font as shown below. For example, to choose the Prestige font, use 3 for the value of n. The following values can be used for n:

0: Roman

1: Sans Serif

2: Courier

3: Prestige

4: Script

5: OCR-B

6: OCR-A

7: Orator

8: Orator-S

Typestyle families 2 to 8 are available only if the appropriate font module is installed, such as the Multi-Font Module.

Overrides the SelecType panel setting.

ESC !

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC ! n

27 33 n


Master Select

Comments:

This command allows you to choose many combinations of these nine modes: 10 cpi, 12 cpi, proportional spacing, condensed, emphasized, double-strike, double-wide, italics, and underline.

The variable n is a number that identifies the mode or combination of modes. To find the value of n, use the following table to add up either the decimal or hexadecimal numbers for the features you want.


Feature

10 cpi

12 cpi

Proportional

Condensed

Emphasized

Double-strike

Double-wide

Italics

Underline

8

16

2

4

Dec.

Hex.

0 00

1 01

02

04

08

10

32

64

128

20

40

80

For example, for double-wide 12 cpi characters printed in the double-strike mode, you would add three numbers together to calculate the value of n.

12 cpi 1

Double-strike 16

Double-wide 32 n = 49

The print quality and font must be set separately, using SelecType or the ESC x and ESC k commands. There are two more things to consider when using the Master Select command: l l

Master Select cancels any of the other listed features that you do not set. For example, if you have already set a different character width and you use Master Select to set emphasized double-strike, the character width is reset to 10 cpi.

Proportional spacing overrides 10, 12, 15, 17, and 20 cpi.


Print Size and Character Width

ESC P

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC P

27 80

Hexadecimal: 1B 50

Select 10 CPI

Comments:

Selects 10 character per inch printing. This command is normally used to cancel 12 or 15 cpi.

Select 12 CPI ESC M

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC M

27 77

Hexadecimal: 1B 4D

Comments:

Selects 12 character per inch printing.

ESC g

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC g

27 103

Hexadecimal: 1B 67

Select 15 CPI

Comments:

Selects 15 character per inch printing, and cancels 10 or 12 cpi.

Cannot be combined with condensed mode.


ESC p Turn Proportional Mode On/Off

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC

27 p

172 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 70 n n

Comments:

Turns proportional mode on and off.


1: Turns mode on.

0: Turns mode off.

The width of proportional characters varies from character to character. Therefore, a narrow letter like i receives less space than a wide letter like W. Proportional character widths are given in the Appendix. This command overrides the condensed mode and fixed cpi fonts. When proportional is cancelled, the previously selected font is used. Graphic characters are printed in fixed cpi only; proportional mode is only available in Roman and Sans

Serif fonts.

SI

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

SI

15

Hexadecimal: 0F

Select Condensed Mode

Comments:

Prints characters at about 60 percent of their normal width. For example, the condensed 10 cpi mode has 17 characters per inch.

Proportional characters override the condensed mode.

Condensed mode cannot be combined with 15 cpi. Condensed can also be turned on and off by the ESC SI command.


ESC SI

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC SI

27 15

Hexadecimal: 1B 0F

Comments:

Duplicates the SI command.

Select Condensed Mode

DC2

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

DC2

18

Hexadecimal: 12

Cancel Condensed Mode

Comments:

Cancels condensed mode set by SI or ESC SI and returns printing to normal.

SO

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

SO

14

Hexadecimal: 0E

Select Double-wide Mode (one line)

Comments:

Doubles the width of all characters on one line. This mode is cancelled by LF, FF, VT, or DC4.


ESC SO

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC SO

27 14

Hexadecimal: 1B 0E

Select Double-wide Mode (one line)

Comments:

Duplicates the SO command.

ESC W Turn Double-wide Mode On/Off

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC W n

27 87 n


Comments:

Doubles the width of all characters.


1: Turns mode on.

0: Turns mode off.

DC4

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

DC4

20

Hexadecimal: 14

Cancel Double-wide Mode (one line)

Comments:

Cancels double-wide mode selected by SO or ESC SO, but not double-wide mode selected by ESC W or ESC !

Command Summary

9-29

ESC w Turn Double-high Mode On/Off

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC w n

27 119 n


Comments:

Doubles the height of all characters.


1: Turns mode on. 0: Turns mode off.

You may need to adjust line spacing to compensate for the height of these characters. Cannot be used with the pull tractor.

Print Enhancement

ESC r

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC r n

27 114


Comments:

The variable n selects the printing color.

0: Black

1: Magenta

2: Cyan

3: Violet

4: Yellow

5: Red

Select Printing Color

6: Green

ESC E

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC E

27 69

Hexadecimal: 1B 45

Select Emphasized Mode

Comments:

Makes text bolder by printing each dot twice, with the second dot printed slightly to the right of the first.


ESC F

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC F

27 70

Hexadecimal: 1B 46

Cancel Emphasized Mode

Comments:

Cancels the emphasized mode selected by ESC E.

ESC G

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC G

27 71

Hexadecimal: 1B 47

Select Double-strike Mode

Comments:

Makes text bolder by printing each line twice, with the second printing slightly below the first.

ESC H

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC H

27 72

Hexadecimal: 1B 48

Cancel Double-strike Mode

Comments:

Cancels the double-strike mode selected by ESC G.

Command Summary

9-31

ESC S 0

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC S 0

27 83 0

Hexadecimal: 1B 53 00

Select Superscript Mode

Comments:

Prints characters about two-thirds of the normal character height in the upper part of the character space.

ESC S 1

Format:

ASCII code: ESC S

27 83 1

1

Decimal:

Hexadecimal: 1B 53 01

Select Subscript Mode

Comments:

Prints characters about two-thirds of the normal character height in the lower part of the character space.

ESC T

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC T

27 84

Hexadecimal: 1B 54

Cancel Superscript/Subscript Mode

Comments:

Cancels either superscript or subscript.


ESC (Select Score

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC ( - n1 n2 m d1 d2

27 40 45 nl n2 m d1 d2

Hexadecimal: 1B 28 2D n1 n2 m d1 d2

Comments:

Use decimal or hexadecimal values for all variables, not ASCII characters.

Use the following values for the first 3 variables: n1 n2 must be 3.

must be 0.

m must be l.

The value of d1 determines the location of the score: d1 d1

= 1 for underline.

= 2 for strike-through.

d1 = 3 for overscore.

The value of d2 determines whether the score line is single, double, broken, or continuous: d2 d2 d2 d2 d2

= 0 Cancel the score line selected by

= 1 Single continuous line.

= 2 Double continuous line.

= 5 Single broken line.

= 6 Double broken line.

d1.

The last three bits of d2 determine the characteristics of the score line as shown below:

On (1)

Off (0)

Bit 2

Broken line

Continuous line

Bit 1

Double line on

Double line off

Bit 0

Single line on

Single line off

Note:

If bit 1 and bit 0 are both off, the selected score is canceled. Double line and single line scores cannot be combined at the same score position.

Command Summary

9-33

ESC -

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC - n

27 45 n

Hexadecimal: 1B 2D n

Turn Underline Mode On/Off

Comments:

This mode provides continuous underlining including spaces.


1: Turns mode on.

0: Turns mode off.

Areas skipped with HT or ESC $ are not underlined.

ESC q

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC q n

27 113 n


Select Character Style

Comments:


0: Selects normal.

1: Selects outline.

2: Selects shadow.

3: Selects outline with shadow.

This command is valid for all characters, with the exception of character codes B0H to DFH, F4H, and F5H (176 to 223, 244, and

245 decimal) in the Epson Extended Graphics character table.


Word Processing

ESC a

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC a

27 97 n


Select Justification

Comments:

Sets the type of justification.


0: Selects left justification.

1: Selects centering.

2: Selects right justification.

3: Selects full justification.

The default setting is n = 0. Full justification (n = 3) is performed when the buffer becomes full; HT, BS, and spacing commands should not be used with justification. For n = 3 there must be no carriage returns within a paragraph.

ESC SP (space)

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC SP n

27 32 n


Set Intercharacter Space

Comments:

Sets the amount of space added to the right of each character, in addition to the space already allowed in the design of the character. The number of dots is determined by n, which should be from 0 to 127. Each unit of space is 1/120th of an inch in draft mode and 1/180th of an inch in Letter Quality and proportional modes. Double-wide mode doubles the unit of space.


Character Tables

ESC t

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC t n

27 116 n


Select Character Table

Comments:

Selects the character table used by codes 128 to 255. Selecting

Epson Extended Graphics characters does not disable italic printing. Italic printing can still be selected by ESC 4. The following values can be used for n:

0: Selects italics character table.

1: Selects Epson Extended Graphics character table.

2: Selects user-defined character table and remaps user-defined

O-127 to 128-255.

Note that the value of n must equal 00 hex, 01 hex, or 02 hex. See the Appendix for character tables.

ESC 4

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 4

27 52

Hexadecimal: 1B 34

Select Italic Mode

Comments:

Causes characters from the italic character table to be printed.

This command is valid even if the Epson Extended Graphics character set has been selected by ESC t or by DIP switches, but the character graphics are not italicized.


ESC 5

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

Hexadecimal:

ESC 5

27

1B

53

35

Comments:

Cancels the mode selected by ESC 4.

Cancel Italic Mode

ESC R Select an International Character Set

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC R n

27 82 n


Comments:

Selects one of the international character sets.


0 = USA

1 = France

2 = Germany

3 = England

4 = Denmark I

5 = Sweden

6 = Italy

7 = Spain I

8 = Japan

9 = Norway

10 = Denmark II

11 = Spain II

12 = Latin America

13 = Korea

64 = Legal

Overrides the DIP switch settings of the international character set.


User-defined Characters

See Chapter 4 for sample programs and full information on this topic.

ESC &

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

Hexadecimal:

Define User-defined Characters

ESC & 0 dl d2...dn

27 38 0 d1 d2...dn

1B 26 00 d1 d2...dn

Comments:

This command allows characters to be redefined in the currently selected mode.

ESC : Copy ROM to RAM

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC : 0 n 0

27 58 0 n 0

Hexadecimal: 1B 3A 00 n 00

Comments:

This sequence copies the characters in ROM to RAM so that specific characters can be redefined. The variable n represents the font family. Fonts in the font module (except Orator and

Orator-S) can also be copied. The printer cannot select fonts

2 to 6 if you do not have the Multi-Font Module.

0: Roman

1: Sans Serif

2: Courier

3: Prestige

4: Script

5: OCR-B

6: OCR-A


ESC %

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC % n

27 37 n


Select User-defined Set

Comments:

This sequence is used to print the user-defined (download) character set. ESC & is required to define the character set. The following values can be used for n:

0: Selects the normal set.

1: Selects the user-defined set.

ESC 6

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 6

27 54

Hexadecimal: 1B 36

Enable Printable Characters

Comments:

When the Epson Extended Graphics character table is selected,

ESC 6 enables the printing of codes 128 through 159 (decimal) as characters, not control codes. See the Appendix for characters printed.

ESC 7

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC 7

27 55

Hexadecimal: 1B 37

Enable Upper Control Codes

Comments:

When the Epson Extended Graphics character table is selected,

ESC 7 causes codes 128 through 159 to be treated as control codes.

This is the default.


Graphics

See Chapter 4 for sample graphics programs. See the table under

ESC * for graphics modes.

ESC K Select Single-density Graphics Mode

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC K n1 n2

27 75 n1 n2

Hexadecimal: 1B 4B n1 n2

Comments:

Turns on 8-pin, single-density graphics mode. The total number of columns = n1 + (n2 x 256).

ESC L Select Double-density Graphics Mode

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC L n1 n2

27 76 nl n2

Hexadecimal: 1B 4C n1 n2

Comments:

Turns on 8-pin, low-speed, double-density graphics mode. The total number of columns = n1 + (n2 x 256).

ESC Y Select High-speed Double-density Graphics Mode

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC Y n1 n2

27 89 n1 n 2

Hexadecimal: 1B 59 n1 n2

Comments:

Turns on 8-pin, high-speed, double-density graphics mode. The total number of columns = n1 + (n2 x 256).


ESC Z Select Quadruple-density Graphics Mode

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC Z n1 n2

27 90 n1 n2

Hexadecimal: 1B 5A nl n 2

Comments:

Turns on 8-pin, quadruple-density graphics mode. The total number of columns = n1 + (n2 x 256).

ESC * Select Graphics Mode

Format:

ASCII code: ESC * m nl n 2

Decimal: 27 42 m nl n2

Hexadecimal: 1B 2A m nl n 2

Comments:

Turns on graphics mode m. See the following table for details on the available modes. The total number of columns = n1 + (n2 x 256).

Option

Single-density

Double-density

High-speed double-density*

Quadruple-density’

CRT I

CRT II

Single-density

Double-density

CRT III

Triple-density

Hex-density* l

Adjacent dots cannot be printed in this mode.

8

8

24

24

24

8

8

24

24

8

8

Pins m

4

6

32

33

38

2

3

39

40

1

0

Horiz. density

(dots/in)

60

120

90

180

360

60

120

120

240

80

90


ESC ?

Reassign Graphics Mode

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

ESC ? s m

27 63 s m

Hexadecimal: 1B 3F s m

Comments:

Changes from one graphics mode to another. The variable s is a character (K, L, Y or Z).

The variable m corresponds to the mode m in the ESC * command.


Appendix

Proportional Width Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2

Character Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A-6

A-l

Code

20

21

26

27

28

29

2A

22

23

24

25

2B

2C

2D

2E

2F

Proportional Width Table

This table lists the widths of your printer’s proportional characters.

The values given are in 360ths of an inch. (For example, a value of

36 is 36/360ths of an inch.) You may need to enter these widths into a special table for your processing program so it can calculate the number of proportional characters that will fit on a line.

The characters with no code indicated are international characters or graphics. See the table in Chapter 3 for the relevant codes for the international characters. Also, see the descriptions of the ESC R and

ESC t commands in Chapter 9 for information on how to use these characters.

The following width table shows each character, its ASCII code

(hexadecimal), and its width. If there are two numbers in the width column, the second one is for the superscript/subscript version of the character.

CHR

"

!

(

)

*

+

#

$

%

'

&

/

.

,

-

Width

30/20

18/12

30/20

30/20

30/20

36/24

36/24

18/12

24/16

24/16

30/20

30/20

18/12

30/20

18/12

30/20

Code

34

35

36

37

30

31

32

33

38

39

3A

3B

3C

3D

3E

3F

5

6

3

4

7

8

..

9

CHR

0

1

2

=

<

;

?

>

30/20

30/20

30/20

18/12

18/12

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

Width

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

A-2

CHR

M

N

K

L

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U v

W

X

Y

Z

[ a b c

'

]

\

^

_

F

G

D

E

H

I

J

B

C

@

A

Width

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

42/28

36/24

42/28

36/24

36/24

30/20

24/16

30/20

24/16

24/16

30/20

36/24

36/24

42/28

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

36/24

30/20

30/20

18/12

30/20

36/24

30/20

5C

5D

5E

5F

60

61

62

63

58

59

5A

58

54

55

56

57

50

51

52

53

48

4C

4D

4E

4F

47

48

49

4A

Code

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

Code

64

65

71

72

73

74

6D

6E

6F

70

69

6A

6B

6C

66

67

68

79

7A

7B

7C

75

76

77

78

7D

7E q r s m n l k

o

P t z

|

{

}

~ w x y u v

CHR d e f g h j i

Ç

ü

é

â

ä

à

å

ç

ê

24/16

18/12

24/16

30/20

36/24

36/24

30/20

30/20

30/20

24/16

36/24

36/24

42/28

30/20

36/24

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

36/24

18/12

42/28

36/24

30/20

36/24

36/24

30/20

Width

36/24

30/20

24/16

36/24

36/24

18/12

24/16

30/20

A-3

A-4

C o d e CHR W i d t h

36/24

42/28

30/20

30/20

36/24

42/28

30/20

30/20

18/12

30/20

36/24

36/24

36/24

42/28

42/28

30/20

30/20

30/20

36/24

36/24

36/24

30/20

30/20

18/12

18/12

18/12

36/24

36/24

36/24

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

CHR W i d t h

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30/20

30/20

30

30

30

30

30

Code

CE

CF

D0

D1

D2

CA

CB

C C

C D

C6

C7

C8

C9

C0

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

B8

B9

BA

BB

BC

BD

BE

BF

B4

B5

B6

B7

BO

B1

B2

B3

CHR Width

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30/20

30

30

30

30

30

30/20

30/20

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

30

E3

E4

E5

E6

DF

E0

E1

E2

D8

D9

DA

DB

D C

D D

DE

EB

EC

ED

EE

EF

E7

E8

E9

EA

F4

F5

F6

F7

F0

F1

F2

F3

Code

D3

D4

D5

D6

D7

Code

F8

F9

FA

FB

FC

FD

FE

30/20

36/24

36/24

30/20

30/20

30/20

A-5

Character Tables

These character tables are selected by DIP switch 1-4 or the ESC t software command. For the Epson Extended Graphics character table, use of the ESC 6 or ESC 7 software command lets you select whether to print hex codes 80 to 9F as characters (ESC 6) or control codes (ESC 7).

Italic Character Table

A-6

Glossary

Note that these definitions apply specifically to printers. If a word is italicized, see that topic for more information.

application program

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

ASCII

Acronym for the American Standard Code for Information

Interchange. A standardized coding system for assigning numerical codes to letters and symbols.

auto line feed

When this feature is enabled using a DIP switch or external control through the parallel connector, the printer will automatically feed the paper one line after receiving a CR code.

baud rate

A measure of the speed of data transmission. Usually expressed in bits per second or bps.

bidirectional printing

Printing in which the print head alternates printing a line left to right then the next line right to left, and so on. Because the head prints in both directions, the overall printing speed increases by eliminating wasted (non-printing) movement.

binary

See number systems.

bit

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

buffer

See input buffer and memory.

G l o s s a r y 1

byte

A unit of information consisting of eight bits.

carriage return (CR)

The control code that returns the print position to the left margin.

When issued together with a line feed, the print position moves to the left margin of the next line. In bidirectional printing, the print head may not physically move to the left margin.

character set

A collection of letters, numbers, and symbols that provides you with the characters used in a particular language.

characters per inch (cpi)

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

The standard or default setting is usually 10 cpi.

condensed

Printing in which each character is approximately 60 percent of the width of standard characters. For example, condensed 10 characters per inch (cpi) has 17 characters per inch. Useful for fitting wide tables or spreadsheets onto the paper.

continuous paper

Paper which has sprocket-feed holes on both long edges, is perforated between pages, and is supplied in a folded stack. Also called fanfold paper.

control code

In addition to the codes for printable characters, the ASCII standard also includes 33 other codes which are called control codes. These control codes perform such functions as sounding the beeper and performing a carriage return or line feed.

cut sheet feeder (CSF)

An optional, detachable device which automatically feeds single sheets of paper into the printer.

2 Glossary

data dump

Sometimes called hex dump. A troubleshooting feature. When the printer is in the data dump mode, each code that it receives is printed in hexadecimal notation.

decimal


default,

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

DIP switches

Small switches in a printer that control various printer functions and set the default status of the printer when it is turned on or initialized. DIP stands for Dual In-line Package.

dot graphics

A graphic design formed by patterns of dots. Also called bit image graphics.

dot matrix

A method of printing in which each letter or symbol is formed by a pattern (matrix) of individual dots.

double-high printing

Printing in which each character is twice as tall as normal.

double-strike printing

A way of producing bolder characters. Each character is printed twice; the second time, the dots are printed slightly below the original dots. Can only be used in draft mode.

double-wide printing

A print width in which each character is twice as wide as normal characters. (The cpi is halved.)

Glossary 3

draft mode

One of three print qualities available on your printer. Draft uses fewer dots per character for high-speed printing. See also high-speed draft and Letter Quality.

emphasized printing

A way of producing darker characters. In a single pass of the print head, characters receive twice the number of dots.

Epson Extended Graphics character table

The Epson Extended Graphics character table contains international accented characters, Greek characters, and character graphics for printing lines, comers, and shaded areas.

ESC (escape) code

A special control code used to begin most printer commands.

ESC/P

Abbreviation for Epson Standard Code for Printers. The system of commands lets you perform software control of your printer from your computer. It is standard for all Epson printers and supported by most application software for personal computers.

font

A font is a style of type designated by a family name.

font modules

Options that plug into the printer and provide additional Letter

Quality fonts.

form

In printer terminology, a form normally refers to a page.

form feed

Refers to both a control code and a panel button that advances the paper to the top of the next page.

hexadecimal (hex)


4 Glossary

high-speed draft

One of three print qualities available on your printer. High-speed draft uses a minimum number of dots per character for high-speed printing. See also draft mode and Letter Qualify.

initialize

To establish the initial default status of the printer by turning the printer on, or by sending an INIT signal or code (ESC @).

input buffer

The memory in the printer in which data sent from the computer is stored while waiting to be printed.

interface

The means of connection between the computer and printer. See also parallel interface and serial interface.

italic

A typestyle in which the characters slant. This sentence is italicized.

Also, a character table that contains italicized characters and symbols.

Letter Quality

One of two print qualities available on your printer. Letter Quality provides better readability and appearance at a reduced print speed.

See also draft mode and high-speed draft.

line feed

Both a control code and a panel button that advances the paper one line space.

loading position

The position to which the paper is automatically loaded. It can be adjusted by using the micro-adjustment feature.

G l o s s a r y 5

memory

The printer, like a computer, has a memory. When you print a file from a computer, the contents of the file are transferred quickly from the computer’s memory to the printer’s memory. The printer then prints information from its own memory at a much slower rate.

This way of printing frees the computer to do other work while the printer is still working. The printer memory is sometimes called the buffer memory or input buffer.

micro-adjustment

A feature that adjusts the paper loading and short tear-off positions by the smallest possible increments.

number systems

Three number systems are commonly used with printers: decimal is base 10 and uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

(This is the most familiar system.) hexadecimal (hex) is base 16 and uses the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, and F. This is frequently used by programmers.

Any decimal number between 0 and 255 can be expressed by a two-digit hex number.

binary is base 2 and uses only the digits 0 and 1. All information in computer systems is handled in binary form represented by electrical signals that are on or off. A binary digit is often called a bit; any decimal number between 0 and 255 can be expressed by an eight-bit binary number.

on line

When the printer is on line, it is able to communicate with the computer connected to it.

paper bail

The part of the printer that holds the paper against the platen.

6 Glossary

paper-out sensor

A small switch behind the platen that sends a signal when it is not in contact with paper, informing the printer and remote computer that there is no paper loaded, and causing the PAPER OUT light to go on.

paper tension unit

The part of the printer that fits above the platen to assure proper paper tension in the printing area.

parallel interface

An interface that connects the computer and the printer. A parallel interface transmits data one character or code at a time. See also serial interface.

parity

Parity is a method for a computer and printer to check the reliability of data transmission.

platen

The black roller that provides the backing for the paper during printing.

print quality

Your printer has three types of print quality; draft, high-speed draft, and Letter Quality. Draft and high-speed draft are for high-speed, draft quality jobs; Letter Quality is used to produce more polished documents.

proportional printing

Printing in which the character width varies from character to character. For example, a capital W receives much more space than a lowercase i. The result looks more like a typeset book than a typewritten draft.

pull tractor unit

An optional device that feeds continuous paper and multi-part forms through the printer.

G l o s s a r y 7

push tractor

A built-in device that feeds continuous paper through the printer.

R A M

Acronym for Random Access Memory. The portion of the printer’s memory used as a buffer and as a place 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, either by a command, an INIT signal, code, or by turning the printer off and on.

self test

A method of checking the operation of the printer. When the self test is run, the printer prints out its current DIP switch settings and the characters that are stored in its ROM (Read Only Memory).

serial interface

A serial interface transmits data one bit at a time. See also parallel interface.

short tear-off

A feature that automatically feeds the perforation of continuous paper to the tear-off position for you to remove it, and then draws the paper back to the loading position. These positions can be adjusted using the micro-adjustment feature. See also microadjustment and loading position.

tear-off position

The position the printer feeds the paper to when the auto tear-off mode is on. This position can be adjusted using micro-adjustment so that the paper’s perforation meets the printer’s tear-off edge.

top of form position

The position on the paper that the printer recognizes as the first printable line.

8 Glossary

tractor

The part of the printer that moves continuous paper through the printer by its sprockets gripping the holes in continuous paper.

unidirectional printing

Printing in one direction only. Allows more precise vertical alignment than bidirectional printing. Often used for printing graphics.

user-defined characters

Characters that are defined and stored in the printer by the user.

Also known as download characters.

10 cpi

A character spacing of 10 characters per inch. This is often the standard or default pitch.

12 cpi

A character spacing in which each character is slightly narrower than normal, so that there are 12 characters per inch. Also referred to as elite.

G l o s s a r y 9

Index

Command descriptions are not indexed here. To locate the page number of a specific command, see Chapter 9 or the Quick Reference card.

Accessories, see Options

Application software, 1-32

Assembling printer, l-8--15

Auto line feed, 3-8, 3-13

B

BASIC program, 4-13, 4-l6

Baud rate, 3-8, 3-13

Beeper, 9-13

Bidirectional printing, 3-10, 8-2

BIN 1/BIN 2 button, 3-3

Buffer, see Input buffer

Built-in tractor, 2-2, 2-8, 3-17

Buttons, control panel, 3-3--4

C

Cartridge fonts, 3-4

Character

defining, 4-19--30 designing, 4-19--21

fonts, 3-21--24, 8-3

size, 4-4--5

spacing, 3-4, 3-24--25, 9-34 style, 9-34

width, 9-26--29

Character sets, 3-7--8, 3-10,

3-2--27, 8-3

Canada-French, 3-9

Multilingual, 3-9

Norway, 3-9, 3-27

Portugal, 3-9

United States, 3-9

Character tables, 9-36--37,

A-6--7

choosing, 3-28

Epson Extended Graphics,

A-7

graphics, 3-7 italics, 3-7, A-6

selecting, 9-36

Color printing, Intro-l, 4-8--9, 8-8

problems, 7-15

Command summary, 9-1--42

Commands

descriptions, 9-9--42

in numerical order, 9-6--8

Condensed mode, 4-4--5, 9-27--28

Continuous paper

cut sheet feeder, 5-16--20

loading, 2-9--15

pull tractor, 5-25--36

switching, 2-16--22

using, 2-8--15

Control key chart, 9-5

Index 1

Control panel

buttons, 3-3--4

features, 3-5

lights, 3-2 operating, 3-2--5

SelecType, 3-4

Courier font, 5-37, 5-42

Cross-head screwdriver, l-2, 1-5

Cut sheet feeder, l-23, 3-7, 5-2--24

bins, 3-3

continuous paper, 5-16--20

control panel operation,

5-14--15

controlling, 9-11

installing, 5-2--6

loading envelopes, 5-12--13

operating, 5-14--15

paper handling, 5-7--10

paper out condition, 5-14

removing, 5-22--24

self test, 5-10--11

single sheets, 5-21

software operation, 5-15

testing printer, 5-10--11

Double-strike mode, 4-6, 9-31

Double-wide mode, 4-4, 9-28--29

DRAFT font, 3-4, 9-23

high-speed, 3-7, 3-10, 3-21--22,

3-24

normal, 3-10, 3-22, 3-24

Electrical specifications, 8-9

Emphasizing text, 4-5--7, 9-30--31

Envelopes, 2-23--24, 2-27, 2-30


manual feed, 2-30

printable area, 2-23, 2-31, 8-7

Epson Extended Graphics

character table, 3-28, A-7

ESCape codes, see Commands

Film ribbon, Intro-4, l-9, 1-13, 6-4,

8-8

Fixed cpi spacing, 4-4

FONT button, 3-4

Fonts, 3-21--23

FORM FEED button, 3-3

Form feeding, 9-14

Data dump mode, 3-5, 3-29--30

Data flow process, 9-2

Design grids, 4-20--21

DIP switches, l-16, 3-26--28,

5-6--7, 5-48, 5-50

functions, 3-7--13

setting, 3-6--13

tables, 3-7--9

Double-bin cut sheet feeder,

Intro-2, 5-2

Double-high mode, 4-4, 9-30

Graphics, 4-l--30, 4-8--18,

940--42

character sets, 3-7--8, 3-10,

3-26--27

command, 4-ll--12

designing, 4-14--18

print direction, 3-7, 3-10

program, 4-13

2 Index

Help, where to get, Intro-6

Hex dump, see Data dump mode

High-speed draft, 4-2--3

font, 3-21-23

mode, l-16, 3-7, 3-10

Horizontal

motion, 9-20--23

tabbing, 9-22--23

Initialization

printer, 9-9

specifications, 8-18--19

Input buffer control, 3-5

Interface boards, Intro-4, 5-44--53 choosing, 5-44--45

Coax, 5-44--45

frame ground wire, 5-48--51

IEEE-488, 5-44

installing, 5-45--52

serial, 5-44

Twinax, 5-44--45

Interface type/parity, 3-8--9, 3-13

International character sets,

3-7--8, 3-10

selecting, 3-26--27, 9-37

Italic character table, 3-7, 3-10,

3-28, A-6

Italics, 4-5--6

selecting, 9-36--37

Labels, 2-23--24, 2-27--30

Letter quality mode, l-16, l-18,

4-2--3, 9-23

Lights, control panel, 3-2

Line

feeding, 9-16--19 spacing, 9-16--17

LINE FEED button, 3-3

LOAD/EJECT button, 3-3

Loading position, 3-14 adjusting, 3-14--16

Locking brackets, l-3, l-5, 6-10

Margins, 8-5--6, 9-20

Micro-adjustment, Intro-2, 3-5,

3-14

using, 3-15--16

Multi-Font Module, Intro-3,

5-37--43 font descriptions, 5-37--40

installing, 5-41--42

selecting fonts, 5-42--43

Multi-part forms, 2-23--24, 2-27

MULTI-PART light, 2-26--27

Normal draft, l-16, 1-22, 3-22, 4-2

Number of copies, 8-7

Index 3

OCR-A font, 5-37, 5-39, 5-42

OCR-B font, 5-37, 5-39, 5-42

ON LINE

button, 3-3

light, 3-2

Operation, checking, l-23--26

Options

problems, 7-27--37

see Cut sheet feeder see Interface boards see Multi-Font Module see Pull tractor

Orator font, 5-37, 5-40, 5-42

Orator-S font, 5-37, 5-40, 5-42

Outline mode, 4-7, 9-34

Overline mode, 4-7, 9-33

Overscore, 9-33

Packing materials, l-3, 6-9, 6-11

Page length, 9-14--15

selection, 3-8--9, 3-12

Paper

feeding, 8-4

changing, see continuous paper, single sheets

length, 8-4

loading, 2-3--7, 2-9--15

positioning, 2-8

printable area, 8-5--7

reloading, 2-7

single sheets, 2-2--7


supply, l-7, 2-8

thickness, 8-7 weight, 8-7

width, 8-4

Paper edge guides, l-19--20,

2-5--6

Paper guide

attaching, l-14--15

continuous paper, 2-9, 2-14

single sheet, l-14--15

Paper handling, 2-1--31

problems, 7-16--26

Paper jam, l-23

PAPER OUT light, 3-2

Paper release lever, l-17, 2-2--3,

2-9 ,2-22

Paper thickness lever, l-25, 2-3,

2-14, 2-23--27, 3-2

Parallel interface, l-27--29

Pin labels, 4-10--11

Pitch, 3-24--25

PITCH button, 3-4

Platen knob, l-23, 2-6, 2-15, 3-14,

5-29

installing, l-8

Power

cable, l-16

supply, problems, 7-4

POWER light, 3-2

Prestige font, 5-37--38, 5-42

Print

direction, 8-2, 9-10--l1

enhancement, 9-30--34

position, 9-21--22

quality, 4-2--3

size, 9-26--30 spacing, 9-26--30

speed, 8-2

style, 9-23--25

Print head, l-10, 2-25, 2-27, 4-9

Print styles, mixing, 4-29--30

Printable area, 2-23, 2-31, 8-5--7

4 Index

Printer

assembling, l-8--15

cleaning, 6-2--3

connecting to computer,

1-27--31

location for, l-6--7

maintaining, 6-l--11

options, using, 5-51--52

plugging in, 1-16

setting up, l-l--32


testing, 1-16--26

transporting, 6-9--l1

unpacking, l-2--5

using, 3-l--30

Printer stand, l-7

Printing

enhancing, 4-2--7

problems, 7-5--15

speeds, 4-2

Problems, 7-l--37

options, 7-27--37


power supply, 7-4

printing, 7-5--15

solutions, 7-l--37

Proportional spacing, 3-4,

4-3--4, 9-27

Proportional width table, A-2--5

Protective materials, l-3--5

Pull tractor, Intro-3, 5-25--36 continuous paper, 5-25--33 installing, 5-25--28


removing, 5-34--36

READY light, 3-2

Reassigning command, 4-17-18

Ribbon cartridge, l-2--3, 8-8

installing, l-9--13

replacing, 6-4--8

Roman font, Intro-2, 3-4, 3-21--23,

4-2

RS-232C interface, l-27

Sans Serif font, Intro-2, 3-4,

3-21--23, 4-2

Score mode, 9-33

Script font, 5-37--38, 5-42

Selecting fonts, Multi-Font

Module, 5-42--43

SelecType panel, 3-4, 3-21

Self test, 3-5

running 1-16--23

Serial interface, l-27, 1-29--31

boards, 5-44--52

Shadow mode, 4-7, 9-34

Shielded cable, l-27

Short tear-off mode, 3-8, 3-13

using, 3-17--20

Single sheets

cut sheet feeder, 5-2--10,

5-14--15, 5-21

loading, 2-3--7

switching, 2-16--22

using, 2-3--7

Single-bin cut sheet feeder, Intro-2,

5-2

Index 5

Skip over perforation, 3-7,

3-ll--12, 9-15

SmartPark feature, Intro-l, 2-16

Spacing, 3-4, 3-24--25, 9-26--29

Special paper, 2-23--31

Specifications, 8-2--19


default settings, 8-19

electrical, 8-9

environmental, 8-10

initialization, 8-18--19

interface, 8-11--15

mechanical, 8-8

options, 8-16--17

paper, 8-4--8

parallel interface, 8-11--14

printer, 8-2--10 printing, 8-2--3

serial interface, 8-14--15

Strike-through mode, 4-7

Subscripts, 4-5, 4-7, 4-28, 9-32

Superscripts, 4-5, 4-7, 4-28, 9-32

Switches, see DIP switches

Tear-off mode, see Short tear-off

Tear-off position, adjusting, 3-20

Technical specifications, see

Specifications

Telephone number (toll-free),

Intro-6

Tractor, see Pull tractor

Troubleshooting, 7-l--37

options, 7-27--37


power supply, 7-4

printing, 7-5--15

Typestyles, selecting, 3-21--25,

4-2--3, 9-24

6 Index

Underline mode, 4-5, 4-7, 9-34

Underlining, 4-7, 9-33

Unidirectional

mode, 9-10--l1

printing, 3-10, 8-2

User-defined characters, 4-19--30,

9-38--39

Ventilation, l-6

Vertical

motion, 9-14--19

tabs, 9-18

tab channel, 9-19

Voltage, l-6

Where to get help, Intro-6

Commands Arranged by Topic

This section lists all the commands. The numbers in the columns on the right arc the page numbers in Chapter 9 where a complete description of the command can be found.

Vertical Motion

Code

FF

ESC C

ESC CO

ESC N

ESC O

LF

ESC +

ESC 0

ESC 2

ESC 3

ESC A

ESC J

VT

ESC B

ESC b

ESC I

Dec

12

10

43

48

50

67

67

78

79

51

65

74

11

66

98

47

Hex

OC

OA

2B

30

32

43

43

4E

4F

33

41

4A

0B

42

62

2F

Function Page

Form Feed 9-14

Set Page Length in Lines g-14

Set Page Length in Inches 9-15

Set Skip Over Perforation 9-15

Cancel Skip Over Perforation 9-15

Line Feed 9-16

Set n/360-inch Line Spacing 9-16

Select l/8-inch Line Spacing 9-16

Select 1/6-inch Line Spacing 9-17



Perform n/180-inch Line Feed 9-18

Tab Vertically 9-18

Set Vertical Tabs 9-18

Set Vertical Tabs in Channels 9-19

Select Vertical Tab Channel 9-19

The DIP Switch Tables

* You can select an international character set when DIP switch 1-4 is OFF, or select a graphics character set when DIP switch l-4 is ON.

EPSON AMERICA, INC. 2780 Lomita Boulevard, Torrance, California 90505

EPSON

®

Printed in Japan 90.09 .4

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