Glossary

The following definitions apply specifically to printers.

background printing: When background printing is on, the computer can be used for other operations while printing an image. when it is off, the computer will suspend all other operations while printing an image, but print data will be sent to the printer more quickly.

banding: The horizontal lines that sometimes appear when printing graphics.

Black&White: Printing which uses only one color of ink, usually black.

Bluetooth: A wireless technology that enables different devices to communicate without the need for cable connections.

Borderless printing: A printing mode that allows you to print without margins on all four sides of the paper.

CMYKRB: Cyan (blue-green), magenta, yellow, black, red, and blue. These colored inks are used to create the printed colors in the subtractive system.

default: A value or setting that takes effect when the equipment is turned on, reset, or initialized.

dpi: Dots per inch. The dpi measures the resolution. See also resolution.

drive: A memory device, such as a hard disk, CD-ROM, or floppy disk drive. In Windows, a letter is assigned to each drive for easy management.

driver: Software that sends instructions to a computer peripheral to tell it what to do. For example, your printer driver accepts print data from your word processor application and sends instructions to the printer on how to print this data. Together, the printer driver and printer utilities are referred to as "printer software". See also printer software.

Enhance Fine Details: This printer software setting makes the printer to print in the highest resolution, and enhance the realistic appearance of your printouts.

EPSON MonitorIV: A utility for Macintosh that allows you to manage print jobs that are in a print queue. This utility also shows the status of the job currently being printed. (See print queue)

EPSON StatusMonitor: A utility for Macintosh that monitors the printer status. If the StatusMonitor detects a printer error, it will inform you with an error message.

EPSON Status Monitor 3: A utility for Windows that provides printer status information, such as the amount of ink remaining, and checks for printer errors.

Fix: A printing mode that provides a variety of image correction settings that you can apply to your photos before printing.

grayscale: A scale of shades of gray from black to white. Grayscale is used to represent colors when printing with black ink only.

Head Cleaning utility: A utility that cleans the print head, allowing the print head nozzles to deliver ink properly.

ink jet: A method of printing in which each letter or symbol is formed by precisely spraying ink onto paper.

Ink Status: A graphic display of the amount of ink remaining in the cartridge.

interface: The connection between the computer and the printer. See also USB interface.

interface cable: The cable that connects the computer to the printer.

local printer: The printer connected to the computer's port directly by an interface cable.

margins: The space around the edge of the paper outside of the printable area. See also printable area.

media: Materials upon which data is printed.

Nozzle Check utility: A utility that checks the print head nozzles to see if they are clogged and need to be cleaned.

nozzles: Fine tubes in the print head through which ink is sprayed onto the page. Print quality may decline if the print head nozzles are clogged.

Orientation: Settings that determine the orientation of your printout. Select between Portrait (tall) or Landscape (wide).

photo cartridge: Contains the ink that your printer uses to print.

port: An interface channel through which data is transmitted between devices.

printable area: The area of a page on which the printer can print. It is smaller than the physical size of the page due to margins.

printer driver: See driver.

printer software: The printer software which comes with your printer includes a printer driver and printer utilities. The printer driver lets you choose from a wide variety of settings to get the best results from your printer. The printer utilities help you check the printer and keep it in top operating condition. See also driver and utilities.

printer utilities: See utilities.

Print Head Alignment utility: A utility that aligns the print head so images will print clearly. Used when printed images are blurry, or when misaligned vertical lines or horizontal bands appear in the printout.

PRINT Image Matching: This system enables stunning printing to be achieved easily through the combination of a digital camera loaded with the PRINT Image Matching function and a printer that supports such matching. Print commands are attached to photo data during digital camera photography and the printer adheres to these commands to print photos with the color match that optimally fulfills the objectives of the digitally composed shots.

Print Preview: A setting that allows you to see how your image will look before actually printing it.

print queue: A waiting line in which print jobs that are sent to the printer via network are stored until they can be printed.

Profiles: Standards that allow different devices to operate with one another using Bluetooth wireless technology. Profiles are defined by the uses and features they allow devices to perform, such as printing or scanning from a computer. To share this information, the devices must be compatible with the same profile.

Quality Type settings: A number of print quality settings that are available in the printer software.

reset: To return a printer to its defaults by pressing and holding the Cancel button for three seconds or more.

resolution: The number of dots used to represent an image, expressed as (horizontal dots) x (vertical dots).

RGB: Red, green, and blue. These colors, in phosphors irradiated by a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor's electron gun, creates the screen colors with additive mixture.

spool: The first step in printing, in which the printer software converts the print data into codes that your printer understands. This data is then sent directly to the printer or to the print server.

spool manager: The software that converts print data into codes that your printer understands. See also spool.

sRGB: The color management method used to maintain color consistency between devices which adhere to the sRGB standard.

Status Monitor: The software that allows you to check the printer's status.

USB interface: Universal Serial Bus interface. Enables the user to connect up to 127 peripheral devices (such as keyboards, pointing devices, and printers) to the computer through a single, general-purpose port. USB hubs allow you to add additional ports. See also interface.

utilities: Software that allows you to monitor and maintain your printer. Together, utilities and the printer driver are referred to as "printer software". See also printer software.