Improving Print Quality

Checking the Printer Status

For Windows
For Macintosh

For Windows

Using the progress meter

When you send a print job to the printer, the progress meter appears, as shown in the illustration below.

The progress meter indicates the progress of the current print job and provides printer status information when bidirectional communication between the printer and the computer is established. This meter also displays error messages as well as helpful tips for better printing. Refer to the appropriate section below.

Epson Printing Tips

Tips for getting the most out of your Epson printer software appear in the text box at the bottom of the progress meter window. A new tip appears every 30 seconds. For more details on the tip displayed in the window, click the Details button.

Error messages

If a problem occurs during printing, an error message appears in the text box at the top of the progress meter window. For more detailed information, click Technical Support to access the online Reference Guide.

When the ink runs low or out, a How to button appears below the text box. Click How to, and EPSON Status Monitor 3 will lead you step-by-step through the cartridge replacement procedure.

Using EPSON Spool Manager

EPSON Spool Manager is similar to Windows Print Manager. If it receives two or more print jobs at one time, it holds them in the order that they were received (with printers on a network, this may be called a print queue). When a print job reaches the top of the line, EPSON Spool Manager sends the job to the printer. From the spool manager, you can view print status information about the print jobs that have been sent to your printer. You can also cancel, pause, and resume selected print jobs.

Note:

EPSON Spool Manager is not available with Windows XP and 2000.

After you send a print job, an EPSON Stylus Photo R300 Series button appears on the taskbar. Click this button to open EPSON Spool Manager.

Using EPSON Status Monitor 3

EPSON Status Monitor 3 displays detailed information on the printer status.

Note:

Before using EPSON Status Monitor 3, be sure to read its README file. To open this file, click Start, point to Programs (for Windows Me, 98, and 2000) or All Programs (for Windows XP), point to EPSON or EPSON Printers, then click EPSON Stylus Photo R300 Series Readme.

Accessing EPSON Status Monitor 3

There are two ways to access EPSON Status Monitor 3:

Double-click the printer-shaped shortcut icon on the Windows taskbar.
See Monitoring Preferences

Open the printer software, click the Utility tab, then click the EPSON Status Monitor 3 button.

When you access EPSON Status Monitor 3, the following window appears.

Viewing information in EPSON Status Monitor 3

EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides the following information:

Current Status:
EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides you with detailed printer status information, a graphic display, and status messages. If the ink runs low or out, the How to button appears in the EPSON Status Monitor 3 window. Clicking How to displays ink cartridge replacement instructions and moves the print head to the ink cartridge replacement position.

Ink Levels:
EPSON Status Monitor 3 provides a graphic display of the amount of ink remaining and an estimate of the number of pages that can be printed before ink runs out.

Ink Cartridge Information:
You can view information about the installed ink cartridges by clicking Information.

Technical Support
You can access the online Reference Guide from EPSON Status Monitor 3. If you encounter a problem, click Technical Support in the EPSON Status Monitor 3 window.

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For Macintosh

Using EPSON StatusMonitor

EPSON StatusMonitor monitors the printer. If it detects a printer error, it will inform you with an error message.

When the ink runs low or out, a How to button appears. Click How to, and EPSON StatusMonitor will lead you step by step through the ink cartridge replacement procedure.

You can also use this utility to check ink levels before printing. When open, EPSON StatusMonitor displays the amount of ink remaining at the time it was opened. To update the ink level information, click Update.

Accessing EPSON StatusMonitor

Follow the steps below to access EPSON StatusMonitor.

For Mac OS 8.6 to 9.x

Access the Print dialog box.

Accessing the Printer Software for Mac OS 8.6 to 9.x

Click the StatusMonitor icon button, or click the Utility icon button then the EPSON StatusMonitor button in the Utility dialog box. The EPSON StatusMonitor dialog box appears.

For Mac OS X

Access the EPSON Printer Utility dialog box.

Accessing the Printer Software for Mac OS X

Select your printer, then click OK. The EPSON Printer Utility dialog box appears.

Click the EPSON StatusMonitor button. The EPSON StatusMonitor dialog box appears.

Using the Configuration Settings dialog box

To change the way that the EPSON StatusMonitor utility monitors your printer, or to change the way that your printer handles print jobs, follow the steps below.

Note:

This feature is not available with Mac OS X.

Click Print or Page Setup on the File menu of your application.

Click the Utility icon button.

Click Configuration. The Configuration Settings dialog box appears.

In the Configuration Settings dialog box, you can make the following settings.

Error notification	Choose the way EPSON StatusMonitor notifies you in case of an error.
Warning	Choose the way EPSON StatusMonitor notifies you of a warning message.
Temporary Spool folder	Specify the folder in which print data will be temporarily stored.
Temporary High Speed Copies folder	Specify the folder in which multiple-copy print data will be temporarily stored.
Data will be sent to the printer after being stored on your disk.	Select this check box to prevent horizontal banding in printouts that contain images, by temporarily storing image data on the computer's hard drive. The computer will then send the image data to the printer as a whole rather than as rectangular bands.
Check for errors before starting to print.	Select this check box to have the printer check for errors before starting to print.
Check the ink level before starting to print.	Select this check box to have the printer check the ink levels before starting to print.

Using EPSON MonitorIV

After you send a print job to the printer, you can use the EPSON MonitorIV utility to check, cancel, or change the priority of print jobs that are queued for printing. This utility also shows the status of the job currently being printed.

Note:

This feature is not available with Mac OS X.

Accessing EPSON MonitorIV

To access EPSON MonitorIV, follow these steps.

First, turn on Background Printing in the Chooser or in the Background Printing dialog box.

Send a print job to the printer.

Select EPSON MonitorIV from the Application menu at the right end of the menu bar. The EPSON MonitorIV dialog box appears.

Note:

You can also open EPSON MonitorIV by double-clicking the EPSON MonitorIV icon in the Extensions folder.

Managing print jobs using EPSON MonitorIV

Using EPSON MonitorIV, you can manage print jobs as described below:

Use the buttons below to hold, resume, and delete print jobs. Select the print job that you want to manage, then click the appropriate button.

Hold

Pauses printing and keeps the current print job at the top of the print queue.

Resume

Resumes printing.

Delete

Stops printing and deletes the print job from the print queue.

Click Stop Print Queue to stop printing. Click Start Print Queue to resume printing.

Use the buttons below to start the printer utilities.

Print head cleaning

Starts the Print Head Cleaning utility.

StatusMonitor

Starts EPSON Status Monitor, which displays the amount of ink remaining.

Double-click a file in the list to preview it. (this function is disabled when you are printing the ESC/P command file.)

Double-click Copies to change the number of copies of the selected print job that will be printed.

Click the Show details arrow to open an extension (similar to the one below) at the bottom of the EPSON MonitorIV dialog box. The extension displays detailed information on the selected document's printer software settings.

Changing the priority of print jobs

To change the priority of print jobs in a print queue, follow the steps in this section.

Note:

You can also change the priority of print jobs whose print times were previously set in the printer software's Background Printing dialog box.

In the Document Name column, select the print job for which you want to change the priority.

Click the Show details arrow to open an extension (similar to the one below) at the bottom of the EPSON MonitorIV dialog box.

From the Priority list, select Urgent, Normal, Hold, or Print Time.

Note:

If you select Print Time, a dialog box appears, allowing you to specify the date and time when the document will be printed. Make sure that your printer and computer are turned on at the specified time.

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