Read_Me file for Epson printers. -------------------------------- This file is roughly in order of increasing printer functionality, ie. the further down this file the printer definition file is described, the more features it requires the printer to support. So if you are having problems with an Epson compatible printer, try a printer definition file further up than the one you are using. Note however that you should not try to run a 24 pin printer with the definition file for a 9 pin printer or vice versa. If your Epson compatible printer gives no additional information (eg. which Epson printer it claims compatibility with) then try the Epson.FX-80 file. Moving forwards from the FX-80 file (towards the EX-800), more advanced features of the printer are used. Moving backwards from the FX-80 file the definitions become simpler. The following table lists other Epson products and the suggested Printer Definition File to be used. They have not necessarily been tested, but as similar Control Codes are used, they should work: Printer File ------- ---- EX-800 Epson.EX-800 FX-80 Epson.FX-80 FX-85 Epson.FX-85 FX-86 Epson.FX-85 FX-86e Epson.EX-800 (do not select colour) FX-185 Epson.FX-85 FX-286 Epson.FX-85 FX-286e Epson.EX-800 (do not select colour) FX-800/1000 Epson.EX-800 (do not select colour) FX-850/1050 Epson.EX-800 (do not select colour) FX-870/1070 Epson.EX-800 (do not select colour) GX-80 Epson.FX-80 JX-80 Epson.JX-80 LX-80 Epson.LX-80 LX-86 Epson.LX-100 LX-100 Epson.LX-100 LX-400 Epson.LX-100 LX-800 Epson.LX-100 LX-850/1050 Epson.LX-100 MX-80-II Epson.MX-80-II MX-80-III Epson.MX-80-III RX-80/100 Epson.MX-80-III LQ-100 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-150 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-200 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-400 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-450 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-500 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-500 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-510/1010 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-550 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-570/1070 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-800/1000 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-850/1050 Epson.LQ-860 LQ 860 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-870/1070 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-1060 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-2500 Epson.LQ-860 LQ-2550 Epson.LQ-860 Stylus 800 Epson.Stylus-800 Stylus 800+ Epson.Stylus-800 Stylus 820 Epson.Stylus-820 Stylus 1000 Epson.Stylus-800 Stylus Color Epson.Stylus-Col Stylus Pro Epson.Stylus-Pro Stylus Pro XL Epson.Stylus-PXL Stylus Pro XL+ Epson.StylusPXL+ Stylus Color II Epson.StyCol-II Stylus Color IIs Epson.StyCol-IIs EPL-5000 HP.LasJet-III EPL-5200 HP.LasJet-III EPL-7500 PostScript EPL-8100 HP.LasJet-III Note that some Epson 9-pin printers and compatibles support NLQ (ESC x) as used in the FX 85 but not Absolute Horizontal Position (ESC $) as used in the FX 85. The FX 80 Printer Definition File is a safe option to try as it does not support either facility. If your printer has the NLQ facility, but not Absolute Horizontal Position, use the LX-80 file. When using any of the Epson printer definition files, with either an Epson printer or a printer claiming to be Epson compatible, you should ensure that any DIP switch called "IBM Mode" or "IBM control codes" or anything similar is switched to disable the IBM features. When using any type of MX-80 printer with any of the MX-80 definition files, the printer must have its dip switches set for no auto line feed on carriage return. This probably means setting DIP switch 2-3 to OFF, but you should check the documentation for your printer. In the unlikely event that you need auto line feed set to ON, then you can use !PrintEdit to remove the trailing ",10" from the "Line skip:" and "Line end 1:" fields in the 60 by 72 and 120 by 72 DPI graphics resolutions. It is not possible to modify the 120 by 144 and 120 by 216 resolutions to allow them to work with auto line feed enabled. The "Epson.MX-80-II" printer definition file is for the Epson MX-80 Type II printer and should work on virtually any EPSON compatible printer. The 120 by 144 and 120 by 216 DPI graphics resolutions are not guaranteed to work, as they use ESC "J" for advance by n/216 inch. This is not documented in any version of the manual, but has been found to work on many Epson MX-80 Type II printers. You should not use these resolutions if your MX-80 Type II does not support ESC "J". The text highlights available on this printer are minimal (condensed and expanded text only). ISO Latin 1 international character mappings are supplied, but every character is simply mapped to the closest available normal ASCII character. This is because the MX-80 Type II cannot do backspace over-printing nor does it support ESC "R" international character set sequences. You should set the DIP switches for the USA character set. Note that there appears to be some discrepancy about the features supported on the MX-80 Type II. There are at least two different versions of the MX-80 Type II manual, one of which details many more control sequences (eg. ESC "R", ESC "E"/"F" and more) than the other. The extra control codes do not work on some MX-80 Type II printers so there would appear to be two flavours of "Type II" rather than the more likely explanation of the commands originally being undocumented. The MX-80-II file supports only the commands which work on most or all Type II printers. The "Epson.MX-80-III" printer definition file is for the Epson MX-80 Type III printer and should work on many EPSON compatible printers. Vertical interlacing is used on the higher resolution graphics modes, using ESC "J" for advance by n/216 inch. This is a documented command on the MX-80 Type III, unlike on the Type II. The text highlights available on this printer are reasonable. The ISO Latin 1 international characters are printed using ESC "R" international character set sequences, using character sets 0 (USA) to 7 (Spain). Additionally, some characters are printed by using backspace to overprint two characters. Note that on the MX-80 Type III there is a bug which causes double strike mode to be left on after superscript or subscript has been used and deselected. This file works around the bug by turning double strike mode off after turning superscript or subscript off. This should not cause problems on a printer which does not have the bug (double strike will be changed from off to off) but it will cause problems if your printer does not support ESC "H" (double strike mode off). Note that ESC "G" and ESC "H" (turn double strike mode on and off) are in fact undocumented commands on the MX-80 Type III. However, double strike is always used for superscript and subscript which are documented, and the bug and ESC "G" and ESC "H" are known to be present in all MX-80 Type III printers. The "Epson.FX-80" printer definition file is considered the core file and should work on many Epson compatible printers. The ISO Latin 1 international characters are printed using ESC "R" international character set sequences, using character sets 0 (USA) to 8 (Japan). Additionally, some characters are printed by using backspace to overprint two characters. The "Epson.JX-80" printer definition file is the same as the "Epson.FX-80" file, except that it uses colour. Please note that although colour on interlace graphics printouts (ie 120 by 144 DPI or higher) is supported, it does involve a large number of print head passes (8, 12, 16 or 24) and on the second or subsequent interlace passes, the light ribbon colours are printed on top of dark colours already on the paper, which can result in contamination of the lighter ribbon colour. The "Epson.FX-85" printer definition file is the same as the "Epson.FX-80" file, except that it supports Near Letter Quality (NLQ) text printing and the graphics definitions support leading zero suppression using ESC "$". It should work on virtually all Epson compatible 9 pin printers that support ESC "$" and NLQ printing. The "Epson.EX-800" printer definition file is the most advanced of the 9 pin Epson definitions, and should work with all the newer 9 pin printers eg. Star LC-10, Citizen Swift 9. ISO Latin 1 text characters are obtained by using ESC "t" 1 and ESC "6" to select the Epson character graphics (called IBM character set 2 on some printers) instead of italic characters for the top bit set printer characters. In addition ESC "R" sequences are used to print some of the characters, using commonly available international character sets. Graphics leading zero suppression is performed using ESC "$". Colour is available for all supported resolutions, but the comments above regarding interlaced colour printouts should be noted. You should not attempt to print in colour unless your printer has a colour ribbon installed. The "Epson.LX-80" printer definition file is similar to the Epson.FX-85 file except that use of ESC "$" for white space skipping has been taken out. This LX-80 file is for LX series printers and compatibles which do not support ESC "t". The "Epson.LX-100" printer definition file is similar to the Epson.EX-800 file except that colour is not supported and use of ESC "$" for white space skipping has been removed. The "Epson.LQ-860" printer definition file uses many of the extra features of the Epson LQ-850 and LQ-860 24 pin printers, and is only likely to work on an Epson compatible printer if it performs full Epson LQ-850 emulation. Most of the graphics resolutions are 24 pin dumps. The 360 DPI vertical resolution graphics dumps are interlaced and as such require the support of the ESC "+" control sequence to set n/360 inch line pitch. Colour is available for all supported resolutions, but the comments above regarding interlaced colour printouts should be noted. ISO Latin 1 text characters are obtained by using ESC "t" 1 and ESC "6" to select the Epson character graphics set instead of italic characters for the top bit set printer characters. In addition ESC "R" sequences are used to print some of the characters, including use of the Legal international character set (ESC "R" 64) which is not supported on some Epson compatible 24 pin printers (try the NEC.P6-Plus file instead). You should not attempt to print in colour unless your printer has a colour ribbon installed. The "Epson.Stylus-800" printer definition file is for the Epson Stylus 800 and 1000 inkjet printers. The StylusCol printer definition file supports both normal and microweave print modes. Note that the 720 dpi modes are very high resolution, and there are several special considerations. Firstly, Epson recommend that only special, coated paper be used. Secondly, !Printers will only offer error diffused quality options, not halftones, because the latter are not recommended. Note that some very early Epson LQ-850 printers have a different version of the firmware, which does not support the ESC "+" command and hence the 360 DPI vertical graphics resolutions (180 by 360 and 360 by 360) will not work. If you find this to be the case on your printer, you should contact Epson about a firmware upgrade. You may find that the "NEC.P6-Plus" printer definition file will work for some Epson compatible 24 pin colour (and monochrome) printers, except that the 360 DPI vertical resolution graphics modes will not work unless the printer is NEC compatible. If you have a true 48 pin Epson compatible printer (eg. the Star SJ-48 inkjet), then try the Canon.BJC-800 printer definition file. There are some Epson compatible 9 pin printers which define ESC "J" (and ESC "3") in units of n/144 inch instead of n/216 inch. This will cause interlaced graphics resolutions to go wrong, but non interlaced resolutions should work (ESC "J" is not used unless it is necessary). You could try the Star.DP-510 printer definition file, as this printer uses ESC "3" for setting the line pitch to n/144 inch. You may then find that text printing does not work correctly as the Star DP-510 is somewhat non standard in this area. If this is the case you could use !PrintEdit to create a new printer definition file, copying the text printing definitions from an appropriate Epson file and the graphics resolutions from the Star DP-510 file.