Epson Stylus Photo 2000

Computer Driver Menus

Printing from a PC
The 2000P is accompanied by a software CD loaded with drivers and utility software for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. The screenshots below are from the Windows version, and may look different from the Macintosh version though the options are the same.

Main Menu

Launching the printer setup utility displays this set of tab-based menu screens. The first is the Main menu, which allows you to set the basic printer parameters, including the type of paper to be printed on, the ink color, and the printing mode. Under the Media Type pulldown menu, you can specify the type of media you'd like to print to. A wide variety of paper choices are available, and are categorized into groups, including Plain Paper, Glossy Paper (Photo Weight), Archival Matte Paper, and Premium Semigloss Photo Paper.

Below the Media Type menu is the Ink selection box, which specifies which ink cartridge will be used, Color or Black.

The Mode selection box establishes how much control you have over the actual printing, with three modes available to choose from: Automatic, Photo Enhance, and Custom.

Automatic:
Automatic mode places the printer in control of the print quality and speed settings, based on the current Media Type and Ink selections. Depending on the Media Type selected, a slider bar appears under the "Custom" setting, listing Quality and Speed. You move the slider bar to the position that's most important. The printer will optimize the print job depending on which value is selected, Quality or Speed.

Photo Enhance:

This mode provides a range of preset image corrections to choose from, depending on the type of image being printed. Choices are Standard, People, Nature, Soft Focus, and Sepia. The Digital Camera Correction checkbox appears under the correction type, which smoothes lines and contours in images shot with digital cameras, eliminating some artifacts and "jaggies." Photo Enhance mode is only selectable when printing in 16-, 24-, or 32-bit color mode, and may increase print times. Also, Photo Enhance mode becomes unavailable whenever the Roll Paper option is selected in the Paper menu.

Custom:

The final mode available is Custom, which provides more advanced printer control utilities. Under the Custom Settings list, you can select Text/Graph, Draft, ICM (Windows only), or sRGB. Text/Graph mode is best for printing text with imbedded graphs, as it makes minimal adjustments and prints at a slightly lower quality setting. Draft mode is best for straight text, without any images or charts. "ICM" matches the color of the printout to the monitor currently in use on Windows machines, and "sRGB" matches the color of the printer to other sRGB devices. Clicking the Advanced button pulls up a dialog box for making further adjustments:

The Advanced adjustments include a variety of specialized settings, expanding color management options, as well as providing more control over image attributes and quality settings. At the top left of the dialog box are the Media Type and Ink selection tools, which provide the same options as on the Main menu page. The Print Quality pulldown menu offers a variety of quality settings, allowing you to select the one that best matches the use of your printout. Below the Print Quality setting, a variety of controls sets options for printing speed, image orientation, detail, and "MicroWeave," which uses a smaller step size for the paper advance, reducing the possibility of banding in the prints, but at the cost of longer print times. On the opposite side of the dialog box, a handful of color management options makes more fine-tuned adjustments. If Color Controls is selected, you can adjust the cyan, magenta, and yellow values individually, as well as the brightness, contrast, and saturation. You can also opt for automatic control. Once you've made your selections, you can save them to apply to other images via the Save Settings button (particularly useful for batch processing).

The remaining tools available on the Main menu page are the Ink Levels and Print Preview utilities. Ink Levels simply shows you the current amount of ink available in each cartridge. Clicking on the Print Preview checkbox and then the OK button pulls up a preview screen, allowing you to review the image before printing it. You can always go back to make changes.

Paper Menu

The next tab in the printer setup utility is the Paper menu, which establishes all of the paper attributes. The Paper Source pulldown menu specifies where the printer is pulling paper from, and automatically selects the sheet feeder. Other Paper Source options include Sheet Feeder - No Margins, Roll Paper, and Roll Paper - No Margins. Select "No Margins" if you want to print the image to both edges of roll paper. The Paper Size pulldown menu selects the actual size of the paper being printed on, and includes a Custom option for adding any special paper sizes not listed. Under the Copies selection box, you can set the number of copies, as well as whether or not multiple-page prints are collated or printed in reverse order. Orientation offers the standard Portrait and Landscape options, as well as an option for rotating the image 180 degrees. The final selection is the Printable Area, which designates where the printer will print the image on the page. The Maximum setting instructs the printer to fill the entire printable area established by the Paper Size setting. (Printable Area is unavailable when printing to Roll Paper.)

When printing to Roll Paper, the utility offers some additional print options, including Banner Mode, Cut Sheet Mode, Save Roll Paper, and Print Page Frame. Banner Mode prints continuously without separating pages, while Cut Sheet Mode prints multi-page images or documents as individual pages. Save Roll Paper orders the printer not to advance the blank portion of the last page printed. Finally, Print Page Frame simply tells the printer to print a solid line between pages.

Layout Menu

The Layout menu page offers slightly more control over where the image will actually print on the media. Clicking on the Reduce/Enlarge checkbox activates the options beneath it, which include Normal, Fit to Page, and Custom. Normal simply prints the image or document at its normal size, while Fit to Page prints the image as large as the page size will allow. The Custom setting allows you to manually change the image size, by selecting a percentage from 10 to 400 in the Scale box. The Output Paper Size simply selects the paper size for the printing media.

The Multi-Page selection lets you choose the layout for printing multiple images. The N-up option prints either two or four images to a page, while the Poster option enlarges a single image to print on 4, 9, or 16 pages.

Clicking on the Settings button when Poster is selected allows you to establish the order in which the enlarged image will print. The Print Cutting Guides checkbox enables you to print alignment marks, or trim lines, to help you line up and cut out the image for assembly.

The final option on the Layout menu page is the Watermark option, which allows you to place a customized watermark over the printed image. Watermarks can be made up of text or images, and clicking anywhere in the Watermark text box pulls up a list of any already-defined watermarks.

Once you've selected or created a watermark, the Settings button becomes active on the Layout menu page. Clicking it pulls up the Watermark Settings dialog box, which controls watermark attributes such as color, font, rotation, position, size, and the density of the overlay.

Utility Menu

The Utility menu page features six utility buttons for general printer maintenance:

• Epson Status Monitor 3: Reports current printer status, such as ink level, and details any printer errors.
• Nozzle Check: Determines whether or not the print nozzles are clogged.
• Head Cleaning: Cleans the print head, clearing any clogged nozzles.
• Print Head Alignment: Realigns the print head.
• Printer and Option Information: Displays the printer configuration, allowing you to make any adjustments.
• Speed & Progress: Controls printing speed for multiple copies, as well as sets preferences for error notifications and progress monitoring.

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