• 1 Epson FAQ
  • 1.1 General Questions
    • 1.1.1 In which forum should I ask Epson questions?
    • 1.1.2 Where can I find a table of working Epson printers?
    • 1.1.3 Why does using psnup -2 and -4 causes the image to "slide up?"
    • 1.1.4 How do I print escape codes?
    • 1.1.5 How do I monitor the ink levels in the printer?
    • 1.1.6 How do I get the TWAIN driver working?
    • 1.1.7 Why is the output is shifted up and left on the paper?
    • 1.1.8 How do I print black without an installed color cartridge?
    • 1.1.9 How can I print with QuadTone inks?
    • 1.1.10 How can I generate a test pattern?
  • 1.2 Epson ESC/POS for Point of Sale and Receipt Printers
    • 1.2.1 Where can I get a sample program implementing ESC/POS?
  • 1.3 Epson Stylus Photo 820
    • 1.3.1 Is the resolution 5760x720dpi supported?
  • 1.4 Epson Stylus Photo 830
    • 1.4.1 How do I setup PDQ?
    • 1.4.2 Which drive do I use?
  • 1.5 Epson Stylus Photo 895
    • 1.5.1 Does the flash card reader work with Linux?
  • 1.6 Epson Stylus Photo 2200
    • 1.6.1 How do I configure for FireWire?
  • 1.7 Epson Stylus C42SX
    • 1.7.1 Why can't I print in Black and White?
  • 1.8 Epson Stylus C60
    • 1.8.1 Why does the job stop and the ink light flash?
  • 1.9 Epson Stylus C62
    • 1.9.1 How do I use higher resolution?
    • 1.9.2 Why are print jobs rotated 90 degrees?
  • 1.10 Epson Stylus C82
    • 1.10.1 Why does nothing happen when I try to print?
    • 1.10.2 Why does escputil not print a pattern to align the heads?
    • 1.10.3 What are good CMY values to make a good gray?
    • 1.10.4 Why do blacks have green tones?
    • 1.10.5 Why is the output very stretched out?
  • 1.11 Epson Stylus Pro 9600
    • 1.11.1 Do i have to purchase the RIP option?
  • 1.12 Epson Stylus CX3200
    • 1.12.1 What kernel version do I need to print?
    • 1.12.2 Why doesn't the patch on openprinting.org work?
  • 1.13 Epson Stylus CX5200
    • 1.13.1 What are the steps to get it working?
    • 1.13.2 How do I setup the scanner?
    • 1.13.3 Why does the printer output the PostScript source text file?
    • 1.13.4 Which PPD do I use?
    • 1.13.5 How do I get Mandriva to load the printer and scanner driver after reboot?
  • 1.14 Epson AcuLaser C2000
    • 1.14.1 Which driver do I use?
    • 1.14.2 Is the alc2000 driver already in GhostScript?
    • 1.14.3 Why do we use GhostScript with this PostScript printer?
  • 1.15 Epson EPL5700L, EPL5900L, 6100L
    • 1.15.1 Where do I get the latest driver?
  • 1.16 Epson LQ-2550
    • 1.16.1 Why is there print corruption 3/4 down the page?
  • 1.17 Epson LX-300+
    • 1.17.1 Does this printer work with Free Software?
  • 1.18 Epson LX-800
    • 1.18.1 How do I configure text-mode output?

Forum: Printers from Epson

http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi?make=Epson

This is a known, unsolved problem. There is a simple workaround, because CUPS has an internal function for N-up printing.http://www.cups.org/sum.html to see how N-up works under CUPS.

Many of the Stylus inkjets are purely raster graphics printers. The do not support the standard Epson ESCP/2 command set of the older 9/25 pin impact printers. They also have new commands for controlling ink drop sizes, 6 colors, etc. Most of them will print ASCII with a fixed width font. Newer Stylus's (740 and onward) need a special sequence before they recognize data on their inputs.

There are two ways.

First, there is a new library and command line tool available here:http://freshmeat.net/projects/libinklevel/

Second, With mtink, or you can also try:

escputil -iur /dev/lp0
escputil -iur /dev/usb/lp0

The option -iur is for USB printers. Use -u for parallel printers. If in doubt escputil –help

TWAIN is a Windows driver. We deal with GNU/Linux issues. Goodbye!

This may be because you specify the paper size as A4, but at some stage of the filtering, it is converted to Letter. Configure both CUPS and your application for the same page size.

This behavior has also been reported when a text file is printed from the command line without specifying paper size.

You cannot continue printing with one ink cartridge empty. Before printing, replace the empty cartridge.

This is not a feature of the GNU/Linux driver, this is is a designed behaviour with the Epson printers that cannot be changed in software.

http://www.harrington.com/QuadToneRIP.html

There is a test pattern generator in the gimp-print package, located in src/testpattern. The program is not built by default. You should pass –with-testpattern on the command line. There is a script file for the pattern generator calledtestpattern.sample.

The test pattern generator in 4.3 can print 16-bit CMYK or printer-raw images (“printer-raw” means that e. g. you can print in 6 colors on a 6-color printer) using a special file format.

You cansee a sample program or download it:pos_main.c

This is what it looks like.

#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H #include <config.h> #endif

#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h>

#include <unistd.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <fcntl.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[1]) { int fp; char cBuf[64], cOut[2];

printf(“Hi, welcome\n Press <ENTER> to finish”); fp = open(“/dev/ttyS0”,O_WRONLY); printf(“fp = %i”,fp);

write(fp,“\n\n\n\n”,4); write(fp,“Hello World\n\n\n\n\n”,14); write(fp,“\x1D\x56\x01”,3); close(fp);

return EXIT_SUCCESS; } Epson Stylus Photo 820

There are no plans to support this resolution. In practice, it would offer no advantage over 2880×720; the 4 picolitre drops are plenty large enough to create solid density at 2880×720 DPI, and packing more resolution in already high resolution dimension isn't going to achieve any visible improvement.

If you want to try 2880×1440 (which would at least give you more vertical resolution), you can try using the Epson 925 driver. If you really want higher resolution, get the 960, which offers 2880×1440 with 2 picolitre drops; this really does offer visible improvement over the 820, but even on that printer there's awfully little difference in output quality between 2880×1440 and 1440×720, which is the next resolution choice. However, both the 780 and 820 are base model 6-color printers; there's no reason to do this as an “upgrade”.

The printer may not be doing 5760x720dpi in hardware anyway. The Epson web site always refers to “5760×720 optimized DPI”; there is no explanation as to what “optimized” means here, but it is perhpas some kind of oversampling being done in software. This has been tried before, but yielded no positive results.

Epson Stylus Photo 830

Using the following driver description file.

driver "Raw-Printer" {
 # This PDQ driver declaration file was generated automatically by
 # foomatic-rip to allow raw (filter-less) printing.
 language_driver all {
 # We accept all file types and pass them through without any changes
  filetype_regx ""
  convert_exec {
   ln -s $INPUT $OUTPUT
  }
 }
 filter_exec {
  ln -s $INPUT $OUTPUT
 }
}

Let this printer point to the port of your Epson Stylus Photo 830</tt>. Call this printer Photo830raw. Now you have two definitions for your printer, your old onePhoto830, which you set as the default printer, is for all jobs from KDE apps, the command line. The new definition Photo830raw you use for the GIMP. Enterpdq -P Photo830raw as printing command there.

You may need to add -o raw to the command.

Use the Stylus Photo 830U with the ijsgimpprint driver for the Stylus Photo 830. Epson Stylus Photo 895

As of Linux 2.4.21pre5 the card reader is recognised as a USB mass storage device and appears as /dev/sd?1, typically/dev/sda1 if you don't have other SCSI devices or USB mass storage devices.

Epson Stylus Photo 2200

Check whether the printer appears as a SCSI device.

cat /proc/scsi/scsi

If so, you need a CUPS version with SCSI backend (the current 1.1.x has it): Check for the existence of

/usr/lib/cups/filter/scsi

When you have this file (with or without update of CUPS), restart the CUPS daemon and do

lpinfo -v

If there is a SCSI entry, this is the entry for your printer. Use this URI when setting up your print queue.

If this does not help, please post on a Forum of CUPS:http://www.cups.org/newsgroups.php

Epson Stylus C42SX

In some versions of the printer driver (Gimp-Print) the grayscale and black-and-white are broken, print always in color mode, even if the document is black-and-white.

This is fixed in recent versions of Gimp-print.

Epson Stylus C60

This is the typical behaviour when a cartridge is empty. Open the lid, press the leftmost button and see with which cartridge the printhead stops at the little arrow on the left. This is the empty cartridge. Press the button again, change the cartridge and then press the button to get the head back to the right. Now ink is filled into the printhead which can take some minutes. Do not interupt the electric power for the printer during this time. Pressing the </tt>On/Off</tt> buttonm is OK, as the printer finishes the ink filling before going off.

Epson Stylus C62

Use gimp-print. The default resolution is 360 dpi. The C60 driver will do 1440×720. The C62 driver offers 2880×720.

Try using the lpadmin command as follows

lpadmin -p Epson -m Epson-Stylus_C62-gimp-print.ppd -v parallel:/dev/lp0 -E

Epson Stylus C82

http://space.tin.it/computer/wvtberti/linux/stp_driver/gs_stp.htm

It may be that the C82 uses a “soft” head alignment procedure that we don't support yet. You can try the mtink utility.

You're going to have a lot of difficulty getting a really accurate gray with 4.2. You could try boosting the magenta a bit. You might also want to try 4.3.10, if you're printing from the GIMP; there are additional (linear) color balance sliders that might give you enough control.

The green cast in dark black tones can be reduced, but only by cranking up the magenta so much that the rest of the image (skin tones in particular) gets very bad.

You can do a test print.

Make a 20:1 wide:tall aspect ratio horizontal grayscale ramp. Print it the width of your paper at the top of the page. If it's tinted green, add magenta, and so on for the other primaries Repeat by printing farther down on the same piece of paper. Five or six iterations should do it, and – until you change type of paper or ink – you're all set. Total expense: Half a page of paper and the corresponding amount of ink.

Each print has to be should be separately proofed.

Change resolution from 1440×1440 to 2880×720 or 2880×1440. Epson Stylus Pro 9600

No, Gimp-print with either CUPS or Foomatic will take care of the Postscript.

Epson Stylus CX3200

You need at least kernel 2.4.21 (or the current

2.4.21preXX version). Alternatively you can fix your current kernel as shown on theEpson Stylus CX3200 printer entry page on openprinting.org.

The original author did not specify the kernel version. It is probably 2.4.20 or newer (an early 2.4.21pre<something>). Epson Stylus CX5200

These steps worked for one person.

1) Go to Epson Website to download their Photo Image Print Systempips Download the rpm: pips-sc82s-cups-2.6.2-1.i386.rpm

2) Unpack the rpm rpm -Uvh pips-sc82s-cups-2.6.2-1.i386.rpm You may get messages about libcryto and libssl 0.9.6 dependencies failing. If the libraries are in/usr/lib then force install the RPM

rpm -Uvh --nodeps --force pips-sc82s-cups-2.6.2-1.i386.rpm

Upon installing, it will automatically modify the/etc/service and add an entry for the epson status monitor ekpstm.

----Start of Modification to **''/etc/service''** -----				
# written for pips-sc82s-cups	
cbtd     35586/tcp				
# pips-sc82-cups  end			
------End------

This is for the epson status monitor ekpstm.

3) On some systems, you may need to make sure your usb daemon is running.

/etc/rc.d/init.d/usb start

3) To setup the printer, run /usr/local/EPKowa/SC82S/setup It will ask for the connection type and the printer name used by CUPS. Answer with the following:

	Connection type: **''/dev/usb/lp0''**

Printer name: **''Epson_CX5200''**

4) Now connect the USB cables, and then turn on the printer. Then load the printer module: modprobe printer

5) Goto the /dev/usb directory, and you should see lp0 which was automatically created.

ls -la /dev/usb/lp0
crw-rw----    1 lp       sys      180,   0 Dec 31  1969 /dev/usb/lp0

6) Launch Epson Status Monitor under X: ekpstm A status window comes up and it should read all the ink cartridge level (black, cyan, magenta and yellow). In the status field, it should say Ready to print

7) Download EPS ghostscript filter from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=18073 Download: ghostscript-7.05.5-0.i386.rpm and ghostscript-cups-7.05.5-0.i386.rpm. Install them:

	rpm -Uvh ghostscript-7.05.5-0.i386.rpm
	rpm -Uvh ghostscript-cups-7.05.5-0.i386.rpm

8) Open a browser, and connect to http://127.0.0.1:631/admin Select the following choices:

Manage Printers" --> "Add Printer"

and input these:

Printer Name: Epson_CX5200 Location: http://www.openprinting.org/your location here“ Description: Epson CX5200 MFP Device: EPSON Inkjet Printer #1 (Photo Image Print System) Make: EPSON Model: EPSON Stylus C80, CUPS+GIMP-print v4.2.1-pre5(en)

9) Click Print a Test Page.

10) If it doesn't work, see the error_log FAQ to continue debugging CUPS.

The CX-5200 Scanner part is equivalent to Perfection 1200U.

1) Download Image Scan, which is a backend for SANE. Recommended: iscan-1.4.0-5.i386.rpm.

2) Install the RPM: rpm -Uvh iscan-1.4.0-5.i386.rpm

3) Modify the scanner.c sources, and recompile scanner.o module Become root or su and edit/usr/src/linux-2.4.19-16/mdk/drivers/usb/scanner.c as follows: find the lines:

if (dev->config[[http://www.openprinting.org/0|[3]]].bNumInterfaces != 1) {
 info("probe_scanner: Only one device interface is supported.");
 return NULL;
}
and change them so they look like this.

/*	if (dev->config[0].bNumInterfaces != 1) {
*		info("probe_scanner: Only one device interface is supported.");
*		return NULL;
*	}
*/

4) Add a line to scanner.h right afterPerfection 1660 Photo, like this:

	{ USB_DEVICE(0x04b8, 0x011e) }, /* Perfection 1660 Photo */
	{ USB_DEVICE(0x04b8, 0x0801) }, /* CX5200 */

5) Create a new directory for the modules.

mkdir /usr/src/modules

and copy the newly modified “scanner.c” and “scanner.h” to this directory.

cp scanner.c scanner.h /usr/src/modules

6) Change to the linux source directory cd /usr/src/linux and make sure the following lines are set to reflect your current Mandriva kernel version.

VERSION = 2
PATCHLEVEL = 4
SUBLEVEL = 18
EXTRAVERSION = -8.1mdk

7) Return to the new modules directory cd /usr/src/modules and compile the modules:

gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/include -include \
/usr/src/linux/include/linux/modversions.h -c scanner.c
	this will produce a module called **''scanner.o''**.

8) gzip scanner.o,gzip scanner.o

9) Now copy the new modules into the modules directory

cp scanner.o.gz /libs/modules/2.4.18-8.1mdk/kernel/drivers/usb

10) Add some lines to /etc/modules.conf:

alias char-major-180-48 scanner
options scanner vendor=0x04b8 product=0x0801
	11) You should now remove the old **''scanner.o''** **''modprobe -r scanner.o''**

but if that fails, you can simply reboot to force a reload.  After
removing the old module or rebooting, then

insmod scanner

12) Change to the /dev/usb directory /dev/usb and check that scanner0 is there. It should be automatically generated by usbfs

root:~>ls -la /dev/usb/scanner0
crw-rw----    1 root     usb      180,  48 Dec 31  1969 /dev/usb/scanner0

13) Edit /etc/sane.d so it looks like this:

epson.conf: (only 1 line)
	usb /dev/usb/scanner0
dll.conf: (only 2 lines)
	net
	epson

14) Run iscan from the Epson Image Scan rpm package. iscan You can change Resolution to 300dpi and press SCAN button. You should be able to scan. The scanner can't use all of the resolution settings. In addition, Preview does not work.

15) To make it work inside GIMP, make a symbolic link of “iscan” to ~/.gimp-1.2/plug-ins

ln -s /usr/bin/iscan ~/.gimp-1.2/plugins

The copy function of CX-5200 should work by itself.

You can also try Xsane. It will give you more control over the scanner, and Gimp should be able to use it immediatly.

Instead of using PostScript Level 2, choose one of these

• Epson Stylus CX5200
• Epson Stylus C82
• Epson Stylus C80

If you choose PostScript Level 2 for a non-PostScript printer, you have to remove the -oraw from the printing command.

The PPD file that you can download from openprinting.org won't be correct if you're using the native CUPS driver. You should use the one in /etc/cups/ppd. Try to use the native CX5200, C82, or C80 driver in the GIMP plugin.

1) Edit /etc/rc.d/init.d/usb around row 188:

if [ "$MOUSE" = "yes" ];then
action "Loading USB mouse" /sbin/modprobe mousedev
fi
if [ "$KEYBOARD" = "yes" ];then
action "Loading USB keyboard" /sbin/modprobe keybdev
fi
if [ "$STORAGE" = "yes" ];then
action "Loading USB storage"  /sbin/modprobe usb-storage
fi
if [ "$PRINTER" = "yes" ];then
action "Loading USB printer"  /sbin/modprobe printer
fi
if [ "$SCANNER" = "yes" ];then
action "Loading USB scanner"  /sbin/modprobe scanner
fi

2) Edit /etc/sysconfig/usb:

USB=yes

KEYBOARD_AT_BOOT=no

MOUSE=no
KEYBOARD=no
STORAGE=yes
PRINTER=yes
SCANNER=yes

3) Make sure the USB daemon is loaded. This can be done withlinuxconf.

Control Tab -->  Control Panel --> Control Service Utility

Find the usb daemon, and click on it. When theService usb window pops up, make sureStartup [4] Automatic is selected. Click Accept.

4) Reboot. The scanner and printer modules should be loaded. Run lsmod to check.

Epson AcuLaser C2000

The driver is Epson'salc2000

Look at the ghostscript drivers from the help output gs -h If it is not there, then use a recent version ofESP Ghostscript

There is no PPD for it on Epson's site, and with the GhostScript driver you have more control than with a generic Foomatic PPD.

Epson EPL5700L, EPL5900L, 6100L

http://epsonepl.sourceforge.net/

Epson LQ-2550

The serial configuration problem where the printing is corrupted 3/4 of the way down the page can be sovled by using the following stty entry in the /etc/printcap.local

:stty=parenb raw -echo -echoe -echok -onlcr crtscts:\

Apparently doing this will suppress the unwanted output of extra processing that changes the printer control sequences.

Yes. Follow the directions for theIBM ProPrinter II.

This printer uses the ibmpro driver.

There is a utility available to adjust cpi, font, and a couple of other things. It may work with other epson printers.

http://home.arcor.de/markusheinz/